The Amtrak Cascades to Porltand left Friday morning at a challengingly-early 7:30 a.m. My traveling companion and I had been up two hours prior, so some napping was done by each of us on the soothing, scenic 3.5-hour ride.

I can’t think of many reasons to go enter the Beaver State through any means other than the train. Instead of strip malls and off ramps, you get to see farmlands, forests, Puget Sound, the Tacoma Narrows (above), the Columbia River, the giant egg statue at the town of Winlock, WA, and much more; and all the while you get to eat, drink, read, work, and/or watch an in-train movie. (The one this time was A Guy Thing, another of those horridly average sitcom movies set in Seattle but filmed in Vancouver.)

The economy in ol’ Rip City is as bad as it is here, or worse, and has been bad longer than it’s been bad here. The papers are full of dire warnings about yet another state government cutbacks. There’s an initiative campaign to raise a local income tax (on top of the state income tax) to keep the public schools open.

Yet some big-thinking local folks are trying to attract baseball’s athletically competitive but fiscally hapless Montreal Expos to Portland, a venture which would bring in tourist bucks but would probably require a publicly-subsidized stadium. I myself would love a National League team in the Northwest, if only as an excuse to go south more often.

We’ve previosly mentioned how most of Portland’s compact downtown has been preserved in its seedy yet funky glory. The new depression has kept rents low for the vintage stores, indie book and music shops, coffeehouses, and brewpubs.

And between the two MAX light-rail routes and a shorter downtown loop train, you won’t miss not having brought a car.