My tip for driving in Portland is to really pay attention to what times traffic is the heaviest in relation to where you may need to go at certain times. An example would be if I wanted to travel from my house to Vancouver, Washington via I5 North, I probably wouldn't try to drive the route between 9 and 11 in the morning because that's when people are all heading to work and getting started with their day. However, that same trip on a Saturday will be a breeze most of the day, as weekend traffic is usually always light around the city.

My advice for buying a car in the city is if you find a good deal, jump on it as soon as you can. When I was trying to buy a good vehicle here, I was looking on Craigslist, and every good deal that came along was usually gone within 45 minutes. By gone I mean that the ad had been posted and by the time and hour had passed, the car was sold and in a new driveway. The best tip for car buying in Portland, DO NOT HESITATE.

My favorite memory from driving here in Portland is when my husband and I decided to drive to Multnomah Falls. It was a clear sunny day, and it was a weekend so traffic wasn't bad like it normally is. I really enjoyed the drive because I got to go from city to country scenery in less than a half of an hour. Plus along the way we got a beautiful view of the Columbia River Gorge.

Barbur Boulevard. I like that stretch of road because it is a good way to get around my immediate area of Portland without having to get on the interstate. Up and down Barbur Boulevard I can find just about every kind of place I might need to go from grocery shopping to the movie theater. I am fond of it as well because it was one of the first roads I drove on regularly after I moved here to Portland.

To keep from getting lost in Portland you have to remember that everything is by quadrant, so you have to pay attention to which quadrant you are in and want to go to. The other thing to know about driving in Portland is to watch out for the bicyclists. There are many bicyclists on the road and they think they own it. There are special green areas for bikes at intersections. Mostly bikes and cars co-exist peacefully but some of the bicyclists are offensive drivers and seem to have no sense of self-preservation cutting off cars and running stop signs. In an incident between a bike and a car the car is always in the wrong, even if the bike purposefully rams into it.

If you want a new car, you will find a few car dealers scattered around town, some of them having been there for a very long time. But if you want a used car or more to choose from there are many many more in the surrounding areas. For very high-end cars there are several dealers on Canyon Road in Beaverton for cars like Lotus and Lamborghini. There is a long strip of used car lots down in Milwaukie. There is a new Car Max place in Beaverton, and an auto mall over the river in Vancouver.

There are some very nice older sections to Portland. It is fun sometimes to drive around an look at the old homes. One time I went on such a jaunt and got into the Ladd's Addition area. This is a strangely laid-out area. There is a center circle with eight streets radiating out from it four of them making a big X with other streets making V's in the X. It is very distinctive on a map. But the streets look all the same and it's such a strange configuration that even people who live there get turned around, and boy did I! I enjoyed looking at the lovely historic homes as I went this way and that trying to figure out how to get back where I started.

NW Burnside/Barnes Rd. The NW Burnside to Barnes Rd route is a twisty busy road leaving Portland through the west hills. It starts out as Burnside with two lanes in each direction at the base of a steep hill at the edge of the NW shopping district. You go thru a light and it's pedal to the metal in an up hill race through part of forest park, snaking through turns to the top where the two lanes merge into one just before a tunnel. What fun! Then it's past the cemetery where the road changes to Barnes Rd and coasting down hill into Beaverton.