Why we love Portland

One reason to love a place is because good people live there.

Rachel and I have been very dear friends since we met online in an IRC chat channel back in the 1990s.

We were among the pioneers of virtual community.

This is my third visit to her in Portland. She, with husband Bob and son Alden, have also visited us in Adelaide. And they were our wedding party when Bruce and I first married in Portland’s then-famous 24-Hour Church of Elvis in 1996. It is defunct now - but we ain’t.

Rachel and Bob have just opened an Airbnb in their marvellous Purple House here - and we are the lucky ones to be their guests.

The B&B is an entirely self-contained one-room apartment - full kitchen and bathroom, two queen beds, table and chairs, desk and telly, store annex for luggage, little private balcony and even a full drum kit and enough musical instruments to jam up a concert. Before he set off on his sensational touring career with the fabulous jazz band, The Rad Trads, this was Alden’s music studio.

In his absence and moving into retirement, Rachel and Bob have purpled up the place and transformed it into this very salubrious apartment. Now it is booking out wildly on the Airbnb site - not surprisingly since it can sleep six at a pinch.

There are external stairs up to the private security-coded entrance.

By night the stairs sparkle with purple pin lights. Against the skyline of a Portland sunset, they make a particularly pretty picture.

Rachel and Bob live downstairs with their darling dog, Sassy.

We are spending as much time together as we can. Greedily stocking up on long affection to keep us going until the next time we can get together.

Unlike us, they are “makers”. Bob makes everything from giant garden bells to cashew butter.

Rachel makes amazing cakes and can make candy sushi from dried fruits and tapioca, among so many things.

They make wine, beer and cider.

Bob also makes music with a mean 12-string guitar.

And the “makers” surely have made this the yummiest piece of accommodation. Beside the big window with its privacy screen of decorative music notations and beneath the patchwork quilt of green and purple (my fav colours, too), I’ve slept luxuriously well. There’s a memory foam layer on this futon bed. I’ve never tried the like. Deliriously comfy. Want.

We’ve cooked breakfast from the well-stocked kitchen and sat around the table drinking Rachel’s purple sparkly cocktails - and the odd Bloody Mary.

We’s sat on purple chairs on the porch and gazed contentedly at the leafy vista.

We’ve turned on the telly. We’ve listened to vinyls on a proper record player. The Rad Trads’ new LP has just come out.

If this is what Airbnbs are about, I am rapt.

I’m recommending this one to all travelling friends. That means you.