I am sorry! I went away for the weekend and completely blew you off. I hope you are having (or are about to have) a great time in Portland and that this information will be helpful (and in time).
It sounds as though you will have a car, which will come in useful for some of your sightseeing. But you can get around town pretty easily using your feet, the buses, and the streetcar. At box.net I've uploaded a map (http://www.box.net/shared/0kg7v5nt4d) with the streetcar route highlighted and some places marked you might find interesting.
The streetcar website at http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/node/6 has lots of information about fares, schedules, and how to ride the streetcar (how to get it to stop, pay the fare, etc). The squares on the map (see the key) indicate the "fareless square" -- where riding is free -- which is most of downtown, actually.
Check out this site for free events during the time you'll be there: http://aroundthesunblog.com/
There's a lot of great food in Portland, but it has been about four years since I've lived there and restaurants change so frequently. If they are still there, I'd recommend these places (where I went the most):
Salvador Molly's (if they still have them, try the mojarita) (Caribbean) Pho Van (Vietnamese) Bombay Cricket Club (Indian) Delta Cafe (southern) Bridgeport Ale House Zell's Cafe (breakfast) And don't forget to go by Voodoo Doughnut
There are lots more! Yelp will usually give you a good selection to choose from.
If you want to explore other parts of Portland, I'd recommend the Hawthorne District, which is near where I used to live, in Southeast Portland. TriMet Bus #14 - http://trimet.org/schedule/r014.htm. Catch it on Madison and go to about 30th & Hawthorne. Get off and keep walking in the direction the bus was going. There are lots of cute shops, cheaper restaurants, etc. One of those movie theaters where you can watch a movie and drink beer/eat pizza at the same time.
I haven't taken either the Underground or Ghost tours, so can't tell you about those.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful and that you have a great time while you are there.
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It sounds as though you will have a car, which will come in useful for some of your sightseeing. But you can get around town pretty easily using your feet, the buses, and the streetcar. At box.net I've uploaded a map (http://www.box.net/shared/0kg7v5nt4d) with the streetcar route highlighted and some places marked you might find interesting.
The streetcar website at http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/node/6 has lots of information about fares, schedules, and how to ride the streetcar (how to get it to stop, pay the fare, etc). The squares on the map (see the key) indicate the "fareless square" -- where riding is free -- which is most of downtown, actually.
Check out this site for free events during the time you'll be there: http://aroundthesunblog.com/
There's a lot of great food in Portland, but it has been about four years since I've lived there and restaurants change so frequently. If they are still there, I'd recommend these places (where I went the most):
Salvador Molly's (if they still have them, try the mojarita) (Caribbean)
Pho Van (Vietnamese)
Bombay Cricket Club (Indian)
Delta Cafe (southern)
Bridgeport Ale House
Zell's Cafe (breakfast)
And don't forget to go by Voodoo Doughnut
There are lots more! Yelp will usually give you a good selection to choose from.
If you want to explore other parts of Portland, I'd recommend the Hawthorne District, which is near where I used to live, in Southeast Portland. TriMet Bus #14 - http://trimet.org/schedule/r014.htm. Catch it on Madison and go to about 30th & Hawthorne. Get off and keep walking in the direction the bus was going. There are lots of cute shops, cheaper restaurants, etc. One of those movie theaters where you can watch a movie and drink beer/eat pizza at the same time.
I haven't taken either the Underground or Ghost tours, so can't tell you about those.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful and that you have a great time while you are there.