Your Multnomah County Library card can do more than check out books. Through My Discovery Pass, cardholders can reserve free admission to local museums, gardens, theaters and Oregon State Parks parking.

Partners include, as of Oct. 2026, the Portland Art Museum (two adults), the Portland Japanese Garden (two adults and up to eight children, garden admission only), the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, OMSI's Community Science Nights, Portland Opera and Portland Center Stage. The passes are donated, so supply is limited.

Cards are free for people who live, teach, go to school or own property in Multnomah County, and the library's card options page says residents of nearby counties in its free service area can get one too. Owing $50 or more blocks reservations.

To book, log in to the reservation site, choose a date or venue, and print or download your pass shortly before you go. After that, you can't cancel online. Printing is free at the library.

Most attractions allow one pass per year, and you can hold two reservations at a time. State parks parking permits are capped at 10 per year.

Bring photo ID — the cardholder must attend, and passes aren't transferable. Parking isn't included.

New museum passes are released on the 1st of each month for the next two months, so that's the day to check.

New to Portland, hosting visitors, or riding more often? TriMet's fares are simpler than they look. One fare covers buses, MAX and WES, you pay by tapping, and fare capping means you never pay more than the price of a pass.

As of Oct. 2026, an Adult (18–64) fare is $2.80 for 2½ hours, $5.60 for a day and $100 for a month, according to TriMet's fares page. Honored Citizen and Youth riders pay $1.40, $2.80 and $28. Children 6 and under ride free with a paying passenger.

Adults can simply tap a contactless bank card or phone wallet. For reduced fares, a Hop card costs $3 at grocery stores or MAX station machines, or as a virtual card in the Hop app. Seniors 65+ and Medicare riders may also pay reduced fares in cash on buses or with station tickets. Cash works on buses but not on MAX or WES.

Tap every time you board, and on MAX tap on the platform first. A fare lets you transfer for 2½ hours and also covers Portland Streetcar and C-TRAN Local and Regional buses.

With fare capping, adults tapping a card stop paying after $5.60 a day or $100 a month. Reduced-fare Hop cards cap at $2.80 and $28. A daily cap lasts until 3 a.m.

Riders 65+ and people on Medicare need no application, just ID if asked. People with disabilities, veterans and military, and income-qualified riders must first apply for a photo ID Hop card through TriMet's Honored Citizen page or low-income fare page.

In the median of SW Naito Parkway at SW Taylor Street sits Mill Ends Park, a ring of plants about two feet across. It is an official Portland city park, and for decades it held the Guinness record as the world's smallest.

According to Portland Parks & Recreation, journalist Dick Fagan planted flowers in an unused light-pole hole there in 1946. He named the spot after his "Mill Ends" column, and the city says it was dedicated on St. Patrick's Day in 1948.

Fagan wrote that a colony of leprechauns lived in the park. The city still lists whimsical features like a butterfly swimming pool and the occasional flying saucer. Treat them as a long-running joke, not fact.

Guinness first recognized the park in 1971, and it became an official city park in 1976. In early 2025, KPTV reported that the title had passed to a tiny park in Nagaizumi, Japan.

The park has moved twice for roadwork. Most recently, the Better Naito Forever project shifted it about six inches west, a move KATU covered in 2021 (republished by KUTV). It returned with a cloverleaf border and a new sign.

To visit, use the marked crosswalks and never stand in traffic. There is no admission charge listed, and dogs must be leashed. Tom McCall Waterfront Park is right across Naito.