Hi! You are totally not alone in having no sense of direction. I'm gleaning from other comments here that there's a whole range of oriented-ness, from not at all to perfectly. I've been to Salt Lake City, and I'd think there would be some real advantages there for the perpetually-disoriented: the straight-line grid system as you mention, plus, as I recall, the ever-visible wall o' mountains to the--it's to the east, right?

Portland--like most American cities--is also on a grid, and has handy quadrants and numbered streets and some sections of alphabetically named streets, but darned if there's not a river right down the middle of it, with a bend in it. Hee! Nature, huh?

I am so grateful for modern technology!