Oregon Trip
Pictures
of the trip
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Got up at 4:30 am and took the 6:30 am Central Time flight out of B’ham. Took connecting flight through Houston and arrived in Portland at 11:30 am Pacific Time. Picked up rental car and headed out towards the wine country from the Portland airport. The weather was partly cloudy and around 57 degrees.
Traveled South on scenic Hwy 99W through the beautiful Willamette Valley to Sokol Blosser Winery in Dundee to taste some great Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Reisling. Bought a bottle of Pinot Gris and took some pictures of the vineyard and neighboring vineyards and wineries. The grapevines had turned a very vibrant golden yellow. What perfect timing to be there! The Willamette Valley has over 90 wineries and looks much like Tuscany with all those vineyards and beautiful rolling hills. The leaves on the trees were just past peak, so there was still plenty of vibrant fall colors to enjoy.
After the wine tasting, we continued South to McMinnville, where the Evergreen Aviation Museum houses the famous Spruce Goose “flying boat” that was built by Howard Hughes. All I can say to describe it is that it’s gigantic, gray and impressive. We also enjoyed a quick trip and photo opportunity through McMinnville – a cute touristy town with surrounding vineyards and wineries.
Once we left McMinnville, we continued to drive through the wine country where we had a very light rain followed by a magnificent full rainbow over one of the vibrant-yellow vineyards. Luckily, we were able to take some great pictures of this amazing sight.
When we left the wine country area, we headed West on Hwy 18 towards the coast. Enjoyed the pleasant drive through the Siuslaw National Forest, which was full of very tall evergreen trees. Between the national forest and the coast, we saw many groves of chestnut and hazelnut trees.
When we reached Lincoln City, we were able to take some great pictures of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean (and off a cliff!), and then ate fresh salmon at Mo’s. Feeling guilty about the Pringles I ate during the afternoon drive, I decided to do a one-hour workout at the hotel’s workout room. Felt great after a nice relaxing day! Went to bed around 10:30 pm Pacific Time, which was 12:30 am in B’ham. Been up for 18 1/2 hours, but felt great!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Left the hotel around 7:30 am and decided to drive to Mt. Hood since The Weather Channel showed very clear weather in that area. On the way, we saw a large group of sheep grazing in a broccoli field – a very interesting site. Arrived in Mount Hood after a scenic drive back through the Siuslaw National Forest and Willamette Valley.
Mt. Hood is over 11,000 feet tall, and we enjoyed the tall evergreen trees and hardwoods that had very vibrant fall colors. We stopped at the Timberline Lodge (where the exterior was used for the Stephen King movie “The Shining”). What a great place to be just before Halloween! And “The Shining” is one of my favorite scary movies, so I really enjoyed the visit. The lodge is at the 6,000 ft. tree line and was built in 1937. It is surprisingly rustic looking inside with very large stone fireplaces and enormous wood beams (the structure inside and out is made entirely from wood and stone except the windows).
There was some snow there so we decided to stay a while have a leisurely lunch in the lodge’s restaurant that had an awesome view. After lunch, we hiked up towards the top on a trail that started at the lodge. No, we didn’t make it to the top – it was quite steep and very long – we would have had over 5,000 ft. to climb to make it to the top!
Once we left Timberline Lodge, we drove through the “Fruit Loop”, which is in the valley North of Mt. Hood. They call it the Fruit Loop because there are many groves of different fruit trees and nut trees. We were able to pick a few fresh apples right off the trees.
We proceeded North to the Columbia River Gorge (the Columbia River divides Oregon from Washington). Drove along Hwy 84 alongside the gorge and visited the Bonneville Lock & Dam where they have a “fish ladder” for fish to swim upstream. Saw a few wild salmon swimming up the ladder. Visited the Multnomah Falls, which are the tallest waterfalls in the US. Very beautiful (of course) and an easy walk to view.
Decided on a whim to drive up to Mount St. Helens, WA to see more snow and to learn about the volcanic eruption that occurred in May 1980. Ate at a great Mexican restaurant in Woodland, WA where our waitress gave invaluable info for our journey to Mount St. Helens (where to go/what to do). Then stopped in Castle Rock, WA at the Timberland Inn for the night. VERY exhausted. Went to bed at 11:00 pm.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Left the hotel around 8:00 am and drove the short distance to Mount St. Helens. It rained on the way and then turned into snow as we got closer to the park. We stopped at the Johnston Ridge Observatory which was on Johnston Mountain across from the Mount St. Helens crater. Saw a short film about the history of the volcano and what devastation it did in May 1980. It really changed the landscape – filled in rivers, created some lakes, demolished forests, and wreaked havoc on the people and businesses in the small towns nearby. Learned how the volcano is different than the ones in Hawaii. Also learned that the volcano is still very active, so no one can actually go to Mount St. Helens except for the scientists when it’s safe. Very interesting.
Decided to drive back over to towards the coast (just about a 1 ½-hour drive). Stopped in Astoria, a cute hilly historical town with many Victorian homes. Looks much like a small part of San Francisco. Saw the sea lions at one of the piers and toured the Flavel House. It was built in the late 1880’s by Captain George Flavel, who was a bar pilot on the Columbia River. He started many of the businesses in Astoria, and ran for several government offices. The house is a large 11,600 sq ft Victorian mansion on a city block. Very nice and well-worth the stop.
Continued South on the coast for the short drive through Seaside (nice beach town) to Cannon Beach. Checked into the Land’s End and got a beach-front room with a fireplace. Very nice view of the ocean and the waves crashing against the large boulders. Cannon Beach seems to be a great little beach resort town – very quaint with lots of interesting shopping and restaurants. Ate dinner at Dooger’s Restaurant (recommended by the hotel manager). It was great – both of us had sample platters with different types of seafood (crab cakes, salmon, prawns, clams, halibut, etc.) Sounds like a lot of food, but they were seafood samples, so we didn’t get too stuffed. It was a welcome meal since all we had for lunch was a little pack of almonds and popcorn.
After dinner, went by a little market and picked up a bottle of wine and locally-brewed beer. Ate a little dark chocolate, watched some TV and relaxed by the fire until we decided to go to bed around 11:00 pm.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Woke up early, but was lazy and stayed in bed until around 7:30 am. Another cloudy day but thankfully, it wasn’t a washout. Built another fire in the fireplace and hung out in the room and enjoyed the view of the ocean until around 9:15. Walked the one block to the Cannon Beach businesses – most of which are built of cedar shake and consist of bakeries, wine shops, restaurants, art galleries, clothing stores and upscale gift shops. Ate a big breakfast of eggs, hash browns, & ham, and drove around the Cannon Beach Park to see the largest monolith in the ocean, Haystack Rock (250 feet tall).
The rain started again, so we drove back to downtown Portland to the Museum of Art (the rain stopped before we reached Portland). Saw the “Hesse: A Princely German Collection” exhibit. Hesse refers to a state in the middle of Germany as well as the Hesse family dynasty. The Hesses ruled from the 1500’s until the late 1860’s when the dynasty lost its power in the Austrian/Prussian war (they backed the wrong side). They have been able to hold their titles and much land in their German state of Hesse (with Frankfurt as the largest city). We saw the royal carriage, a couple of crowns and jewelry, family portraits from the 1500’s – 1800’s, the royal china, silver and serving pieces, the family’s collection of Faberge eggs, Wilhelm IX’s thone . . . over 400 items in total. Made us feel like we were back in Europe again. Unfortunately, Portland is the only city that will be hosting this exhibit, but some of the items can be seen in Germany when it’s over (and some items will be returned to the Hesse private estates).
Then we went to the Chinatown section of Portland. Very disappointing – wouldn’t recommend it. A group of citizens are attempting to revitalize it, but it is not a good section of town to visit.
Visited the Portland Test Rose Garden, which is part of Washington park and sits half-way up a large hill overlooking the city. A very pretty terraced garden with over 10,000 varieties of roses. We were surprised that all of the roses were still blooming. Drove through some of the nice areas of Portland – a very vibrant and beautiful city.
Ate dinner and checked into our hotel in Beaverton (nice suburb West of Portland), ate a little dark chocolate, drank a little wine, and watched part of “The Shining” on A&E.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Time changed, so we gained an hour. Got up at 6:00 am and worked out in the hotel’s workout room for an hour. Ate a light breakfast and headed out to Mt. Hood again since they had a foot of new snow and it was a clear day.
On the way, we purchased a couple of sandwiches from the local Safeway supermarket for a picnic on top of the mountain. Enjoyed visiting the Timberland Lodge again, which was very crowded with people visiting for the day. Everyone was excited about the snow because there wasn’t much up there last winter until January (very usual for them).
Walked around the lodge area, played in the snow (or mostly fell into it due to having improper shoes), and then drove through the Fruit Loop and got a few apples and pears. Then we drove back through the Columbia Gorge since we ran out of daylight when we went on Thursday. Visited the fish hatchery at Bonneville Dam and saw some of the salmon come in to spawn (this occurs between August – November). They also had trout and sturgeon there to spawn.
Visited Elowah Falls, Horsetail Falls, and Latourell Falls at the Columbia Gorge (all very tall and pretty). Visited the Crown Point Vista House (built in 1914) at the top of a very tall cliff overlooking the river. Could see the Columbia River Valley on one side and Portland on the other. We were the last visitors of the Crown Point Vista House for the season. They are closed from Oct 31 until April due to the extremely harsh winter weather that hits the cliff.
Once we returned from the Columbia Gorge, we had a light dinner, watched a little mindless TV and drank a glass of wine before bed.
Monday, October 31, 2005 (Glenn’s 41st b-day!)
Started out a rainy day, so we took our time having breakfast and getting out of the hotel. Drove through the cute Nob Hill area of town (full of big Victorian homes, nice shops, art galleries and restaurants/cafes). Unfortunately, it was raining too hard to get out and walk through the neighborhood. By the time we got downtown, the rain turned into a very light mist so we decided to use the umbrellas we borrowed from the hotel and walk around. The downtown area is VERY nice and clean with great shopping and restaurants. We walked throughout the entire downtown area and the Pearl District. Stopped and had lunch at Jake’s Crawfish Restaurant, which 114 years old and well-known for their seafood.
After we left the downtown area, we drove back up to Nob Hill and toured the grand Pittock Mansion, which sits on the top of the very tall hill. The mansion was built in 1914 by one of the men who started the Oregonian newspaper. It has 22 very large rooms and is decorated in formal Victorian style with lots of marble and wood. It has great views of Mt. Hood, the Columbia River, Portland, Mt. Rainier and Mount St. Helens. But, because of the heavy clouds, we could only see as far as the Columbia River and downtown Portland. A very nice place to visit, and worth a couple of hours to tour the house and gardens.
Drove back over to Beaverton, where we were staying and visited the largest Asian market in Oregon. We enjoy trying to figure out what they’re selling since Asian food is so different than what we’re used to. Then we had dinner and went back to the hotel and tried some Russian beer we bought at the Asian market.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Another rainy day, so we took our time eating breakfast at the hotel and driving to the airport. Took the 12:20 pm PT flight from Portland to Houston. That flight was delayed so we ended up arriving in Houston around 6:30 pm CT and missed our flight to Birmingham. Continental gave us food vouchers and put us up in the Woodley Suites (not very nice, but clean) near the airport so we could take the 10:50 am flight (next available flight out) on Wednesday.