5/8–Portland to Kent, WA

Today is another short drive, only 2 1/2 hours from Portland to SeaTac where we will be spending the night before our flights back home.  We try to delay as much as we can at the hotel in the morning, but we aren’t good at cooling our heels when we are ready to go. I have found some goofy things we can do that will hopefully waste enough time to get us to the hotel for check in.

The first stop is the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens.  Hey, what can I say?  It looked cool from the brochures.  It’s probably a little past prime for the flowers, but, we’re stretching here, so off we go to Woodland, WA, half an hour a way to visit Hulda’s house.  Known as the Lilac Lady, Hulda’s family came here from Germany in 1865 when she was 2, bought land and built the farmhouse that houses the gardens today.  She always loved flowers and began hybridizing lilacs in 1905. By 1920 she had so many different varieties she decided to hold an open house – which continued each spring. As her reputation became known, other towns would send delegations to see her lilacs and learn from her.

There is a long history of floods (took out all her gardens), rebuilding, her death, the home and gardens wallowing in disrepair and the Garden Society stepping in to save the property from destruction and development. In order to get the land, a member of the garden society traded 7 acres of her land for the 4 acres here at the gardens, then deeded it to the Lilac Society – which has owned and operated the property ever since. All volunteers, their dedication is obvious. The flowers and the landscaping is gorgeous (even a little past season), and the house is charming with an great peek into the life and times of Northwest settlers in the 1800 and early 1900s. We took about an hour to stroll the gardens, snapping away at all the lovely flowers – and then to tour the inside of the house.

Next up on our time wasting tour were covered bridges!  There is an entire covered bridge drive we could have made, but it looked like it would take an incredibly long time as well as take us completely out of our way, so we chose to go to one bridge that was only about 20 minutes from the gardens – the Cedar Creek Grist Mill.

It was really easy to get to – just take a right at the main intersection after the Gardens and follow this lovely winding road through farmland and forest.  Really pretty and peaceful country!  Unfortunately, the grist mill working tour was closed (only open on Saturdays and Sundays), but the scenery was open to all (LOL).

We walked behind the mill to watch the rushing stream flow over the rocks and down toward the mill…

Then walked across the covered bridge …

to a path on the other side of the stream where you could get a full view of the mill and the stream.

Pretty neat.  Turning around, we made our way back through the quiet country roads and onto I-5 to head our way north to SeaTac and our last night on the Left Coast!

We were able to check into the hotel early, and they gave us a great room on the 2nd floor with a balcony overlooking the golf course.  It was perfect – we moved chairs outside and sat there relaxing while watching the golfers play.  Dinner was at the Ram Brewery – where we had a Restaurant.com coupon – where we sat at the bar chatting with the bartender and snacking.  They had just changed their menu and eliminated their beer cheese soup, which was a huge disappointment, but the other options we selected ended up being incredibly good.

We ended the night back on our balcony, relaxing and listening to the birds chirping around the quiet golf course.  A perfect end to a perfectly wonderful trip.

5/7–Portland

We truly had no idea what we wanted to do in Portland, other than explore the city and drink beer .  Rather than wander aimlessly through town, we ended up finding a free walking tour with Eric, who runs The Secrets of Portlandia.  The reviews looked good, and heck, it was free – so we’re game. 

We had breakfast then headed for the train to go into town with tons of time to spare. On the walk to the train, a woman from our hotel rolled by us on a little knee scooter – think of one of those Razor scooters for kids, but where you put your knee on the platform and push off with your other good foot. She was motoring past us with her daughter keeping time next to her (foot power!) – and then suddenly she wipes out. On the ground, scooter turned over.  We ran over and helped her up, then stood with her for a while as she composed herself.  She skinned up her knee pretty badly – but otherwise wasn’t too badly hurt – just shaken.  After making sure she was all right, they decided to go back to the hotel for a bit and we continued onto the train.

Once in town we were about an hour early – always!  So we wandered a bit, then hit McDonalds for coffee and the restrooms. Caffeined and emptied, we headed back out to meet Eric – only to find our kneed scooter friend!  Talk about small world – and this time in a wheel chair they managed to procure from the security guy in the mall next door to our meeting place.  Amazing! 

Eric’s tour turns out to be a blast.  He is a stand up comedian, has tons of interesting and fun facts about Portland (of which I remember almost none) and is an excellent tour guide – successfully managing a large group (almost 30) through streets, across intersections and the like.  Never once losing his cool or his herding skills. 

The tour lasted 2 hours and we made the circuit around the Pioneer Courthouse Square, walking past the daily market of crafters and vendors, then on up to the Portland Art Museum where we learned about the free drinking fountains and how they came to be (when the city was being originally built workers would get thirsty and drink beer, so construction owners erected the fountains to make everyone drink water)….

….then on to the Historical Society Museum where the penny that was flipped to decide the name of the town is housed (Portland or Boston – you can see which won)…past the Heathman hotel which is haunted……

past the Portland building to look at the Portlandia statue, the second largest copper statue in the U.S., after the Statue of Liberty….

….…and on past world trade center and onto the smallest park in the world (which has a really sweet story about an Irish newspaper reporter who looked out his window everyday at a hole where a light post was never placed, it grew weeds, so he took it upon himself to plant flowers there.  Then he started writing about what he called “the world’s smallest park” in his column, telling about events there, etc.  The park was dedicated on St. Patrick’s day in 1948, and has had St. Patty’s day events there ever since).

The tour ends up across the street from the famous Voodoo Donuts (which surprisingly enough does not have a line out the door).  We decide to eschew the donuts for a bar Eric recommends with lots of different craft brews on tap.  The Thirsty Lion Pub is exactly what we needed – great atmosphere, huge bar, comfy bar chairs to rest our weary legs … and of course tons of great beer!  We wanted to wait to eat until we got to Deschuttes brewery a few blocks up – but since it was closing in on 2pm, we didn’t think we could wait that long – so we got snacks to go along with our drinks. Fried artichokes and scotch eggs (to channel King James Public House in Asheville!). Awesome – but totally filling – snacks.

So now we’re stuffed – but we figure we’ll walk it off.  We wanted to go up to the “Brewery Blocks” in the Pearl district to do a little pub/craft brewery crawl – so we headed in that direction.  Turns out the “Brewery Blocks” are really just a bunch of retail stores in what we guess were old Brewery buildings? The only brewer up there is Deschuttes where we did stop to have a beer and wine, but there was nowhere else to go for different craft beers.  That stinks!  We made our drinks last as long as we could without hogging space for other paying patrons, but eventually we had to head on our way.

We walked back toward Pioneer Square trying to figure out our next moves.  We weren’t sure what to do for dinner, and since it was still early, didn’t know quite what to do next.  Obama was scheduled to visit the city, so we as we walked we started seeing the beefed up security and road blocks that come with any Presidential visit.  We wasted time at the Starbucks on Pioneer Square, then finally decided to take in Happy Hour at the Portland City Grill.

Located on the 30th floor of the office building at 5th and Oak street, this place was hoppin’!  We barely got a seat at the bar – but it was so worth the effort.  The view was spectacular…

…and the food equally good – we shared seared Ahi Tuna and a grilled sirloin steak sandwich that were delicious – and reasonably priced for happy hour.  A couple of beers and wines later and we were ready to go collapse back at the hotel.

Of course, getting to the hotel became a bit problematic. We had hoped that we spent enough time in the Grill that we missed all the Obama hullaballoo– we weren’t so lucky.  When we made it back out to the street, the light rail was still not running.  We were standing at the train stop when we actually saw the Presidential motorcade go by.  Ok – great – we can go now.  Not so fast. The trains were still stopped, and a transit cop was giving everyone directions on how to make it out of the city. We ended up following her instructions and hopped on a bus to take us to the Moda Center where we were able to finally transfer to a train to take us back to Delta Park where our hotel was located.

Finally back, we managed to make it to our room and fall onto the bed, fully sated from a great day of touring, eating and drinking.

5/6–Mt. Hood to Portland

As we get closer to Portland we make a side trip to the Wildwood recreation center.  There are some trails here along the Salmon River and the reviews sound like it will make for a good picnic area, as well as a nice afternoon walk for us. 

The facilities don’t disappoint.  Although we figure out (on our last day) that we don’t need to pay the day use fee because we have a National Parks membership.  Oh well – the Oregon State Recreational coffers got a $10 donation from us then, they can probably use it.  There are two trails at Wildwood – the Cascade Streamwatch which is nicely maintained and paved with a 3/4 mile winding loop around the forest and the river. There is even a little underpass where they have a river viewing area for the Salmon. We didn’t see any, but we did enjoy walking along the river and scouting for them.

They’ve got these great carved wooden benches all around that Sunny enjoys. And if it weren't’ so damp and wet, we’d probably picnic outdoors. But we’re not quite that hardy yet!

The second trail is the Wetlands trail which is a combination of gravel path and boardwalk through the, yes, you guessed it, wetlands.  There have been some huge storms here in the last couple of weeks, so a portion of the looping part of the boardwalk is closed, which means we have to walk in and out on the same trail.  It’s not the picturesque and its buggy – so we only walk to the first boardwalk entrance before retreating back to the car for sustenance without the bugs.

Nature portion of the trip complete – we head off to Portland for our last days in Oregon.

Along the way to Portland the traffic starts to really back up. We’re on a route 1 type strip of road, and the traffic lights just bungle everything.  We end up taking a detour, which seems like the wrong turn, but ends up taking us through these incredible neat little neighborhoods, and right past a scenic marker and look out over the Sandy River. I had seen it on the map but didn’t think we’d make it there. 

Bonus!  Now onto the hotel, where we hang out in the lobby waiting for our room, then, once settled, do a little exploring in the neighborhood.

Afterward, we head to the Breakside Brewery for dinner. It’s in this funky little neighborhood in NE Portland, which is the happening place there (sort of like our West Asheville!).  It is jam packed, but we luck into 2 seats at the bar and dig into a great meal…..of what, I can’t remember!

I remember taking the picture of the really cool living sculpture on the outside of the building across the street, and that’s about it!

Back to the hotel we go to plan for a full day in downtown Portland coming up next.

5/6–Mt. Hood Scenic Loop

Today we are off to Portland, but not the direct route.  It’s only about 45 miles and we’d rather take more scenic routes then spend a day in town – so we map out a scenic loop tour plan.  First stop – back to Char Burger for breakfast.  It’s included with the hotel – so why not? No table service for breakfast, you order at the cafeteria style line, then grab your coffee and wait for the food.  Typical hotel choices – but very good and leaves us fulfilled and ready to venture out.

We start off by back tracking down the Columbia River to the Bonneville Dam. We chose to bypass it yesterday afternoon, preferring to get to the hotel sooner. But we’re really glad we chose to visit today – it is really an amazing place.  First of all, you drive through the working parts of the dam – over bridges where the sluice gates are located, past huge warehouse looking structures for who knows what, and finally into the visitors center – where there are a whole bunch of kids on tour that we will manage to successfully navigate around. 

The docents here are great – totally friendly and so knowledgeable.  The inner workings of the dam keep us spell bound, but it’s the salmon swimming up stream that really keep us occupied. First you can go see the “ladders” built into the river from above, then you can stand downstairs, under the water level, and look through the windows at the salmon.  It’s sort of at the end of the spring season, so we only see a couple fish, but they can get 10,000 fish coming through daily (and more in the Fall). Would be incredible to see that – but this was cool enough!

The view for the rooftop viewing area is quite nice too – a 360 look at all the operations – with another terribly informative docent up there as well.

Back in the car – we loop back toward Cascade Locks, wave goodbye to the Bridge of Gods and head down 84 to the Hood River Valley and the Hood River Fruit Loop trail.  Yes, the Fruit Loop trail. There is a Fruit Loop association, a printed map and all sorts of information related to all the fruit stands and producers in the Hood River Valley.  A total of 31 in all, everything size from a small road side stand to The Fruit Company – which we pass on the way up to Mt. Hood – and is enormous with hundreds of thousands of plastic fruit crates stack all about the property.  As a matter of fact, the fruit crates are everywhere you look!  The scenery is beautiful – rolling farmland nestled into the foothills of the mountains. The only things marring it are – well – the fruit crates!

Unfortunately, we are very early in the season, so not a lot of the stands are open. There are Lavender farms and Alpaca farms as well, but we aren’t interested in those so much.  We end up only stopping one place – Packer Orchards and Bakery – where they sell sugar free cookies sweetened only with vine ripe pears.  Can’t pass that up!  You can taste all the cookies (they have huge drawers full of cookies with samples on top) and they are really reasonable if you buy 5.  Well, ok, I’m not turning down cookies!  We end up with some delicious varieties which I am betting won’t last through Portland!  We pass on the pies though, cookies are quite enough for us now.

You can get a feel for the scenery here – the orchards with the river and valley in the background, and Mt. Hood peeking out of the trees in the other direction.  Truly gorgeous.

Back on the road, we start climbing up the mountainside into Mt. Hood proper. The vistas, just from the side of the road are gorgeous.

As we get higher and higher, the temperatures start to drop and we start to see the beginnings of what appears to be…is it really??? Yes, it’s snow!

We had checked before we left and knew that the roads were all open now – because the passes where shut down a few days or a week prior.  Today though, it is relatively sunny, but with snow flurries and as we approach the Timberline Lodge (otherwise known as the location for the filming of The Shining), you can see the results of the recent storms.  Gorgeous….to look at from the warm car that is!

We arrive at the Lodge, and have to park in the lower lot – it’s packed with snowboarders.  We of course, are not really dressed for the weather, but we make the best of it and try to navigate around the biggest snow drifts in our not waterproof or warm sneakers.

The Lodge itself looks lovely, but we decide not to walk up there – just to take a picture from the parking lot. You can sort of see the resemblance to the movie, but there are too many cars and of course, they’ve done some upgrade work since it was filmed so many years ago – but the idea is the same and still gives me shivers to think about “Here’s Johnny!”

It’s beautiful up here, but it’s also pretty darn chilly, so we head back to the car and back down the mountain road.  Once back on Mt. Hood highway we enjoy the scenery as we descend the almost 6,000 feet back down toward sea level.