I think I'm in Love

Portland & The Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast. My new favorite place. Nothing but beauty and charm.

Because Cameron is waiting to be scheduled for IOE (Initial Operating Experience), he's had 5 days off in a row. We decided to take advantage of this rare occasion by hopping on a plane to anywhere USA. Because flights looked decent and there were hotel vacancies, we ended up in Portland. I was totally excited since I had just visited Portland in July and missed out on a few things I wanted to do.

The first thing we were stoked about was that we got to buy a new camera. Our old one broke and we decided to take advantage of the Portland-no-sales-tax by purchasing a new one there. We took a million pictures partly because we were so excited to try out our new camera and mostly because the scenery we encountered was absolutely breathtaking. So please bear with me as I am about to post many, many pictures.

Portland Saturday Market

One thing I didn't get to do in Portland in July was attend the Saturday Market. I opted out by going kayaking instead. I was bummed, but knew I'd be back. So, of course it was something I wasn't going to miss out on twice. Cameron had no desire to go and offered to stay at the hotel with the kids while I went all by myself. I love shopping without kids. I love markets. I love Saturdays. I love Portland. This thing was totally me and pure fun. I know, life doesn't get much better than that. I love these kinds of things because everything is so unique and reasonably priced, there are usually street musicians or entertainers and the street food (if that's what you call it) is unbelievable. It was a fantastic couple of hours. And to my credit, I went away with only a cool green dress and a beanie.

One of the things I love about Portland is the public transportation. The above picture is the Max which goes straight from the airport to downtown (among many other places).

This is a picture of just a few of the vendors at the Saturday Market.

And this is of my yummy gyro. I ate it on the Max on my way back to the hotel. I couldn't waste any precious shopping time. I felt just like Elaine on Seinfeld when she grabs a gyro during a stop on the Subway and while she's eating it, the gyro juice is dripping all over the TV Guide issue that she stole from George's Dad. Remember?

The Coast

That day we also took a trip to the coast. This was recommended by a few people but we had no idea what we were going to experience. I'm sure I've been there before since I spent the first 8 year of my life in Portland, but was too young to remember. First of the all, the 2 hour drive there was gorgeous the whole entire way. Imagine endless forests on either sides of the road during autumn.

We drove to a quaint little town called Seaside. This was my favorite part of the trip. The town was so charming and I can't wait to go visit it again.

We played at the beach in Seaside for a few hours. This was the first time Colby or Kara have been old enough to actually play at the beach even though they've both been to Hawaii. They loved it! It was a blast seeing them run towards the water, chase Seagulls and dig in the sand.

We made our way south down the coast passing several little towns and gazing at breathtaking views of the ocean. We stopped to see several sights including Haystack Rock and Tillamook Lighthouse. Once we made it to Tillamook, we headed back to Portland. By this time it was dark, but I'm assuming the drive back was just as pretty.

Haystack Rock. This is on of may favorite pictures.

The Gorge

Sunday we drove to the Columbia River Gorge and saw a few awesome waterfalls. Seeing Multnomah Falls brought back memories that I forgot I had of the many times my family stopped there on our way out of town.

Wahkeena Falls

This is Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous. You can walk up the bridge where you get close enough to feel the spray from the water. Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States and it's only about 30 minutes outside of Portland.

Isn't this a great picture? I can't take credit for it. Cameron shot it while fooling around with the camera.

After Multnomah Falls, we headed to the airport where we attempted to catch a flight that had 4 seats available. Despite our usuall good luck when flying non-rev, we didn't make it. Good thing I packed my iPod and the kids were entertained by watching Cars. We only had to wait 2 hours until the next flight where we were given the last 3 seats on the plane.

We were only in Oregon for 2 short days, but this was on of my favorite trips we have ever been on. Cameron and I already started planning our next trip to the coast, hopefully in the Spring.