Portlandia! The land named after Portland ...Maine.

Find me on Etsy - "St. Helen"

The husband and I took a trip up to the land of PDX. A wondrous place, filled with vegan food, beer, football love, and trees.

Sounds like heaven, right? Right.

Our adventure began with a long, yet absolutely beautiful drive up to Portland from home in the east bay. With some awesome clouds and good conversation, we enjoyed our journey north. One that we hadn't taken in almost ten years.

It turned out that our hotel was across the street from a brewery. Cha-ching, one point to Portland.

We had dinner with local family and got some great tips on what to do for our adventure day.

Find me on Etsy -
"Avenues of McMenamins"

Find me on Etsy - "In Good Company"

We started off by going to McMenamins - Edgefield which was a trip on it's own. We figured out that it was originally a poor farm, taking in an array of misfortunate people, which is still reflected in the art of the building today.

There's lots of interesting stuff around Edgefield, from painted pipes and doors to a brewery, theatre, and garden. Even the notorious Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's nephew lived at Edgefield!

With enough crazy history and art to keep me busy for days with my camera and imagination, I was pulled away to the next item on the agenda, views!

Find me on Etsy - "Columbia River"

We made our way up the winding road along the Columbia River to the Visa House which gives you a wonderful view of the Columbia and Washington across the river.

You can't quite see Portland and in my photo I'm actually facing east, but it's still completely worth the stop. The tiny round Vista House was a great place to take cover from the crazy winds outside which was a lot more intense than one would have thought getting out of the car.

Then, following the steady trickle of waterfalls, we discovered Multnomah Falls. Amazing!

Find me on Etsy - "Multnomah Falls"

The Forest Service states that Multnomah Falls is the second highest, year round waterfall in the country. Pretty impressive. And because it's such a tall waterfall, there's a lot of mist and of course moss! The trees here were green from ground up. I was in heaven.

While there, we were able to see the damager that a boulder did to the bridge in January, causing it to be closed for repairs. Luckily, no one was injured. You may not be able to see it in the photo (click it to get bigger!), but it's on the right side of the bridge.

From here we climbed the ever reaching Mt. Hood. Making it all the way to the top to Timberline Lodge. The only way we could have gone further up was by ski lift.

The drive up was fascinating. After reaching a certain point, there was suddenly snow everywhere. It wasn't really a gradual thing. It wasn't like there was a bit of snow on the ground here and there, it was pretty much: no snow... SNOW! As if there was a magical line that said, "Now snow, remember, you do not pass this line!"

Find me on Etsy - "Parting Clouds"

Find me on Etsy - "Inside the Ice"

The lodge itself was impressive too. It was part of FDR's WPA program to put unemployed Americans back to work. They did an awesome job. Another noteworthy point, Mt. Hood has one of the longest ski seasons in the country as well. Oh, and the exterior was used for the filming of The Shining. I love Stephen King! Woot. Point for Portland!

The next day we got to business. No more dilly dally, we needed to explore! Driving from neighborhood to neighborhood we checked out what we are hoping will be our new home. We did something similar in Denver with much success and repeated in PDX. I think we got a really good idea of the area and even talked to two, very different, real estate agents to get an idea of the market.

Find me on Etsy - "Yellow Trees"

Day three consisted of going to Food Fight and marveling at the very much improved store since our last visit and watching some football at a local soccer bar. Yes, you heard me right a soccer bar. Not a sports bar, but a bar devoted entirely to watching football, when it's on of course. A-mazing! Double points!

We stayed the night with a couple that we knew back in the days of living in San Francisco and had a blast. We went to a corner store that had one of the biggest beer selections I've seen and grabbed a decent amount of brew. We talked games, drank beer, ate a very thoughtful vegan meal, and eventually passed out watching some crazy movie.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the train station. The three hour ride up to Seattle was a well needed relaxing ride. When we got into town we walked around a bit and then went to bed. It was a long day.

"Streetlamp and the Needle"

When we got up we explored Seattle. Chinatown was pretty cool, not quite SF or LA status, but fun none the less. We enjoyed a good hour or so in the Pinball Museum where we got to play some old machines that we had been playing on PS4. It was a blast to know the storyline and get to play for free. After another long day of walking around, we met up with my cousin and had a beer. It was fun catching up and getting her take on the Northwest. She loves it, which got me excited. Perhaps we will be neighbors soon!

The trip was a success. And with everything we were able to see and do, it made our decision an easy one. We want to move to Oregon! Now, if that actually becomes a reality is another matter, but a girl can dream.