This post title is the most bold-faced lie we could tell. The thing is, all these photos are from a trip to Portland…where we visited the Columbia River Gorge, and Mt. Hood, AND the Oregon coast. Whew. I feel better.
When we decided it was time to get these photos out into the world, we thought, “Shit. We’re probably going to go back to Portland and take more photos…then what?” But luckily, the photos we had of downtown Portland weren’t that fab anyways (plus the photos smelled like Voodoo Donuts…I kid). Turns out, most of our photos were of the gorgeous PNW scenery anyways.
After a day in Portland on foot, we took two days to cover two separate loops, via rental car. At this point in our lives, we’re practically pros at car rentals since the old ‘95 Civic isn’t exactly a highly reliable car, which means when we go out of state to rent, we know what we want. The picture below, friends, is not what we wanted. I always, always want an economy car for the gas mileage – and because it feels homey (ya know, the Civic). We arrived, they gave us the keys to this thing, I went back in, begged for a compact/economy, and they said, “nuh-uh. this is all we’ve got.” So off we went – in a very non-Respecki get-away car to tour some of Oregon’s most gorgeous sites.
The Mt. Hood loop took us along the river to Crown Point for a view the Columbia River Gorge, with pit stops at gorgeous waterfalls, including the must-see Multnomah Falls. We stopped at Bonneville to see the fish hatchery, ate lunch in Hood River, and made our way up to snow-covered Mt. Hood. It was early March, it was freezing and eerie and wonderful.
Our second day loop did, in fact, take us to the Oregon Coast. We started north at Cannon Beach and kept driving south stopping when something caught our eye. We learned you can’t pump your own gas in Oregon and that dressing in layers is important. Our mid-afternoon meal was obligatory seafood at a restaurant in Pacific City that is starkly over-sized in March. Then our late-afternoon drive was interrupted for frequent phone calls to the airline after learning our flight home the next day had been canceled due to winter snowstorms.
We made it to Philadelphia on a new flight, after a rainy morning in Portland that left Nick with soaking wet feet and a need for new Nikes at the airport. And at the Philly airport, we yet again, rented a car (compact this time!) to take on the final stretch of our journey home through, not a winter snowstorm, but a light drizzle. Go figure.
