Oregon step 2

Day 2 in Portland we roamed Portland parks. We were too busy to take many photos.

1st: Mt. Tabor: A little dormant (dead?) volcano in the middle of town, and excellent viewpoints.

2nd: “Forest Park”: There is a point when the city ends and the forest begins. Here you will find Forest Park. We read Colin Meloy’s children’s series “Wildwood” earlier in the summer, where he refers to Forest park (aka wildwood) and St. Johns, so we had to visit. This is a good old forest, that is difficult to find entrance to.

ew.

3rd International Rose test gardens: When I was young I was convinced this place was unbearably huge. One could hardly traverse it in a day without a nap and a snack. Maybe it isn’t as big as my childhood, but it is still gorgeous and very large.

It’s like. a million roses.

4th and Last Silver falls: where we camped for the night! Wow, camping is a lot more fun with your husband. Then say when you don’t get any sleep because 20 teenage girls are chittering about the bishop’s son nonstop.

Of course there are hikes. But we were pretty pooped by then to go very far. There is also a river where Mr. Wood called his manliness to him so that we could jump into it at 8:30 at night. In the mountains!

I’ve always liked this hike because you get to walk underneath the fall!

 

That morning we packed up before the camp awoke, and left for the coast! Finally, the sweet spray of ocean! The clean air! The smooth sand! And the constant 30 mph winds!

We stopped at Devil’s punch bowl, saw some tide pools, walked around historic Newport Bayfront where this happened:

Yeah! So, right as we were driving on the street at the bottom of the photo we watched as a river of fish guts rolled down the hill. Those huge boxes? All tumbled out. All filled with fish remains. Nasty.

Don’t worry, they brought in a small firetruck and snow shovels to clean/spray it out.

The coast, though gorgeous, was a complete sandblast. So no pictures. But Mr. Wood again subjected himself to freezing Oregon Waters and dunked in the ocean.

We stayed at Nye beach. Exhausted.  And enjoyed the views from or window.

While at the coast it is hard to imagine how people live without the coast.

 

The next morning we enjoyed a frigid kite fly, then headed somberly back to the Desert. Where we now reside.

Shannon

The Oregon Trip

We had a road trip! I grew up in Oregon, and it was about time to visit the place. Mr. Wood had to see if it really was the over glorified sanctuary I always described it as.

Turns out it is.

We left Sunday evening, which led to our first “sleeping in a rest-stop” experience. This one appropriately called “dead man’s pass”.

We drove through the gorge to get into the state, which made our first touristy stop “Horse tail falls”. Sure we could of gone onto the more popular, famous Multnomah type falls, but after Idaho anything seems breathtakingly gorgeous. And who needs crowds?

The fresh air, greenery and peacefulness of moving water is perfect for healing a weary travelers soul.

After that we slowly made  our way to Corvallis. Maybe a little to eager lay down straight we stopped at Avery park for a nap.

The followed by a lovely meal at a friend’s house and then one of my favorite less known places near my home-town Corvallis. Kings Valley is best viewed near sunset and is the purest form of “my Oregon” that I know of. “My Oregon” being the Oregon I remember growing in, running in, driving on gravel roads for hours as my family explored every nook and cranny. Just forest.

Beazell Forest is always my first stop in Kings valley. It has some lovely moderate hikes straight into old forest, complete with bubbling brook. It also has this quaint empty house.

 

After a quick tromp we headed towards Fort Hoskins. Which includes a very old orchard and some gorgeous views.

 

 

Day 2: a tromp in downtown Corvallis.

Okay. So I only have one picture of my teenage stomping grounds. But who cares? We were having to much fun. The Carlson’s treated us to lunch at American Dream pizza. The website makes it look kitsch. But it is a cool kid staple of Corvallis life. Pizza that is so good I won’t even try to explain. But just know it is worth it.

Day 3: Portland, the city

We used airbnb.com to find accommodations in Portland for 2 days. The owners were kind enough to let us use their bikes. So we started off day 3 with a 14 mile bike ride twisting around highways, towns and forests on the outer edge of Portland. Then we set off into the big city starting with a lunch at Burger Guild. You probably know Portland Oregon is one of those “hip” cities. Don’t roll your eyes. We all know if it wasn’t for “hip” we wouldn’t have cool new forms of popular food. Take the Food truck. Without hipster cities the food truck would of never developed into more than just hotdogs and falafel.

Burger Guild. I don’t even know why we were compelled to find this among dozens of others but it was so worth it. Packed in a parking lot dedicated to food trucks, this under-reviewed gem has my new favorite burger. Shoot. I don’t even know what it is called. But all his burgers (yes it is just one man) are stuffed with delicious. Mine had kalamata olives, feta and peppers. Mr. Wood’s was filled with Muenster cheese, mushroom and some spicy pickled pepper mix. So good! If I had to build a pro/con list of moving to Portland Oregon, Burger Guild would weigh heavily in "Pro’s” column. 

Oh what is that? Sweet potato fries dusted with fresh herbs? Oh thank you burger guild. Thank you very much.

I am tempted to turn the rest of this post into a food blog. But I won’t. Let’s move on.

Did you know you can take any public transportation around Portland Oregon all day for only $5? Yeah. You can. But Mr. Wood and I are crazy and drove in. Bonus, we got to stop by the mall. The train is actually quite nice though, and we rode that across the bridge.

 

We forgot to take pictures most of the day, because I just love wandering through a big city. And it is so fun to do with your spouse. Portland is part old, part new, part creepy, part gorgeous, so perfect for exploring.

We spent the afternoon walking through several districts, getting lost in Powell's book store. Stopping at fountains and parks and anthropologie. Oh, Boy’s Fort or “Manthropology” was a new favorite of mine. Part collection of aesthetically pleasing items for the male, part botanical shop. It smelled really good. Tired feet and Eye weary we meandered back towards place to rest, only to be deterred by ice-cream. “Salt and Straw” ice-cream to be specific. So creamy, so worth it.

With that, I will end. The rest of the trip will have to be documented in part 2. But don’t worry, we aren’t dragging this out into a trilogy.

Shannon

Beautiful Places

Mr. Wood and I took an opportunity a few weeks a go to do some bird watching at the Provo Airport Dike. There won’t be many leaves left now, but it will still be gorgeous, and there will still be some insane bird sounds.

If you go, try to find this secret field. The ground is all cracked and prehistoric.

all you need is a sturdy car and you have a lovely loop of water, sky and mountain.

Afterwards we went to the newly renovated Station 22 downtown. It was gorgeous, cozy and the food was delicious. The specialty soda menu was also a wonderful surprise. It was well worth it. A perfect ending to a perfect night. Well, maybe going to bed at 10 was the perfect ending. High schoolers do that to me.

Shannon

Our life: Roadtrip

Last week Mr. Wood and I joined the Wood family on a trip to Wyoming.

Goodness gracious. No one told me that Wyoming looked like this!

I practically cried driving into Jackson Sunday night. I haven’t seen this many trees in years.

It was lovely. The air was so sweet, the land was filled with life. We spent the week sight seeing our brains out, birding till our pupils were sore and cooking delicious foods for the family. Did you know how many birds there were in real forests? I’ll tell you, practically all of them. I think we added 20 something birds to our co-birding list in just a few days!

Monday we set off for Jenny Lake. The weather was gorgeously misty and cool, perfect for hikes up big mountain sides. This was my favorite day, Rain + pine trees + cool air + beautiful rivers + wonderful people = the favorite day.

We finished the night with dinner at The Q in Jackson. It was wonderful barbeque meals. The plates were the size of four of my stomachs. The food was all local, from the buns to the pork—beautiful.

Tuesday was cool, so we went to some hot springs some where in the mountains. IT is actually a hot spring that pours into a huge pool built back in the 30s. I don’t have pictures. Just know that Ravens were clever enough to take half our lunch, and hot spring water and cool mountain air healed us of our sorrows.

Next day we were off to Yellowstone to see everything we could. We missed old faithful by a quarter mile, so we got it coming out of my head instead. Thanks Mr. Wood….

Did you know that at Yellowstone they have colorful holes in the ground filled with nearly boiling hot water?

The prismatic pool looks like it is filled with melted cheddar cheese. But it is living organisms!

We ended the day at Tower falls (sort of, there were plenty of buffalo between tower falls and Jackson) and Mr. Wood was a dream boat as usual.

Thursday was filled with good food. Mr. Wood and I treated the family to burgers and homemade pizza. Delicious. We also went touristing in Jackson. Good thing too, because we saw a cliff swallow, a Gadwall duck couple dancing in a pond and a lonely Wilson’s Phalarope.

We also chanced upon the sweetest shop: Work Shop filled with perfectly aesthetically pleasing items. Honestly, way better things and more variety than posted on their website.

This was our souvenir: old fashioned candies. The ginger hard candies were the best, just simple fiery little herbal drops.

Next, we had more Yellowstone. My favorite part of Friday was seeing “the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” Lame name, but beautiful spot. Once you see it, you finally realize why it’s called Yellowstone.

Now we are back. To real life.

Shannon