Oregon

We had such beautiful weather in California for the first few days of the trip; it was disappointing to wake up to rain as we drove north and crossed into Oregon.

The weather was spotty, though, so we jumped out to take pictures in between the rainfall, and the ocean waves were really incredible with the clouds and storms—it was like seeing a different ocean than the one we’d been enjoying the last couple days.

We met with a break in the clouds around lunch when we stopped in Coos Bay for some more seafood. We walked along the water near the train tracks taking pictures of some of the old boats you could walk around.

We found another small lighthouse to explore and then I napped as Brian drove us north to the sea lion caves—another tourist trap I thoroughly enjoyed! We took a long elevator ride way down to the cave and then walked around to watch the sea lions wrestle for places to sit up on the rocks. It was funny watching them get rushed in with each new wave and then try to climb up onto a rock before getting knocked off by the next one crashing in.

We didn’t feel like exploring for dinner once we got to our hotel so Brian ordered a ridiculous amount of room service—bottle of wine, appetizers, two gigantic meals and dessert—that we enjoyed on the couch in our pajamas. It was one of the most relaxing evenings ever, and I didn’t mind staying in for a night.

I woke up early and worked out in the hotel weight room, letting Brian sleep in on his birthday! When he finally arose, we headed north to the Spruce Goose. On the way, our GPS announced that we should ‘board the ferry,’ and sure enough, there was a small ferry ahead that I had to drive my car onto so we could cross the river. I have been on ferries before, but only to cross huge bodies of water, not small rivers. I video taped our ride and the ferry captain probably thought I was crazy.

We finally arrived at the Spruce Goose and toured the facility, learning all about the history of flight as well as the Goose itself. We also made our way across the facility to visit the aerospace building as well, getting a look at a number of rockets and space shuttle parts.

From there, we had lunch at a hamburger joint Brian found on http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ that had a monkey you could watch while you ate. LOVED it! From there, we headed into Portland without too much trouble, and once we were all settled at the hotel, we headed out to catch a train downtown.

It started raining again so we ducked into the mall to buy the world’s most expensive umbrella. It better last the rest of our lives. We rode the bus around town, stopping off for some beer at a local microbrewery and then making our way to the college side of town.

Those bars were packed so we kept walking and soon found ourselves at Kathleen’s of Dublin looking at Irish items when we stumbled into some jewelry, including engagement rings. They had one I found last year and I was so glad to see it in person and put it on my hand—it’s not exactly what I thought. It is smaller, and you can’t see the detail on the band like I was hoping. Oh well, eh?

We were getting hungry and headed back to the restaurant district, beginning with a seafood restaurant with a fantastic waitress. She brought us a platter of oysters in the half shell and spent a lot of time explaining the different oysters (I now know I love Kumamoto and Sweet Bay) and then went on to tell us all the good places to eat in town.

We headed out to try as many as possible and did a fairly good job of hitting them all, although we were a little out of place at a dimly lit hotel restaurant up on a top floor that had an amazing view of the city. We had a few drinks and some interesting calamari before heading out again, this time to a spot we’d been planning to try for months—Voodoo Doughnut.

We saw it on the Travel Channel months ago and couldn’t believe we were actually going to be visiting one of the places featured on the show. It was late and we’d been making our rounds = perfect time for a doughnut. We both got the famed maple bacon doughnut, which was possibly the best doughnut I’d ever had.

After a few more stops, we finally called it a night and an end to our time in Oregon.