Departure: Sunday 24th Spokane, WA
Arrival: Sunday Jan. 24th Portland, OR
Departure: Monday Jan. 25th Portland, OR
Arrival: Monday Jan. 25th Salem, OR
Departure: Thursday, Jan. 28th, Salem, OR.
Arrival: Thursday, Jan. 28th, Unspecified locations on the Oregon Coast.
Greetings from balmy Oregon! I am trying to wrap my head around all that has happened since our last blog. OK, I'll give it my best shot, here it goes:
Our first destination since we last talked was Spokane, Washington. We spent the night in our van after walking around town, stopping to view the popular outdoor ice rink (no skating was involved on our part) and duckies swimming in a park pond.
After Spokane, to Portland. Our drive along the Columbia River Gorge was soggy and we were expecting it to be a sign of things to come, but the weather has actually been very fair (knock on wood!).
We arrived in Portland Sunday night and after finding overnight parking, walked around the city for some cheap Mexican food that we had read about online. We searched and searched for “ Taco Del Mar” (I am pretty sure now that this is the NW equivalent to Chipotle) and after walking out of a underground parking lot in hopes of finding it, we ran into a young person interested in what was in that mysterious underground tunnel, who eventually suggested another restaurant and said that the place we were searching for was for Yuppies. Good thing, we wouldn't want to be caught dead in a yuppie environment. I've heard that Starbuck's might be a Yuppie place. If that's the case, we'd better stop going.
We ate our meal at the suggested sketchy and wicca themed, but delicious Mexican restaurant and then headed back to our van for sleep. The following morning we hiked for 2½ hours through lush, green forest and only a few miles from our downtown parking spot. This park, conveniently named Forest Park, is the largest city park in the U.S., and is not your typical green grass, throw a frisbee around park. This park had dense forests, beautiful clear streams and wildlife. Besides the occasional distant train whistle, if I didn't know it, I would think I was in some very remote location.
After our hike we set our for Powell's bookstore, the countries largest new and used bookstore. I think we could've spent 5 more hours here than we did, but our parking meter ran out :( After the bookstore we stopped by “Voo Doo Donuts”. Definitely a tourist attraction, but well worth the humiliation of carrying a dozen donuts around town in a huge pink box. Yet another wicca themed place. Hmmm...
From there we were off to Salem, just an hour or so south of Portland to visit Simon's cousins. We spent three nights in this location, and dare I admit, indoors with a comfortable bed and hot showers. It was heaven. Living in a van makes all the little things that much more enjoyable!
We had a great time in Salem. We were challenged to many rousing games of memory-match (all of which I lost miserably to two seven year olds) and Blokus (I probably don't need to mention that I lost), but it was all very fun. We had three delicious, hot suppers with the family and got to catch up on family news and such. We made a day trip while in Salem to Silver Falls State Park and it was well worth the trip. This park has ten gorgeous waterfalls, all of which we were able to see on our 7 mile hiking loop. By the last few falls I was almost desensitized to the beauty, being that there were so many.
We said goodbye to the cousins yesterday and headed first to REI, to pick up a few more things for our backpacking extravaganzas. We are really anxious to use our equipment and go on some major hikes, but Oregonians have had a tough time suggesting any such thing for the winter. At REI, the sales clerk made a few suggestions, but didn't seem too hopeful that we could do some backpacking. Well.... we did our research and found a place along the coast that seems fruitful. It is a 10 mile hike with a small loop that we will be able to bakpack into for the night. We are headed there right now and will let you know how it goes. So far, no major rain to speak of! (again the knocking on wood thing)
All in all, everything is great! We are looking forward more and more to Vancouver and our Seattle trip is just around the corner, probably within the next few days.
Signing off...
