West Coast 2012: Portland

After leaving California, our first stop in Oregon was Crater Lake National Park.  The 6 mile long lake was surrounded by about 4 feet of snow on all sides.  It was 37 degrees at the top, but C and I trekked through the snow anyway to get the good views.  We were very surprised to learn that Crater Lake was created when a mountain imploded on itself and subsequently the gap filled with water.  Today, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, and has only frozen over two times since 1900 – apparently deeper waters are harder to freeze.  It also has an exceptional blue color… take a look.

Traveling even farther into Oregon produced a lot of cattle ranches, some flower farms and one cracked windshield… really???  To us?  Now?  Oh well.  It’s a big ‘ole crack – there are tons of truckers on I-5.  Oh, and it's even bigger now... I think rain makes it worse??

This was our “big driving” day and so we FINALLY arrived in Portland at around 5:45pm.  Our hotel room at the Mark Spencer Hotel in the Pearl District is nice enough – it prides itself on being “old world hospitality” and don’t worry they made sure to leave us the 1972 avocado green refrigerator.  Thank you!  But in all seriousness comfy bed, good staff, very accommodating...

C and I enjoyed a great Thai dinner at Sweet Basil Thai and of course over ate.  We decided to stop at anything that looked interesting along a random course home.  First stop, The Parish, which is a brand new restaurant that opened two weeks ago and although I only had a beer and an Irish coffee, I highly recommend it.  If you’re in the area this place seems like an awesome place to get oysters and has a cool atmosphere.  For those at home… reminds us of a “city” version of Woodberry Kitchen.  Next, we stopped at Deschutes Brewery where we both tried beers that were made right there at the Portland Pub location (copper vats and all).  I tried the Hefeweizen and C tried the Couch St. Kolsch.  They were both delicious and we recognized the “classic” brews as bottles we had seen at home.  Pretty cool.

Thursday morning we headed to the International Rose Test Garden.  Who knew that all types of roses were tested before being released to the public??  Well I guess it makes sense.  I have never seen so many roses in my entire life – how beautiful.  It was a rainy day in Portland but thanks to the Mark Spencer Hotel we had big umbrellas – so we saw roses in the rain… kind of romantic?  My new favorite rose – Eden.  I’ll have to find those climbers for my garden next year…

Eden Roses

All American Magic Grandiflora

Undecided, but we may stop at a food truck or two on the way out of town since Portland is known for its funky food trucks all over town AND our hotel seems to have a gathering of around 30 right around the corner…

Where to next?  Seattle, WA... 3 National Parks, one road trip?... Until there's something worth posting...