Portland/Vancouver/Alaskan Cruise/Denali (Part 1 of 3)

Portland and Vancouver

If you'd like to skip my ramblings, here's all the Part 1 images.  Images are in order of the story.

August 12th -  Like the cruise trip I previously posted, no trip is without its drama.  Rebe was supposed to come home on Wednesday August 10th but due to weather she didn’t catch a helicopter out until…well never.  Poor Rebe had to catch the “crew boat” on the Gulf of Mexico’s rough seas at 1am Friday morning to get back to shore at 7am.  Then drive to New Orleans to catch a flight back to Houston, only to be home for a couple of hours and then head right back to the airport.  At the end of this trip and her next rotation on the rig, it’ll be nine weeks since she spent at night at the house :(

With all that said, we made the flight with plenty of time and no other drama popped up on our way to the airport.  The plane was delayed for “operational issues,” then the weather had our fight path going over Arkansas, but some how we got lucky and the weather broke up and we had an opportunity to fly over Dallas instead which saved us an hour.  Landed in Portland at nine, got the rental car and to the hotel in no time. 

Though we were dog tired, we had to see a little of the city, we took a stroll into the Nob Hill area of town where there are more than 60 restaurants, but we weren’t on the hunt for food we were on the hunt for late night desert. We had plans to go to the Salt and Straw known for their ridiculous flavors but it was getting close 1am (Houston time) and we weren’t up for standing in a line that had people wrapped around the block, literally.  We picked up some gelato instead and then back to the room to hit the hay, not a bad start I’d say.

Line at the Salt and Straw at 10:30pm (excuse the camera phone quality)

August 13th - Changing timezones is always a killer and adding two hours is just enough to mess a person up, so of course I woke up at my usual 6am Houston time (that’s 4am in Portland).  Luckily I was able to get a few more Zzzz’s before actually getting up at 7 and then I woke Rebe up at 8.

It was a must to start the day with some local grub, not the Holiday Inn continental breakfast Rebe was trying to get me to swallow, I showed her the menu to Urban Farmer and she was quickly on board. Urban Farmer is a “steakhouse” in downtown Portland but not in the traditional sense as it’s a tad more casual, so causal that no one blinked that Rebe and I both were wearing basketball shorts. Also it was unique because it was on the 8th floor atrium of a pretty nice hotel, I felt a few glances when we walked in, but from the picture below you can see it was pretty causal.

Bar of Urban Farmer

It was also so causal that the waitress didn’t even bat an eye when I ordered a beer for breakfast, hey “when in Rome” or I could say “When from Rome” (I'm from a city in Georgia named Rome).  We both ordered a version of their eggs benedict, truly amazing and then their take on some homestyle grits which had had the corn already popped before being ground and then cooked, definitely interesting but I’m not sure if it was better than the original.

After breakfast we headed to the shore, for some reason Rebe and I thought the shore was a lot closer than it was and it also didn’t help that Oregon has 55mph speed limits on all the roads (well non-interstates).  Being in Texas has really spoiled us, between all the major cities the speed limit is 75mph (even 70mph on some back roads) and in Austin there is a road that has an 80mph limit, you really do treasure that when you have it but it can get you into trouble when you leave the state because you’ll be on the highway doing your normal 79 and then realize you’re in a 65mph speed limit… First stop of the day was Cape Lookout State Park, I don’t know how I came across the park but it seemed interesting so that’s where we started.

Rebe taking in the fog at Cape Lookout State Park

It was a nice park that all the locals really take advantage of, ALL the campsites in the park were full of tents and RVs but of course it was 65 degrees so camping wouldn’t be a miserable experience at this time of year.  People had fires going, bikes out and just having a good time and in addition to all of this the beach was just over a dune so you could (but shouldn’t) hop in the ocean.  The Pacific ocean isn’t like the Atlantic, it’s MUCH colder so you’ll see tons of people on the beach and zero people actually in the ocean.

Trail, Trees and Fog at Cape Lookout

From the campsite we went a bit further south to where there were a few walking trails that actually go out on to the cape.  Us being us, we didn’t really plan for a hike on a muddy trail but of course we went down the muddy trail, got 3/4 of the way to the end and decided to turn around after conversations with other hikers who gave us 2 good reasons: 1) it was too muddy, didn’t want to ruin our shoes on day 1 and 2) the fog was rolling in so what’s the point of going to the lookout just to stare at the fog 3 feet in front of your face?  But the trail was very nice, it was actually a rainforest (thus the mud) and very thick it with large spruce and hemlock trees.

Cape Trail - Cape Lookout State Park

Rebe and I on the trail

Cape Trail and the fog getting thick on the trail

After leaving the trail we headed further south to enjoy the sights and of course beer down at Pelican Brewing in Pacific City.  The plan was to eat lunch there but the pub was crawling with people and the wait was 90+ minutes so I got a beer to go and Rebe and I went out to the beach to people watch.  It was a foggy day on the beach but the wind was kicking and the waves were rocking, but surprisingly plenty of people in the cold water surfing and getting wrecked by the waves.

Scene behind Pacific City Brewing - Fog and Beachgoers

Pushing on we hauled back up the coast toward Cape Mares, when we were almost to the lighthouse on the cape we came across a beach that was down in a gully and it looked amazing from the road so we pulled over to check it out.  There was even a couple camping on this beach.  

From the beach we moved to the light house, which was a bit stumpy. I had imagined this large majestic light house, you know the one, big, tall, large spiral staircase... but the views of the beach we had just come from were nice.

A views from the Cape Meares Lighthouse 

Stumpy Lighthouse - I guess being on the cliff no need to make it taller...

My main draw to the coast was a section of beach near Cannon Beach called the Haystack Marine Garden.  Just amazing rocks, birds ranging from seagulls to puffins and the potential for magical skies to produce beautiful sunset images.  Well the rocks came through, the water even helped out, but the Oregonians had the fog machine on full blast.  The skies were not going to cooperate for my one day of images on the beach, but I made due with what I was given and I think it came out ok.

Haystack Rock and the Fog

By the time we left the beach it was 830, the sun was down and it was time for hangry (hungry and angry) Matt to be fed.  Cannon Beach had a few places worth eating at, but since we didn’t get to eat at Pelican Brewery earlier there just happened to be another one close by.  So I got to try all the beers I missed earlier in the day, and enjoy some of that good ole pub grub.  After dinner we headed back to Portland, Rebe drove and I being the horrible co-driver took a nap, I tried to stay awake but my eyes just wouldn’t let me (I blame the time change and/or the beer...).  I owe Rebe, she’s the greatest.

August 14th - Woke up on Sunday with plans of going to see a few waterfalls and a bit of hiking but you can’t go out into the wilderness without being properly energized.  We found a local cafe, Cafe Nell, which was in walking distance from our hotel.  While eating breakfast and talking through our plan for the day the table next to us butted in and inquired on our plans, a bit weird but okay.  Turns out they were tour guides for the area and gave us some prime tips on what to do in reference to the waterfalls and in the city of Portland.  They recommended doing a few specific waterfalls and on Monday instead of Sunday (less people) and also gave us some tips for what to do in Portland.

Cafe Nell

It’s 10am now and since we didn’t get to hit up the happening ice cream spot the first night we decided to check it out when it opened… yes at 10am.  No line at this time, which was previously wrapped around the building, and this gave us more incentive to try ALL the favors and not feel guilty about it.  Hands down, Carrot Cake Batter and Pralined Hazelnuts took top prize.

Salt and Straw (menu for the day)

The tour guides recommended the International Rose Test Garden which was truly amazing, beautiful and smelled like rose smorgasbord.  After the Rose garden we visited the Japanese Garden, also stunning and about what we expected.  From the park with the gardens we headed up to the top of a hill that housed a mansion previously owned by the Pittock family, the mansion was slated for demolition but the city banded together to save this beautiful house which has amazing views of Portland and Mt Hood.

Portland's Rose Garden

Waterfall at Japanese Garden

Switching gears we headed back into the city to check out the Saturday Market, yeah we know it’s Sunday but we figure the event got so big they made it into a two day event but never changed the name.  Portland holds this market from March to Christmas when the weather is still decent enough for people to actually want to come out and see what people are selling.  It was like a super farmers market in the heart of the city with people selling food, clothes, art and anything else you can imagine like unique ocean soap or something…whatever the hell that is.

Saturday (& Sunday) Market

Then we made it to the main event, that’s right beer:30.  One of my favorite breweries is Deschuttes and it of course is located in Portland, what a coincidence right?  Rebe didn’t think so either, but she’s a good sport.  I tried the reserve sampler which is stuff that I can’t get in Texas and then the magical Black Butte Reserve XXVIII, I tell you specifically about the XXVIII because I have probably 9 bottles of the XXVII at the house. Which now that I know people sell these bottles years down the line for $70 each, I will have to save a few and become a bootlegger.  Food of course was on point.

Me and the sweet goodness :)

Now that I had my fix it was Rebe’s turn to get some ice cream at a local parlor, I was too full from the beer session so I wondered about taking photos of the city or standing outside pondering how I could get back to Deschuttes either tonight later or tomorrow…

Since I was the intoxicated one from my beer session Rebe thought it’d be a good idea to just drip her ice cream all over her shirt while we strolled through the city, I should have took a pic of this mess.  She looked like a 3 year old who had her first cone of ice cream, not just like 2 drips imagine 30 streams or as if someone sprayed her down with an ice cream spray bottle.  Pure comedy, and she was driving… glad we didn’t get pulled over there was no way the officer would have believed SHE was the sober one.

Back to the hotel for more Olypmics and rest for our LONG day tomorrow.

August 15th - We got off to an early start and I even let Rebe sucker me in to the Holiday Inn breakfast but only for the sake of time as we knew that even though it was Monday, waterfall row would still be crowded but hopefully less crowded than a Sunday.  We got on to the Historic Colombia River Hwy, which was the very first road to navigate the Colombia River Gorge (CRG), to visit Vista House and to take in the view of the Columbia River Gorge. It was a bit crappy early in the morning due to a massive layer of low lying clouds.

Vista House view upon our early arrival

We then started at Latourell Falls which has a lower and upper falls, the lower falls were visible from a set of stairs right off the road but the less traveled upper falls was a good 1.25 miles into the woods.  Being so early in the morning and being the lesser visited upper waterfall, Rebe and I were the only people on the trail walking to the falls and didn’t pass a single person going or coming back.  It was really peaceful in this portion of the rain forest and a nice hike that had an overlooked that had views across the gorge towards the end.

Latourell Lower Waterfall 

Rebe and I at the upper waterfall alone

We then moved further down the historic highway and parked at Wahkeena Falls and did the short .2 mile hike up to fall but by now it was getting a bit more crowded as it was the waterfall before the main waterfall attraction in Oregon.

Wahkeena Falls

We returned from the fall to find traffic at a standstill going to Multnomah Falls, which is the most visited attraction in Oregon.  To dodge traffic on the historic highway, we left our car where it was and hiked half a mile, which was pretty funny because we picked a few cars to see if we would beat them and we did.  Multnomah is such a great waterfall but definitely overcrowded and while it is the tallest the others are better or worth the an effort to visit.

Multnomah Falls

Traffic was so bad around Multnomah, we actually went west a few miles just to go further east down to Wahclella Falls via the interstate (not the historic highway).  This was probably the highlight of the day, for me at least, the trail starts along a creek that is fed by the waterfall and then winds into this great open canyon. 

Canyon before Wahclella Falls

The waterfall is a 2 tier waterfall that feeds in to this large pool.  It was very hot entering the canyon but back where the waterfall was falling, the temperature dropped and the cool mist created by the waterfall felt amazing on your face.  Of course I got a few great pics.

Rebe taking in the waterfall

Wahclella Falls (I did some sketchy hiking to get this photo)

Me down in the water getting the above shot

After leaving the falls we headed toward Hood River, where we planned to visit a winery but got there at closing time and that was nixed (again note the total lack of planning).  The winery was picked as a view point for Mount Hood, but since it was closed we decided to see if we could find an interesting viewpoint ourselves.  We drove around through some fruit orchards and took a few pics of Mt Hood and Mt Adams (both of which are volcanoes). Then we stumbled upon Panorama Point for more potential but lacking images, and then back into downtown Hood River for pizza at Double Mountain Brewery.

View of Mount Hood

View of Mount Adams

Since the historic highway wasn’t really a road to support mass amounts of traffic, interstate 84 was built and it winds along the Columbia River through the gorge between Hood River and Portland though much closer to the river.  The sun was setting and the fog from the morning had cleared so we decided to give Vista House another try but before getting to Vista House we pulled off at Portland Women’s Forum Lookout to take a picture of Vista House. 

View of Vista House and the Colombia River Gorge

Made it back to Portland and somehow I convinced Rebe to let me go to Deschutes again where I partook in the Black Butte XXIII, yes a 4 year old beer and it was quite amazing :)

August 16th - We were up early to pickup my monster lens (picture should be in part 2) I rented for the cruise and whale watching from Fedex, and we while out we picked up some Blue Star Donuts for breakfast (PB&J, Key Lime, Blueberry Bourbon, and Maple Bacon).  Donuts were good, but not good as expected.

Crazy breakfast donuts

It was then over to the airport, typical 2+2 turbo prop airplane and landed into Vancouver on time and all was good until our bags didn’t show up on the carousel and this wasn’t due to us pulling another one of our late arrival stunts.  We were there on time, but apparently the bags never got scanned and our bags weren’t the only bags left behind.  After bickering with the baggage representative for a while we headed into town on the train. Why can’t Houston just buck up build a proper train system (even if it is above ground).

Craft Beer Market

My beer selection while a CBM

From the hotel we went out for a late lunch at CRAFT Beer Market, where you might have guessed it they serve beer and Canadian beer at that.  Great food as always came with the beer.  From there we had ice cream at Earnest Ice Cream and then took a nice walk along the False Creek which runs through the city and Vancouver has created a nice park with a bike and walking trail running through the city and it has great views of the city along with all the boats that are in the creek (btw this creek looks like a bay).

Sail boats on False Creek

During the walk we decided to walk to Gastown which was back across the creek from where we had eaten lunch.  Gastown is the oldest part of Vancouver and has that old time (new world old) feel, with it’s 3-4 story buildings all crammed together.  The area had apparently gone bad and become the skid row of the city but the residents pulled together to revitalize the area and it is now an up and coming area that hosts many shop in addition to hip new bars and swanky new restaurants.  We had our eye set on a place call Tau but we couldn’t settle on the first cool place we came across, we continued our journey further in to Gastown and saw quite a few more places but settled on Bao Down.  A Bao is like a east Asian taco or empanada stuffed with a filling, we have a place that does these in Houston and if you come Houston and remind me to take you it will blow your mind.  

Street in Gastown

Another intersection in Gastown

After dinner we had had enough for the day grabbed a cab to get back to our hotel, those damn Canadians don’t have Uber yet… plus we didn’t have internet so it wasn’t like we could hail an Uber anyways.  Back at the hotel we watched some Olympics before falling finally falling asleep.