Depoe Bay – Jason likes to travel

A wedding in Washington: the honeymoon!

Hello dear readers! How are things? I was really starting to get in to a blogging groove for a moment there but then ironically the little wedding series was put on pause for a a trip to the US in April.

There was me thinking I’d post again shortly after getting back and yet here we are, almost three months later without a blog post!

Admittedly another trip in May didn’t help. This wasn’t really on the cards for the year and certainly not in the budget but Tottenham in Bilbao for a European final was too tempting to dismiss and another football trip to Spain beckoned – this time with European glory at the end of it!

There is SO much I could say about that experience and believe me I will but that’s a story for another day, for now it’s back to the wedding trip! My other love!

Last time around I wrote about our special wedding day, if you’ve missed any posts in the series you can go back and read them but after a day of celebrating with our loved ones it was time to go and celebrate on our own.

I promise after this trip I’ll stop mentioning the C word, this was the last trip where it had a significant impact, but Covid made it hard to plan much in terms of a honeymoon.

We at the very least wanted to get away for a few days and decided we’d begin married life by popping over to Oregon for a few days.

Our trip didn’t get off to the best of starts. Firstly, as those who read the last post will know, we’d already had to change our plans and unexpectedly check out of our hotel in the early hours of the morning.

We went out for breakfast with the family and then a few people swung by the house to congratulate us again before we hit the road but the consequence of all this was our morning ended up being very jumbled and we weren’t really prepared to hit the road. The result of that was we left with Haleigh not really having much of anything for the trip. Oops!

We said our goodbyes, made our way out of town and shortly after came to the realisation we’d need to make a detour to pick up a few things. So our first honeymoon stop was the infamous Tri-Cities to do a bit of shopping! After a quick shopping detour, we hit the road again and stopped off in the Dalles for a late lunch / early dinner.

Truthfully I don’t know what there really is to do in the Dalles but it’s a convenient stopping point between Portland and Walla Walla. We ate at ‘Cousins’ which is a popular little restaurant in the area, serving up hearty American dishes that go down pretty well. On this occasion they sat us in the bar area which has a different vibe from the main restaurant area but it was still a good place to stop and enjoy dinner.

Between the Dalles and Portland is the scenic Columbia River Gorge – a beautiful drive alongside the Columbia River. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I don’t think any of my photos would do it justice but it’s such a pretty part of the Pacific Northwest.

I think this drive is pretty in any weather but unfortunately we didn’t have the best of weather for our journey. As we inched closer to Portland, the sky seemed to get darker and darker and the rain was pouring down. The treacherous conditions weren’t helped by having a fancy new car with a million different gadgets which seem to be customary with all cars these days.

We’d decided to rent a car for our trip which was the right decision but we probably weren’t as well equipped for bad weather as we would have liked. Which button gets the wipers to work? Which button makes the car lights come on? How does this work? Ideally these aren’t things you want to learn on route when the weather is miserable but we (Haleigh..) got through it and eventually arrived at our AirBnB – a tiny home in the Beaverton area of Portland.

We got ourselves settled in to our cosy surroundings and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We didn’t really have any plans for Portland, we’d been here previously and the trip was more about enjoying some time together. The downside to long-distance is obviously so much of our relationship has been spent apart and the first couple of weeks of this trip we’d been busy with wedding things and lots of company so it was just nice to have the time to ourselves.

It’s probably for the best we had no plans because we woke up to find snow on the ground. At the time it was the latest date on record that Portland had ever had snow. One of the few things we’d planned was a sunny daytrip to the coast and naturally the weather put some doubt on that idea – in the end we ended up extending our trip by a few more days.

Breakfast at Black Bear Diner, Beaverton

We kicked off our trip with a visit to the ‘Black Bear Diner’ for breakfast. I don’t think we realised at the time that they were a fairly big chain of restaurants, I certainly didn’t, but they had promising reviews online and were close to our AirBnB.

The funny thing about dining in America is often how large their portion sizes are and ridiculously that was something Black Bear Diner actually pride themselves upon. They have a little ‘gazette’, which doubles up as its menu, where they boasted about how many to-go boxes they produce.

The breakfast was good but it was way too much food and the idea of that being a bragging point kind of tickled me – “our portions are so big, you’ll have to take some home!” – seriously, why!?

The rest of our day was fairly chilled, literally I suppose because the snow had certainly caused its havoc. We’d considered visiting Pittock Mansion only to find the road up to it was closed and we looked at a couple of other things with a similar dilemma. In the end we made the best of the bad weather and took a stop by the Lloyd Center Mall so Haleigh could pick up a couple of bits – having only really bought summer-y outfits the previous day in the Tri Cities.

Sadly I thought the Lloyd Center felt a bit representative of Portland. It’s a decent sized mall with decent shopping options but the place was deserted and felt like a ghost-town. I think I saw more of that side of Portland on this trip. It’s always given off that hipster, edgy, run-down kind of vibe but I definitely felt it leaned more towards run-down this time around.

I imagine Covid had played its part in that but it felt like a struggling city. The number of homeless people and number of tents on the side of the road was staggering – unlike anywhere I can recall visiting – including on our last visit to Portland.

Perhaps other cities do a better job of hiding it, perhaps I was oblivious to it the first time around but Portland’s struggles felt much more noticeable on this occasion. The homelessness felt out-of-control and with that in mind it’s probably unsurprising the mall was then so empty. Obviously shopping habits have changed over time too but who’s going shopping when the population can’t even keep a roof over its head?

We had a relaxed afternoon before grabbing dinner back in Beaverton which is an area of Portland we both really liked and I’m glad we stayed in. After dinner we went and checked out a nearby brewery who were hosting a trivia night so we popped along for some Disney-themed quiz. I didn’t think my Disney knowledge was that bad but I was pretty hopeless and little help to Haleigh. Some kind folk did buy us some drinks though as “newlyweds” so that was a nice perk and the brewery was pretty nice too.

The next day we swung by OMSI – the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I think it’s one of the best places to visit in Portland. We’d been here on our previous visit and checked out a few things already, this time we were keen to take in another planetarium showing which was good fun. Afterwards we had a little wander through Portland and Beaverton but it was another pretty chilled day.

We finished off our day by visiting a place called ‘Ex Novo’ who served up good beer and pizza which was pretty good – although again we’d made a mistake in our choice to get separate servings when we could have probably shared between us. One of the greatest things about this place however was the playlist!

I’d joked in my last post that we’d caused an uptick in Madness’ popularity Stateside after delighting our wedding guests with their music (HA), so imagine my surprise when I’m sat there sipping on my beer and Madness randomly come on! After murdering the dancefloor (you guys know Sophie Ellis-Bextor too, right!?) at our wedding, I felt vindicated! Madness rule supreme!

It’s worth adding that I’d seen a Leicester City flag on the wall at the first brewery we’d been to in Beaverton so the Brits are definitely leaving their mark on the area!

The next day we had to check out of our AirBnB. We’d extended our trip but couldn’t book extra nights where we were staying so had to venture over to a new AirBnB in the St John’s area. The area itself wasn’t as nice as Beaverton but it was a better AirBnB with more space than our tiny home so that was nice.

Between checking out and checking in, we ventured over to some pottery / paint place and created a couple of fun little mugs. Haleigh’s effort was much better than mine but given I have zero creative talent I was happy enough with my attempt!

After getting settled in to our new AirBnB, we went over to watch Haleigh’s uncles bowl in their bowling league which was a blast to the past. Me and my sister would frequently spend many a Monday night ‘watching’ our parents bowl in their weekly league. It was a fun evening and, unlike my childhood, I could enjoy watching them bowl whilst simultaneously enjoying a beer or two!

The next day was again pretty chill, we didn’t do anything particularly exciting until the evening when Haleigh’s Uncle and Aunt played host and had us over for dinner which was really nice. Our AirBnB host had gifted us a bottle of wine so we took that with us too! It was nice catching up so soon after the wedding and definitely one of the perks to having family in the Portland area.

Having extended our trip by a few days, our final full day of the trip was spent at the coast. We’d held out hope that the weather would improve and fortunately we were met with beautiful blue skies on our way over to Lincoln City – somewhere else we’d visited on our big summer 2018 trip!

We were looking forward to a day by the beach but Haleigh was also insistent that we return to the restaurant, Mo’s, for their famous clam chowder – “for lunch and dinner” – and I had no intention of upsetting the wife (that’s right, I said wife!) this early in to our marriage so two trips to Mo’s was on the itinerary for the day.

We arrived in to Lincoln City around lunchtime and immediately made way for Mo’s, somewhere that had had a bit of a makeover since our previous visit. It was now much tidier in its lobby area and also much more accessible friendly which was cool to see and of course still home to some delicious clam chowder.

Whilst Haleigh has visited many times over the years, I’d only previously been here the once and that was in August so it was kind of nice visiting in April out-of-season and wihtout the summer crowds. There was a much more relaxed vibe about Mo’s and the coast.

Inside Mo’s restaurant – Lincoln City, Oregon

We had a seat inside by the window and I could have spent a long time just sat there looking out and admiring the view. It’s a lovely setting and in April felt particularly peaceful.

After lunch we drove on down to Depoe Bay, a cute little town nearby with a pretty harbour and a few seafront shops selling bits and pieces. Haleigh was keen to visit Ainslees and acquire some salt-water taffy. I’ll be honest, I don’t really get the fascination with the stuff but I guess American’s would probably feel likewise about going to a British seaside town and having a stick of rock.

Whilst Haleigh was splurging on taffy, I had a little wander and noted that there was a little shack offering whale-watching tours. We decided as a treat to ourselves we’d go on one of the tours.

As it was, we didn’t see any whales on our tour. Nevertheless it was still nice to spend an hour or so out on the Pacific ocean, particularly on such a glorious sunny day. We missed out on the whales (who we’d agreed must have taken a lunch break) but it was still a lovely boat outing.

After our boat trip we drove back up to Lincoln City and stopped in at the ‘Christmas Cottage’, a Christmas shop selling all sorts of Christmas-related items, as you do in April..

We then spent a little time on the beach, making sure to dip our toes in the ocean. The beach itself is wonderful – nice and sandy and clean. It felt nice being at the beach in April, even moreso having started the week with snow!

We dipped our toes in the Pacific ocean!

Following a little more time at the beach spent people-watching and dog-watching (we got chatting to a couple who’d taken their puppy to the beach for the first time ever and was understandably excited!), we went back to Mo’s for dinner.

This time rather than clam chowder, I opted for Cod or Halibut or some other type of fish on the menu, I can’t remember. Sadly a final dinner rounded off our time at the coach and we made our way back to Portland for our final evening of the trip.

The next day it was back to Walla Walla – this time driving along the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge with much better weather than at the start of the trip. The views are stunning and there’s some nice little stops along the way.

We drove past Multnomah Falls, which we’d stopped at on a previous trip, but did take a little detour via Horsetail Falls which we made sure to pull over to enjoy fully. Again, this was undoubtedly helped by being out of season but it was much more peaceful and less touristy than our stop at Multnomah had been in 2018.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. The weather was smooth pretty much all of the way until we got back to Walla Walla and found more of the white stuff – the snow had seemingly deserted Portland and made it over to Washington. We made it back safely though and settled in for what was theoretically my last week in Washington.

The big 3-0: Day eighteen – Exploring Oregon’s coast!

Welcome back dear readers! Last time out on the blog I hinted at getting back in to the groove and therefore the posts would start coming thick and fast!

Consequently, you’re getting no big introduction this time! If you don’t know what happened in the first 17 days of this trip you’ll just have to go back and find out, won’t you?

On the previous evening myself and Haleigh had arrived in Lincoln City on Oregon’s coast and we were ready to explore! Other than go for dinner we hadn’t really done anything since arriving on the coast so it was our first opportunity to see what there was to do locally.

Or my first opportunity anyway. Haleigh had been to Oregon’s coast a few times on family holidays growing up but for me, this was my first trip where I’d really been able to see any of Oregon. With Haleigh’s knowledge of the area a little better than mine we hopped in the car and drove up to a little place called ‘Tillamook’.

Tillamook is a small ‘city’ with a population of 5,000. I don’t know what rules there are that determines city status but a lot of places I’d consider towns in the UK refer to themselves as cities over there – who am I to argue?

Anyway the main attraction of Tillamook, and the reason we were visiting, is the “Tillamook Creamery” which is open to the public. As we began approaching the site it was clear it had changed quite a lot since Haleigh’s previous visit. I’m guessing they’d expanded to some capacity but it was much bigger than Haleigh remembered.

In what was quite a busy car park we eventually found a spot to park up and then made the walk in to the heart of the creamery. It’s free to visit which was a nice little bonus.

The building is split in to three main sections. The first area we visited was the more educational part of the place. Having been in business for more than 100 years you get the opportunity to see and learn about the various processes that help create their products with a little behind-the-scenes look at the production line. It’s not a particularly big area but it was interesting nonetheless.

The next main area and undoubtedly its most popular is its cafeteria type room. Specialising in cheese and all things dairy, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the big attraction is to “sample the goods”. With a range of lunch options to tempt us we decided we’d both get something to eat.

As a fussy child I grew up “not liking” cheese. I’m much less fussy now and I’ve no doubt that I would eat some cheeses today but it’s generally a habit that has stuck with one exception – pizza of course!

Fun fact – I was horrified when we made pizza at school one time and discovered we were using cheese to make it!

“Mum..? The pizzas we eat don’t have cheese do they?” – shockingly they did!

Anyway, I digress! The point being is that I’ve never been too cheese-adventurous so whilst Haleigh’s lunch options were a bit more vast, I played safe and ordered their cheese-inclusive-pizza.

I can’t remember what Haleigh opted for but we both enjoyed our lunch choice. The last area to take a quick look at was its gift shop. Neither of us ended up buying anything but it was nice to have a look around and see what they had on offer.

Before making our getaway we returned to the “other side” of the restaurant area where they specialise in another dairy product – ice cream! We couldn’t leave Tillamook’s creamery without seeing how their ice cream held up against their other products so we joined the queue and licked our lips at all of the different flavours on offer.

Haleigh, again, had much more difficulty deciding which flavour she wanted with all of the options on display. Ordinarily I’d go straight for the strawberry but I thought I’d mix things up (like the crazy kid I am, right?) and opted for their huckleberry ice cream – a wise decision! Although I’m sure I’d have enjoyed their strawberry too!

With much fuller stomachs we said our goodbyes to Tillamook and its wonderful food and hit the road! It’s probably not going to prove a hugely popular attraction for the vegetarians and vegans but we’d enjoyed our visits.

We made our way back to Lincoln City, zigzagging through the one lane roads surrounded by greenery and had soon arrived back to familiar surroundings on the coast. Pondering what to do next we had a little look around before Haleigh suggested we visit Lincoln City’s ‘famous’ Christmas Cottage.

Unbelievably it was August and I found myself visiting my third Christmas store of this trip! Myself and Haleigh had already been to one in Oregon City a week earlier, meanwhile myself and Crystal had also popped in to one down in New Orleans in the first week of my trip! Would I be all Christmas’d out by the end of this trip? It’s not even Halloween yet!

After some more Christmas-browsing we hopped back in the car and decided to make the short drive down to Depoe Bay – supposedly home to the world’s smallest harbour!

I don’t know how accurate that statement is but Depoe Bay is certainly a small little place. We parked up on the main street and then wandered towards the harbour Depoe Bay is ‘famous’ for.

It’s a pretty little place but I can’t say there was a huge amount to it. It’s apparently the whale watching capital of Oregon but I can’t say that we saw any whales either. We spent the bulk of our time browsing the small little independent stores lined along the main street. Haleigh made sure to pick up some treats to take home with her too including some saltwater taffy – America’s answer to a stick of rock I suppose.

Content we’d explored all there was to do here, we snapped a few more photos and then made the short walk back to the car with the intention of returning to Lincoln City. It’s a nice drive, particularly with both Depoe Bay and Lincoln City being coastal cities. It wasn’t long before we’d found our way back and popped in to our AirBnB for a little relaxation before dinner.

Although Lincoln City has plenty of restaurants and places to eat, as we were only in town for two nights we decided to return to Mo’s. I decided I’d get a different main on this occasion (still seafood) with some chowder on the side which went down as well as it had the previous evening.

Mo's, Lincoln City — Mo’s in Lincoln City, Oregon

A relaxing night followed on from dinner which rounded off our time on the Oregon coast perfectly. Oddly enough we hadn’t actually spent much time in Lincoln City itself but it had been the perfect base for us to explore locally.

Whilst very different from British seaside towns, Lincoln City still had that charm and it’s a place that I’d like to return to. I could see why it had proven to be a family-favourite destination for Haleigh and her family.

In the morning we’d be saying farewell to Lincoln City and heading further South. Next up we’d be crossing the border and heading in to California! Stay tuned for more on that!

Jason

P.S – if you want to catch up on previous days of this trip, see the links below!

Day one – Chicago bound
Day two – exploring Chicago
Day three – Minneapolis
Day four – Why I visited Minneapolis!
Day five – New Orleans!
Day six – The real New Orleans!
Day seven – Goodbye New Orleans, Hello Washington
Day eight – Exploring Poulsbo!
Day nine – Wedding day!
Day ten – To Portland!
Day eleven – the actual 3-0!
Day 12 – Oregon City and Portland
Day thirteen – Walla Walla bound!
Day fourteen – Walla Walla
Day fifteen – The family BBQ!
Day sixteen – the Vegas finale!
Day seventeen – Back to Oregon!