Portland – 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 12 – Oregon City and Portland

Welcome back to another post in the “big 3-0” series. Last time out on the blog I talked about the start to my time in Oregon. Myself and Haleigh had had the opportunity to see a little of Portland but were looking forward to exploring properly on day 12.

I promised that day 12 would be a little more eventful, so much so that we actually split our time in two different cities! We’d spent day 11 with Haleigh’s aunt and uncle but with working life resumed, me and Haleigh were left to explore by ourselves. Rather than head in to Portland we actually decided to kick off our Wednesday morning by making the short drive over to Oregon City.

Oregon City’s only around 10-15 miles away from Portland so it wasn’t too far for us to go. Oregon City was the first city in the state of Oregon and subsequently was the capital of the territory of Oregon at one point.

Home of Oregon City — Oregon City – Oregon’s Hometown

It’s a little hard to believe when you get there because it’s a pretty small city – not much larger than your average town if I’m being honest. The population is less than 40,000 and it felt very compact, particularly coming from the Portland area.

We parked up on one of the streets in the downtown area and thought we’d go find somewhere for some breakfast. However not much seemed to be happening in this sleepy little city, we walked along Main Street and there didn’t seem to be many options for breakfast and the few that were hadn’t opened their doors yet.

In the end we settled for grabbing something from a Dutch Bros whilst walking along the Willamette River which runs through the heart of the city and alongside Main Street.

One of the cooler landmarks, if you can call it that, in Oregon City is the ‘Municipal Elevator’ which connects Main Street and the downtown area with the higher areas of the city. The elevator is free to ride so we took a journey up. It’s mostly a residential area but there’s a pathway that you can walk along that offers some pretty cool views of the city and Willamette Falls in the distance.

The pathway stretches for a few blocks so we decided to walk along and take in the views, plus get a few photos. However it’s a narrow pathway and we weren’t quite prepared for the unavoidable sprinklers. We ended up getting a little wet whilst walking along. The path goes so far but is essentially a dead end so we had to turn back for round two of a sprinkler-soaking but fortunately it was a warm day and didn’t take long for us to dry off. It was worth it for the views.

We took the elevator back down to street level and had a wander through the small downtown area of Oregon City. Haleigh suggested we popped in to some Christmas shop, oddly enough this was the second Christmas store I’d visited on this summer trip – having had Crystal take me in to one in New Orleans too!

Oregon seem to have timed parking zones so although we were able to park for free, we were only allowed to park where we were for two hours. Feeling a little time-conscious and having seen much of the downtown area we decided to move the car and find somewhere to get some lunch.

Oddly enough there was a Scottish pub in town which caught our eye and offered the usual British pub favourites along with some American classics. It seemed like a good place to grab food and I was instantly drawn towards the meat pies – craving a good steak and ale pie which are severely lacking stateside.

Oregon City Pub Food — Enjoying some good pub food!

Haleigh opted for the Mac and Cheese but I made sure she sampled a bit of my pie (which she enjoyed) and also introduced her to the concept of “chips and gravy” – the only thing missing were some mushy peas!

In addition to the food I was intrigued to see what beers they had on the menu and was initially delighted to see Scottish craft-beer favourites ‘Brewdog’ were on the menu. The $13 dollar price tag on a bottle of their Punk IPA quickly put me off though!

Brewdog have quickly grown throughout the UK and are seemingly trying to break in to the international market with branches opening across the world and even a beer hotel on the horizon (it might be open by now) but I’m not sure how they’ll ever conquer the US if they’re charging $13 a bottle in a country that has no shortage of good craft beers available. Admittedly in this instance I’m aware the pub itself have priced it up and probably have the added novelty of proclaiming themselves a Scottish pub to try and justify it but it was a little mind-blowing – $13!! Hopefully that’s a one off and not a price you’ll find for Brewdog beers elsewhere in the US.

As it was I don’t think I opted for a beer anyway, I was just curious about the menu. We enjoyed a good lunch and then Haleigh started looking at dessert options, I asked if “Sticky Toffee Pudding” was a common dessert in the US before pointing her in that direction. It went down well so in addition to the pie tasting the British food was leaving a good impression on Haleigh!

Oregon History Photo — Me and Haleigh in Oregon City, Oregon

Opposite the pub was another viewpoint of the Willamette Falls and river so we took a quick look. Also here was a statue of John McLoughlin (the “Father of Oregon”) and also a sign of Oregon City detailing the history of the area. We grabbed some photos and then pondered where next? We’d seen most of Oregon City already but thought we’d make one final stop at the Museum of Oregon Territory.

Unfortunately there were roadworks and seemingly nowhere to actually park within the vicinity of the museum. Our only option was to park miles away so we cut our losses and made our way out of this small little piece of Oregon and made our way in to Portland for the afternoon.

We really wanted to visit ‘OMSI’, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which is home to various exhibits, a planetarium and even a submarine that sits on the river!

You have to buy tickets to enter and have a choice of a variety of package options ranging from single-attraction options to an “all in-one” ticket. We wanted to visit both the planetarium and the submarine so bought ourselves a ticket that covered those two options.

We started with the guided tour of the ‘USS Blueback Submarine’. Like many people I suppose, it was my first time on a submarine so I found it really interesting and tried to imagine how difficult it must be spending so much time confined to the limited space in a submarine. You learn quite a bit about the history of this specific submarine and I thought it was definitely a worthwhile tour doing. We both left with it being a highlight of our time in Portland.

Next up was the planetarium show which was also something I’d never done before. Our particular show focused on seeing the various stars and planets over the Portland area which was really cool. It went by really quickly though, I think it was around 30 minutes in length but I think myself and Haleigh both would have been happy sat there for much longer. It’s definitely something I’d do again and ‘OMSI’ had a number of different shows on that you could pick between so you could easily squeeze in a couple in to one day at ‘OMSI’.

We didn’t see everything at ‘OMSI’, there was definitely stuff left to check out on a future visit but I’d thoroughly recommend a visit. Having spent our morning in Oregon City and our afternoon at OMSI our attention switched to evening plans!

A friend of mine (Ryan) lives in Portland and I knew whenever I finally got around to visiting we’d have to try and meet up. Ideally I figured it’d be for a Portland Timbers (men’s football) or Thorns (women’s football) match but neither schedule overlapped with my time in the city so instead we arranged to grab dinner and some drinks with Ryan and his husband (David).

I think we left OMSI at around 4-4:30 and were meeting up at 6 so we had a bit of time to kill but not enough to really go and do too much. I think there was a feeling that with the drive over and rush-hour that it’d take us a bit longer to get across town but that wasn’t the case at all. We left OMSI and were in what felt like this relatively hip neighbourhood not much later.

There was definitely a buzz about the place with a number of independent shops, restaurants and bars lining this long street (SE Division). Our only real problem was trying to find somewhere to park, it probably took us a good 10 minutes going up and down the street and circling blocks before finally pinching a parking spot. We lucked out as it just happened to be right outside of where we were eating.

We were still far too early so decided we’d take a bit of a wander and popped our heads in to a couple of shops. Next to our restaurant was a shop called ‘Citizen Ruth’ which felt reflective of the area (and Portland as a whole really) and had a number of liberal and feminist-inspired products on sale. The guy manning the store was really friendly and Haleigh picked up a book and a couple of bits to make it a worthwhile visit.

Further up the street I’d noticed we’d driven past an ice-cream stop that I’d heard plenty of buzz about and was seemingly pretty popular in Portland amongst the Instagrammers, bloggers and travelers of the world. I hadn’t actually intended to visit on this trip at all so this really came about by chance more than anything. However as it was within walking distance of where we were we decided to check out ‘Salt and Straw’ and see what all the fuss was about.

They had a good range of unusual flavoured ice creams on the menu so we were pondering which flavours we should try. The woman behind the counter piped up and seemed content in handing us a number of free tasters which were delicious and was sufficient in offering us our fix of ice cream. Had it not been right before dinner we’d definitely have bought something but as they were open pretty late we suggested we’d return after dinner (we didn’t!).

Soon enough it was time to meet up with Ryan. Unfortunately David was running a little late so was going to skip out on dinner and catch up with us for some beers but managed to catch up with us whilst we were still eating our tacos before ordering his own.

It was really cool to finally meet Ryan in person after a number of years chatting online. It was also nice having both of our significant others to keep the conversation flowing nicely – a fun little double date!

Following on from dinner we moved over to a bar down the street, Haleigh wasn’t drinking but they had some good beer options which kept me happy and we spent the next hour or two just chatting away. It was a really nice evening. We’d all had a good time and it was definitely a highlight of my time in Portland and indeed the trip.

It didn’t end up being too late a night, we called it quits after 2-3 beers as the guys had work the next day and this was our last night in Oregon so we wanted to make an early enough getaway in the morning.

It had been a great way to end our time in Portland, tomorrow we’d be heading back to Washington! Stay tuned for more on that!

Jason

P.S – if you want to catch up on previous posts on this trip you can do so 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!

The big 3-0: Day eleven – the actual 3-0!

Hello my dear readers! I am well and truly back in to the swing of things now so I thought I’d get back to “the big 3-0” series. For those of you that missed the start of the series I’ll leave links at the bottom for you to go back and read but I’ll quickly catch you up!

In August 2018 I was invited to a wedding out in Washington State, two days before my 30th birthday. A wedding in another country and a big birthday left me with a huge temptation to celebrate BIG. So I planned a 30 day trip exploring various parts of the US.

Day 10 had seen me and my girlfriend (now fiance!) Haleigh arrive in Portland after a drive down from Washington. We hadn’t really done much other than settle in for the evening. We were staying with Haleigh’s Uncle Rob and Aunt Gina so it had just been a night of good food, good company and playing some games.

So day 11 was going to give us our first proper glimpse of the Portland area. As it was, day 11 happened to be the actual day of the big 3-0! In all honesty I felt like the trip as a whole all just blurred in to one celebration. I didn’t feel like today was any more special than any of the other 29 days in the US. I’m not really one to make a huge fuss about my birthday but nevertheless, I’d arrived in Portland a 29 year old and woken up as a 30 year old.

It ended up being a relatively chilled start to the day in truth. Rob and Gina both had the day off work so we’d agreed to spend the day together. However they’d got up early to pop out and look at buying a new RV which left me and Haleigh to have a slow start to the day which was nice.

I’d say it was a quiet start to the day but we were keeping one eye on our four-legged company, or perhaps it was the other way around as they were still pretty bark-happy. Particular Buster who’d set off again any time I moved, almost as if he’d temporarily forget I was in his company and indeed his home.

“Wait.. you’re still here!?”

A little while later Rob and Gina had returned, unfortunately following an unsuccessful purchase, and quickly freshened up before the four of us headed out together. We kicked things off by finding a place for lunch. We ended up visiting some local Hawaiian place which was really nice. They had some cool artwork up on the walls that I think we’d all have been happy taking home with us but we settled for just enjoying the food haha. Haleigh kindly treated me to lunch by way of celebrating the birthday which was also nice!

As I said above, I’m not one to make a huge fuss about my birthday but continuing with the theme of the day we thought we’d go do something a little more fun that all four of us could enjoy. Within close vicinity of the restaurant was a bowling alley so we decided to have a couple of rounds of bowling.

The bowling ended up being perhaps the part I remember most from this day. With bowling balls and shoes at the ready, the local (Rob) was far better prepared than Haleigh or myself for this little outing and gave the impression that this was “serious business”.

With that in mind I was keen to give a good account of myself on the lanes and see how I could fare against the pro! I was expecting Rob to cruise to victory but things didn’t quite go to script!

Employees of the bowling alley had recently oiled the lane in an effort to sabotage Rob’s game and disrupt his bowling rhythm! Those of you less inclined to believe in conspiracy theories might suggest it was coincidental rather than personal. Additionally some may argue that we were all subject to the same bowling conditions but the slippery lanes took its toll on Rob as he shared his frustration with anyone willing to hear it.

I have to say, I found it quite hysterical. Rob was NOT happy and I was struggling to contain how amusing I found the situation. I grew up watching my parents participate in a weekly bowling league so I appreciate the technique and routine that goes in to bowling but Rob was struggling to adapt to the conditions and his competitive nature meant he was pretty miserable. From a personal viewpoint, I think watching someone so competitive have such a miserable game is inevitably uplifting haha.

The conditions had leveled the playing field and culminated in a birthday victory in the first game! Rob’s fortunes picked up in the second game and as a result he ended up cruising to a pretty comfortable win in the end but I was content to have won one game at least.

The win perked Rob up a little bit but we didn’t stick around for a third game and decided to head in to the downtown area of Portland. One place that has to be visited in Portland, particularly for someone as book-obsessed as Haleigh, is the famous Powell’s Books! It’s a huge bookstore in Portland and was somewhere we were both keen to visit whilst in town.

Powell’s Books lived up to its reputation as a dream for any book-lover. There are an endless number of books to browse through and I’ve no doubt it’s somewhere you could spend hours in if you wanted to. We split up in to two pairs and wandered around for a while – Haleigh trying to resist the urge to buy every book in the store! She did a pretty good job and made it out without bruising the bank balance too badly. We did stop off at the in-store cafe though and all had something to drink – tea for myself obviously.

We didn’t do too much else after leaving Powell’s Books, we had a little browse through Portland before turning our attention to dinner. We ended up visiting some quirky bar which I think was part of the McMenamins chain. It was a nice way to round off the day, I tried a couple of beers and then just enjoyed the good food and good company.

We headed back to the house and finished the evening by watching a movie – The Big Lebowski. Whilst bowling it had been mentioned and had caused shock that neither myself nor Haleigh had seen this “classic” movie.

It’s an odd film. I don’t know how myself and Haleigh found ourselves watching it alone but we stuck with it until the end. Not that I could really tell you what the plot of it is, to the point that the film largely revolves around a bowling tournament that they don’t even reveal if they won it or not!

It was a bizarre end to the day but rounded off a nice birthday which was pretty relaxed and spent with good company. We hadn’t done a huge amount thus far in Portland but we packed plenty in to day 12 so stay tuned for that!

Jason

P.S – you can catch up on previous entries for this trip below!
The big 3-0: Day one – Chicago bound
The big 3-0: Day two – exploring Chicago
The big 3-0: Day three – Minneapolis
The big 3-0: Day four – Why I visited Minneapolis!
The big 3-0: Day five – New Orleans!
The big 3-0: Day six – The real New Orleans!
The big 3-0: Day seven – Goodbye New Orleans, Hello Washington
The big 3-0: Day eight – Exploring Poulsbo!
The big 3-0: Day nine – Wedding day!
The big 3-0: Day ten – To Portland!

The big 3-0: Day ten – To Portland!

Welcome back to yet another post in the “big 3-0” series. Can you believe we’re at day ten already! I feel like I packed so much in to the start of this trip and covered a lot of miles in a little over a week.

For those of you who haven’t been following the adventure, it was the summer of 2018 and I was celebrating my 30th birthday by spending 30 days in the USA!

On the previous day I’d attended the wedding of the year in Washington State. It was a wonderful day but that was the last of the fun in Washington for the timebeing, it was time to move on to yet another state on this trip!

From here on out my adventures would be accompanied by Haleigh, my girlfriend, as we explored the West Coast. We woke up in the small town of Poulsbo on Monday morning with the intention of reaching Portland before the end of the day.

Poulsbo was adorable, I’d really liked the area and I’m glad a wedding had brought us here. I don’t think I’d have visited for any other reason, I’d not even heard of it prior to planning this trip.

Haleigh hadn’t really seen any of it because of wedding duties so we had talked about possibly going “down town” and exploring before heading out but for whatever reason it didn’t really materialise. So it was a sweet and short goodbye to Poulsbo but a place I left with really fond memories of.

JasonPortlandBound — A selfie for the road!

We hit the road and I was pretty excited. I had the inkling that Portland was going to be my kind of city. As soon as this trip came to fruition I knew it’d be on my list of places to visit so I was excited to see what the fuss was about.

I was also excited at having mine and Haleigh’s first real adventure together. It was my third time on the West Coast but this was going to be the longest amount of time we’d continuously spent together and we were visiting a number of new places over the course of the next three weeks so there was plenty to look forward to

Anyway, back to day ten! We left Poulsbo behind and started our drive down to Oregon. Before we’d got too far we decided it’d probably be a good idea to get some breakfast, it may even have been closer to brunch, and found ourselves a Denny’s just off of the i5 (highway / interstate).

Some of you might recall my Moses Lake post which dashed my childhood illusions of a “magical” Denny’s experience and wasn’t quite as spectacular as I remembered it being on family trips to Florida. Fortunately this experience was better and restored its reputation a little! More importantly it had served as a good place to fill our stomachs before getting back on the i5 and heading South.

Portland Roadtrip — On the road somewhere between Seattle and Portland

Unfortunately there isn’t much to tell you about the next few hours. Both Washington and Oregon are beautiful states full of greenery and scenic views but it was something like a four hour drive to Portland with little to tell.

We admired the scenery, we spent time chatting, we sang along to music but it probably sounds a pretty boring day to the outsider (you!). On a personal note it was thoroughly enjoyable and I couldn’t have been happier with the company I had for the adventure but it doesn’t make for great story-telling. The reality is that it was an afternoon spent in the car.

A few hours later we arrived on the outskirts of the big city and what I could only think of as Portland’s own “Spaghetti junction”. The heavy traffic was moving in various directions with bridges and exits everywhere you looked. I don’t drive so maybe it looks more complex than it actually is but I don’t think Portland is a city I’d enjoy driving in to and I’d inevitably get lost along the way!

Portland Spaghetti Junction — It looks a lot calmer here than it felt!

Fortunately we were following directions from what would become a familiar friend in ‘Karen’ (aka the Satnav!) over the next three weeks and she made sure we escaped the madness leading in to Portland.

We were actually staying in a place called ‘Milwaukie’ on the outskirts of Portland, effectively Portland in my eyes however I don’t want to upset the natives so I’ll stick with the idea that it is NOT Portland and a small little place just to the South of it.

We were staying with Haleigh’s Aunt Gina and Uncle Rob who’d kindly offered to put us up for a few nights. It was mid-afternoon by the time we’d arrived but fortunately Gina was working from home and ready to greet us after we’d parked up.

IMAG1592 — Jeeves on the left, Buster on the right

Inside were two other ‘greeters’ – Buster and Jeeves! Two little dogs that were instantly barking away and seemed to consider it a ‘hobby’ over the next few days. Jeeves settled quicker but Buster did not seem to want to be new best friends any time soon!

We brought our things inside and put them away in our room for the next few nights. We decided we’d quickly pop out for a store-run to pick up a couple of things before Rob came home.

It was then a pretty chilled first evening in Oregon. Every so often Buster would suddenly remember I was here and start yapping away at me to remind me he was still displeased with my company but it otherwise ended up being a nice evening.

We had dinner at ‘home’ with Gina and Rob and then after dinner we played some games which made for an enjoyable evening and it was a good opportunity for me to get to know Gina and Rob a little better as I’d not previously met them.

Eventually we called an end to the fun and made our way to bed. It had been a lovely first evening in Oregon, although things were soon to become a little more uncomfortable for us both!

I can’t recall what the exact temperature was but it was summertime here on the West Coast and that meant it was a typically warm day in August and an equally humid night in ~~Portland~~ Milwaukie.

Air conditioned homes are actually pretty rare in England so it’s a luxury I can live without. Most of the year it’s an unnecessary luxury too, there’s no real need for houses back home to have air-conditioning. You have to suffer the odd uncomfortable sleepless night but ultimately it’s a luxury I could live without.

However having had a week of air-conditioned hostels and hotels, that were perhaps even a little too cold on occasions, it’s surprising how quickly you grow to miss it when you’ve become accustomed to it.

Sadly we didn’t have the luxury of air-conditioning whilst we stayed here and it was certainly noticeable. We experienced warmer temperatures throughout the summer than we did in Portland but even with a small fan going and the windows open the heat was relentless.

Nevertheless, beggars can’t be choosers and it was free accommodation so despite the initial struggles getting to sleep it was something we lived with. Soon enough we’d both nodded off (I think, I certainly had) and were dreaming about the delights of Portland awaiting us.

More on that to come next time! Stay tuned!

Jason

P.S – if you’ve missed the other posts on this adventure, you can catch up 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!

The big 3-0: Update

I’ve had an influx of new followers lately so first and foremost – welcome to you all! It has been a little while since my last post as other things have taken priority but I hope you’re all doing well.

If you’ve been following along for a while you’ll recall that I posted about the early planning process for my summer plans. To recap; I’m attending a wedding on the 5th of August in Washington State and then turn 30 on the 7th of August. Two reasons to celebrate gave me two reasons to make this a summer to remember – I wanted to make this a big trip and therefore I’ll be spending 30 days in the USA! Thirty bloody days! Crazy!

My previous post was speaking about what my early thoughts of planning such a big trip would be, so if you’re planning something similar you can give that a read here: The big 3-0!
However I’m now closer to having a finalised itinerary and I wanted to provide you with an update on what the plan is looking like.

My dates have been relatively set for some time. The date of the wedding has changed a couple of times but all have overlapped with my original plan to fly to the US on July 28th and get home on August 27th (flying home overnight on the 26th).
These dates meant I could attend the wedding, celebrate my birthday and also make the most of August 27th being a public holiday in the UK – i.e one less day of annual leave used. It meant I could get 30 days in the US with only 20 days taken off work which was pretty ideal!

So with the dates confirmed all I had to do was decide where I’d be spending them and who, if anyone, would accompany me. Easy right?

This plan has changed several times over for several reasons. I’ve considered visiting pretty much everywhere across the States and looked in to visiting parts of Canada too but nothing has been particularly set in stone. My only definitive plans were to visit Washington for the wedding and make my first visits to Portland and San Francisco. I’ve been pretty flexible beyond that. So here goes!

Chicago: July 28th – July 30th
I’m starting the trip off solo in Chicago. This was somewhere I’d thought about visiting but then as the plan developed disappeared from my itinerary.
However flight prices were decent and Chicago O’Hare’s airport was a decent base to get around the country for some of the other places I was considering.

I was debating whether to spend two or three days here dependent on where I’d be going next. It now looks like it’ll be two days.

Minneapolis: July 30th – August 1st
For a 30 day trip, perhaps surprisingly stop number 2 was one of the last pieces of my “”jigsaw”. I’ll be honest and say this wasn’t somewhere I’d given too much consideration in visiting. I knew I wanted to go to destination number 3 on August 1st but was having trouble deciding where to go between Chicago and stop number 3.

I’d considered Minneapolis but it wasn’t towards the top of my list and wasn’t a “bucketlist” city for me to visit. However this week my beloved Tottenham Hotspur announced they’d be returning to the US and playing in Minneapolis on July 31st.

I’d booked my flights to Chicago well before the announcement because I had no intention of planning my trip around Spurs. With that said I had kept this particular date open and it’s just happened to work out that I’m already in a neighbouring state. It’s not a long journey from Chicago so was a pretty logical second stop.

SpursUSA — Potentially country number 8 watching Tottenham!

New Orleans: August 1st – August 4th
Having friends in the US always gives me something extra to think about when planning a US trip. For this particular trip I was keen to try and visit two of my penpals, Crystal (Florida) and Sam (Alabama). I was fortunate to meet the latter in Nashville last year but we’d yet to successfully meet up with all three of us!

Given their locations the easiest meeting point would be somewhere Southern and somehow we got on to the possibility of New Orleans. I still want to visit both in Alabama and Florida but I was sold on the idea of NOLA pretty instantly. I’m hoping I’ll get a nicer welcome in the South than I did in Georgia or Texas (you’ll have to wait for those stories).

This has been on my list pretty early on and the only thing left to decide was how long I wanted to stay here. I’ve opted for 3-ish days.

Seattle: August 4th – August 6th
As mentioned abovve, the wedding is on the 5th so this was a no brainer. It’ll be my third time in Washington though so I’m happy flying in to Seattle on the 4th and leaving just after. I’ll definitely be back to Washington in the future anyway.

I’ll be watching Cassie and Maddie get married and meeting up with Haleigh too! From this point onwards I’ll have Haleigh joining me for the adventure!

Portland: August 6th – August 9th
As soon as I knew I was traveling to the West coast for a wedding I knew I had to find some time to visit Portland. It looks like a great city and I have a few friends locally that I’m hoping I’ll catch up with. I’m a little gutted because my time here doesn’t overlap with a Timbers game but it’s still somewhere I’m so excited to visit. It’ll be a cool place to celebrate my birthday too!

Moses Lake: August 9th – August 10th
Me and Haleigh are driving down to Portland after the wedding and then we’ll be driving back to Washington together before the weekend hits. I don’t know if we’re specifically going to Moses Lake but I figure we’ll probably have a day at “home” to relax before the adventure continues!

IMAG6541 — Moses Lake, you’re so pretty!

Walla Walla: August 10th – August 13th
A return to beautiful Walla Walla. I visited here in February and it was somewhere I grew quite fond of – the mountain views certainly helped! Haleigh’s family are hosting their big annual BBQ on the 11th which means we’ll end up spending the weekend here before getting back to the adventuring.

Oregon Coast: August 13th – August 15th
Back to Oregon! San Francisco bound, we (Haleigh) will be driving down the coast and visiting places such as Lincoln City, Newport and wherever else along the way. It looks pretty and gives us a chance to see more of the state and a chance for Haleigh to revisit some places she hasn’t been to for a while.

Redwood National Park: August 15th – August 16th
It’s still a long drive to San Francisco from Oregon so I was conscious of stopping somewhere and this seemed like a suitable choice on route. Whilst I’d love to see some of the bigger parks in the US I still think this will be pretty cool.

San Francisco: August 16th – August 20th
This has been high up on my list of places to visit for a long time. I’m so excited to finally be making my first visit to San Fran this year. We have four nights here which should give us plenty of time to see a lot of what the city has to offer. After the wedding this was probably the part of the trip I was most excited about. Seeing that Golden Gate bridge in particular will definitely be a “pinch me” moment.

Bend: August 20th to August 22nd
A visit to Bend (Oregon) breaks up the return drive from California to Washington and gives us an opportunity to visit a friend too which we were both keen to try and squeeze in to the trip. I don’t know if we’ll spend one or two days in Bend but it’ll be nice to make a stop here.

Moses Lake: August 22nd to August 25th
I’m anticipating Haleigh might be back to work on the 23rd so we’re aiming to get back “home” the day before. After three and a half weeks of traveling it’ll be nice to relax for a day or two. If Haleigh doesn’t have to work we might end up going elsewhere but we’ll see.

Spokane: August 25th to August 26th
A necessary stop to start making my way home. I went to Spokane last September and it was a nice overnight stop, I’d be fine with a brief second visit. Spokane’s airport is small but meant I could directly reach my next and final stop.

Chicago: August 26th
Departure day. I looked at various flight options but in the end decided I’d fly to and from the same place, so back to Chicago I go! At the minute I’m suggesting I’ll arrive and fly home on the same day but this might change, we’ll see.

Anyway, there you have it! Six states, several cities, one wedding and one 30th birthday spread across 30 days!

This isn’t the absolute final itinerary and there are probably still going to be some slight amendments but for the most-part this is a good glimpse at where I’ll be heading this summer, which is now exactly 100 days away!

If you have any recommendations for any of the above please give me a heads up. With the exception of Washington State, these are all new states that I’m visiting so any tips are much appreciated!

All the best!

Jason