First things first, we woke up in San Fran and checked out the Golden Gate Bridge before leaving. There were a bunch of really talented surfers surfing right under the bridge, so we watched them for a bit and moved on up to the bridge itself. We walked out to the middle of the bridge and took some time looking at the skyline and the water beneath. It was a pretty quiet morning, but it was nice to take our time and breathe a bit. Anyway, onward to the Redwoods!
Magellan, our lovely GPS, told us that our campground was located where this hostel was, so when we got up to the place there were two roads. We took the one away from the hostel, and it ended up leading us into a dark scary abandoned road that ended with a "No Trespassing Sign". Fearing for our lives, and having seen way too many scary movies that start out like this, we backed out and asked the hostel for help. Turns out the campground was 8 miles down the road. Thanks Magellan.
When we woke up, we went to Crescent City Harbor and saw some deep-sea fishing boats. We got to take a look around, see some sea lions (which apparently are everywhere), and got some clam chowder before hitting the road. Activity # 2 I never thought I would do; Be in Oregon. Halfway to Portland we stopped in at a fudge shop and picked up some fudge! The old man who owned the store was pretty quiet, but was a pretty cool character. And he gave us a free quarter pound of fudge!
We were met in Portland by Paradise's Aunt El and Uncle Don, and they out us up for both nights. (Shout out to El and Don!) They fed us and we got some sleep before hitting the town the next day.
First, they took us out to breakfast at Petit Provence, a french place. The area, called Alberta street, is only a mile from their house, so we got some exercise too. Then they took us to many of the great sights in Portland; mainly mountains, trees and waterfalls. It's incredible to think that all of this nature is only 20 minutes away from the heart of the city. Next, we went to the Bonneville Dam where we got to see fish ladders and make many "dam" jokes. They never get old.
From there, we hit up the city of Portland, starting with a dinner at Deschute's Brewery. It was great restaurant that made all of it's beer and named it after local sites in the area. Then we hopped over to Powell's Books, which is a popular bookstore that sold new and used books of all types. It took up an entire city block and was four levels high! I only wish I had more time to really sit in there and look through everything, but that would probably take a week to do. Lastly, we went to the Cool Moon Ice Cream Shop where we finished off our Portland experience the only way that seemed fitting; with 10 scoops of Ice Cream. It's called the Real McCall, and we pretty much dominated it.
Although I mentioned a lot of the great things that we got to do in Portland, the real experience we had was from listening to both Uncle Don and Aunt El. We talked about poetry, theatre, music, Portland, Ashland, and everything in between. It goes to show that you can go to a city and see everything that it has to offer, but you truly learn the most from talking to its people.
Peace and Love from Oregon,
Rip City Williams
(P.S. Ford the River!!!)
Mr. Williams, you've played way too much Oregon Trail as a child. Damn school #2!! lol And whats with all of the sea lions. If that's all you wanted to do you probably could have saved some money and a lot of driving time and gone to the zoo... or maybe the aquarium. Where ever it is that you would see sea lions. Anyway, it's nice to hear that you're texting my boyfriend but your to busy looking at sea lions and surfers to call your favorite sister. I see how it is. :-( I'll just go sit alone in my room and listen to some dashboard....
ReplyDeleteHappy to see that you guys are having a great experience. Take it all in!
ReplyDeleteLove to you all,
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