Posts Tagged “oregon”

Our final destination in the Pacific Northwest was Portland, Oregon!

Portland boasts a really awesome elk sculpture:

David P. Thompson drove sheep to Portland over the Oregon Trail. From 1879-1882 he served as Portland’s Mayor. In 1900, Thompson’s gift of this bronze elk sculpture was intended to commemorate elk that once grazed nearby. Roland Hinton Perry sculpted the elk.

Nicely done, Portland.

Portland also boasts a really, really cute food trailer!

They serve grilled cheese sandwiches (several ways) and tomato soup, and you can eat on a converted school bus with tables in it. FYI, if it’s been a long time since you’ve been on a school bus, chances are you are now taller and that will be weird. But still really fun!

Portland also boasts Mt. Hood.

We got to wave goodbye to Mt. Hood from the air as we left. Thanks, Oregon!

We enjoyed some truly amazing views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens on our way down to Portland:

We also ran into this random lovely spot on our way to look at Bigfoot statues:

And we took a brief detour up to Mt. Rainier National Park. After all, we have just a couple of months left on our national parks pass, so we’re trying to make the most of it!

We had perfect weather every single day of our trip except this day. Our park day was really, really cloudy and drizzly.  So, this made for a different experience than what we had expected, but it was still gorgeous and lovely in its own special way! We loved the moss hanging off these trees:

And we saw some other fun and interesting plants:

Here’s a photo from Narada Falls:

Because of some roadwork, we were “stuck” at Christine Falls for a while.

They were so amazing that we could have stayed all day, but we forged ahead to the visitor’s center at Paradise. We saw some incredible wildflowers and clouds in the Paradise area:

Because we were so short on time, we elected not to hike to the viewpoint to see one of the glaciers. We thought we probably wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway through the cloud. But we did see some glacier pieces around!

And a trip to a national park is never complete until you see some wildlife.

Brian and I took a trip earlier this month to the Pacific Northwest, one of the most beautiful parts of the world (at least in my opinion!). We both love Washington and Oregon, and those two states were woefully neglected during last fall’s epic road trip. We figured we’d have the chance to go back.

We began our journey in Vancouver, BC!

Actually, Brian almost couldn’t come on this trip because we had some issues getting his passport issued in time. He had to drive to Houston and back the day before we left to pay a visit to the passport office. But it all worked out!

Vancouver is one of my favorite all-time cities. There’s just something about the combo of a large, very urban area nestled into this gorgeous natural beauty everywhere — river here, mountains there, beach here, etc.

Also, I heart Canada.