Hello Oregon: Thoughts on my first visit to Oregon

Our first stop in Oregon was the coastal town of Cannon Beach. My sister had visited this town a few years since her husband has family in the area and raved to me about its beauty. That day we were greeted with lovely misty rainy weather as we walked down to the beach to dip our toes into the Pacific Ocean. I have to be honest and say that seeing the Pacific Ocean was something I was looking forward to on this trip. The furthest west I had gone before this road trip was Las Vegas in 2003, so I was excited to finally experience the west coast. My only west coast disappointment was that I was not near any In and Out Burger location to see what all the fuss is about. What can I say I love a good hamburger.

Coming from growing up in Florida where I either went to the beaches of the Atlantic or the ones on the Gulf of Mexico, the rocky terrain of the Oregon coast was different yet uniquely beautiful.


The next day I finally got to spend time in Portland. I think I might have come into the city with too high of expectations, partly from my love of Portlandia's The dream of the 90's is alive in Portland skit and hearing how awesome it was from my sister and a close friend. We were only able to spend an afternoon in Portland so the first stop was naturally a visit to Powell's Books. If you love books, this place is like heaven. It takes up a whole city block and houses every book you can imagine. The fact that I only spent $40 in there is amazing. We had a bit of a tiff with our friend/traveling companion right as we arrived into the city and split up for lunch. We ended up at Fat Head's Brewery where I enjoyed the Bumble Berry Honey Blueberry Ale and commented how many hipsters I saw while we ate outside on the patio. I personally found Portland to be heavy on the hipsters which isn't my style. It's not that I disliked Portland, I just think that coming from living in DC now it doesn't seem as big city as others described it to me. If I went from living in Orlando to then Portland it would have probably made a different impact on me.

We were advised to make the 45 minute drive from Portland to see Multnomah Falls in Columbia Gorge and I'm so glad we did. Oregon has so many varied landscapes and I think we were able to see several of them in our short time in the state.

The last stop on the Oregon trip was Crater Lake National Park. To get from the Portland area to here is a long and boring drive through sparsely populated Eastern Oregon. I didn't know it yet but it would be worth the tedious driving once I saw the unspoiled beauty of Crater Lake. T has said this was his favorite national park besides Glacier. He literally could not stop taking photos while we were there.