Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Back to Portland/Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
We were nearing the end of our trip and really sad to leave the Coast behind, but we were looking forward to driving through Portland to see the Columbia River Gorge.
We stopped at Bunk Sandwiches in Portland for a quick lunch, and I may have overdone it with the grilled tillamook cheese, but dang, it was delicious! And I am salivating for some as I write this...
We took the Historic Columbia River Highway which wound its way through the Gorge.
Stopping at the Crown Point Vista House. The octagonal structure reminded me of the entrance to the Georgia Tech Library, which is done in a somewhat similar Art Nouveau style.
We drove by and stopped at too many waterfalls to count, but the most majestic (and popular) of them all was Multnomah Falls.
Once we got our fill on waterfalls and beautiful scenery, we made our way back to Portland and stopped at Fred Meyer as I hunted for an Oregon magnet to add to my collection. We marvelled at the enormous beer selection. Might this be enough to entice Andy to move to Portland?
We met up with Travis and Lizy one final time at Sweet Hereafter, a vegan bar in SE Portland. Ok, this place was yum-tastic, and I wish we had gone sooner so I could try their entire menu.
It was a great way to end our two and a half week trip in the Pacific NW!
We stopped at Bunk Sandwiches in Portland for a quick lunch, and I may have overdone it with the grilled tillamook cheese, but dang, it was delicious! And I am salivating for some as I write this...
We took the Historic Columbia River Highway which wound its way through the Gorge.
Stopping at the Crown Point Vista House. The octagonal structure reminded me of the entrance to the Georgia Tech Library, which is done in a somewhat similar Art Nouveau style.
We drove by and stopped at too many waterfalls to count, but the most majestic (and popular) of them all was Multnomah Falls.
Once we got our fill on waterfalls and beautiful scenery, we made our way back to Portland and stopped at Fred Meyer as I hunted for an Oregon magnet to add to my collection. We marvelled at the enormous beer selection. Might this be enough to entice Andy to move to Portland?
We met up with Travis and Lizy one final time at Sweet Hereafter, a vegan bar in SE Portland. Ok, this place was yum-tastic, and I wish we had gone sooner so I could try their entire menu.
It was a great way to end our two and a half week trip in the Pacific NW!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Oregon Coast - Part II
Breakfast was included in our stay, so we ate at the Inn and then drove to the gorgeous Ecola State Park just north of Cannon Beach.
For lunch, we drove back to Cannon Beach and ate at Seasons Cafe. I had a really great veggie wrap.
We continued our drive down the Oregon Coast toward Manzanita and stopped at Smugglers Cove, which came highly recommended from Travis. We spent a good amount of time in this magical place.
It was quite cold and windy, but surfers were coming in droves to surf in Smugglers Cove. When we got cold enough, we returned to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.
We ate supper at Morris' Fireside Restaurant. Then we settled into our room to watch Whip It.
For lunch, we drove back to Cannon Beach and ate at Seasons Cafe. I had a really great veggie wrap.
We continued our drive down the Oregon Coast toward Manzanita and stopped at Smugglers Cove, which came highly recommended from Travis. We spent a good amount of time in this magical place.
It was quite cold and windy, but surfers were coming in droves to surf in Smugglers Cove. When we got cold enough, we returned to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.
We ate supper at Morris' Fireside Restaurant. Then we settled into our room to watch Whip It.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Oregon Coast - Part I
From Portland, we drove through Beaverton heading towards the Beaches. I had read an article about Astoria in the New York Times, so I wanted to stop there first. We ate lunch at Fort George brewery which was recommended by Lizy's friend.
After lunch, we explored downtown Astoria by foot and wandered into this antique store.
Astoria is also best known as the town Goonies was filmed in, so references to the movie were found everywhere. We even stopped by the house where the main character lives.
The house has an amazing vantage point of the town, and we could hear sea lions on the piers barking, so we decided to investigate.
It was starting to get late in the afternoon and we wanted to get to Cannon Beach before sunset, so we took off and drove about 40 minutes south to the Inn at Cannon Beach where we were staying for two nights. From the Inn, we walked across the street to the beach and Haystack Rock to enjoy the sunset.
It was such a beautiful evening, photographers had flocked to the beach to capture the rock bathed in light at dusk.
We got a closer look at the creatures clinging to the rock at low tide.
As we returned to the Inn, rabbits had emerged from their hiding places to eat from small patches of grass. They were the biggest wild rabbits I had seen, unfortunately the light was too low to take photos of them. Once we got to the Inn, we ate granola for dinner and watched Goonies on DVD.
A good resource for the Oregon Coast is a publication called Coast Explorer.
After lunch, we explored downtown Astoria by foot and wandered into this antique store.
Astoria is also best known as the town Goonies was filmed in, so references to the movie were found everywhere. We even stopped by the house where the main character lives.
The house has an amazing vantage point of the town, and we could hear sea lions on the piers barking, so we decided to investigate.
It was starting to get late in the afternoon and we wanted to get to Cannon Beach before sunset, so we took off and drove about 40 minutes south to the Inn at Cannon Beach where we were staying for two nights. From the Inn, we walked across the street to the beach and Haystack Rock to enjoy the sunset.
It was such a beautiful evening, photographers had flocked to the beach to capture the rock bathed in light at dusk.
We got a closer look at the creatures clinging to the rock at low tide.
As we returned to the Inn, rabbits had emerged from their hiding places to eat from small patches of grass. They were the biggest wild rabbits I had seen, unfortunately the light was too low to take photos of them. Once we got to the Inn, we ate granola for dinner and watched Goonies on DVD.
A good resource for the Oregon Coast is a publication called Coast Explorer.
Portland, Oregon
On Saturday, we had breakfast at Paradox Cafe, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant. I had a tofu scramble hash.
After breakfast, Travis and Lizy drove us to the Mississippi Avenue area in Northeast Portland to browse the neighborhood. We got to see The Rebuilding Center (used building material non-profit resource) and The Meadow (salt/chocolate/flower shop).
We got some tacos at Por Que No?
On our way to Proust!, we ran into one of the guys that we had met at the B&B on San Juan Island! It's such a small world. We then went to snack on fresh handmade pretzels at Proust!, and Andy fulfilled his need for Kostrizer.
We headed back to SE Portland, ate dinner at Las Gorditas, which has a ridiculously large vegan menu. Then we met up with Nick (owner of Bunk and Carol's brother) at Apex.
The next morning, I decided to take it easy with the camera. We ate a hearty breakfast at City State before we picked up our rental car. Andy and I went for a solo tour of Northwest Portland where he had stayed last time. After exploring the 23rd Street area, we ate a late lunch at Cha! Cha! Cha! in the Pearl. On our way back to meet up with Travis and Lizy, we drove by Em Space, a community letterpress studio, and New Seasons to pick up food-related gifts for our family.
We went bowling with Travis and Lizy's friends from the digital design company, Instrument.
On Monday morning, we were scheduled to depart for the Oregon coast, but Andy wanted to grab a bite at Pine State Biscuits. I had the Mushroom Gravy Biscuit with a side of braised collards. I have to agree with Andy that this place has the best biscuits ever!
Of course that led to coffee at Coava before we parted ways with Travis and Lizy.
After breakfast, Travis and Lizy drove us to the Mississippi Avenue area in Northeast Portland to browse the neighborhood. We got to see The Rebuilding Center (used building material non-profit resource) and The Meadow (salt/chocolate/flower shop).
We got some tacos at Por Que No?
On our way to Proust!, we ran into one of the guys that we had met at the B&B on San Juan Island! It's such a small world. We then went to snack on fresh handmade pretzels at Proust!, and Andy fulfilled his need for Kostrizer.
We headed back to SE Portland, ate dinner at Las Gorditas, which has a ridiculously large vegan menu. Then we met up with Nick (owner of Bunk and Carol's brother) at Apex.
The next morning, I decided to take it easy with the camera. We ate a hearty breakfast at City State before we picked up our rental car. Andy and I went for a solo tour of Northwest Portland where he had stayed last time. After exploring the 23rd Street area, we ate a late lunch at Cha! Cha! Cha! in the Pearl. On our way back to meet up with Travis and Lizy, we drove by Em Space, a community letterpress studio, and New Seasons to pick up food-related gifts for our family.
We went bowling with Travis and Lizy's friends from the digital design company, Instrument.
On Monday morning, we were scheduled to depart for the Oregon coast, but Andy wanted to grab a bite at Pine State Biscuits. I had the Mushroom Gravy Biscuit with a side of braised collards. I have to agree with Andy that this place has the best biscuits ever!
Of course that led to coffee at Coava before we parted ways with Travis and Lizy.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Scenes from the Amtrak Cascades (Vancouver to Portland)
We got up really early to catch the Amtrak Cascades train which departs the Vancouver station at 6:40 AM. For the most part, the train follows the very scenic coastline into the U.S.
We filled out immigration papers (entry back into the U.S.), sent our luggage through the X-ray machine, and hopped on board the business class car. The trip to Portland is eight hours, so we opted for business class for the bigger seats.
These photos were taken along our journey in between stations with the Hipstamatic app.
Once we got into Portland, our friend Travis, with whom we were staying, picked us up from the station and took us to his new studio space called The Fieldhouse. He runs a design studio with his girlfriend, Lizy, called Scribbletone and shares the space with Jolby & Friends, and Cuban Council.
After the tour, we met up with some of their friends at Bunk Bar, which is owned by my friend Carol's brother, Nick, who Andy had become friends with on his last trip to Portland. We had some drinks and scooted over to Biwa for dinner. I had the onigiri, tofu cake (highly recommended!), and udon noodles. We returned back to Bunk Bar to close the night out.
We filled out immigration papers (entry back into the U.S.), sent our luggage through the X-ray machine, and hopped on board the business class car. The trip to Portland is eight hours, so we opted for business class for the bigger seats.
These photos were taken along our journey in between stations with the Hipstamatic app.
Once we got into Portland, our friend Travis, with whom we were staying, picked us up from the station and took us to his new studio space called The Fieldhouse. He runs a design studio with his girlfriend, Lizy, called Scribbletone and shares the space with Jolby & Friends, and Cuban Council.
After the tour, we met up with some of their friends at Bunk Bar, which is owned by my friend Carol's brother, Nick, who Andy had become friends with on his last trip to Portland. We had some drinks and scooted over to Biwa for dinner. I had the onigiri, tofu cake (highly recommended!), and udon noodles. We returned back to Bunk Bar to close the night out.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Part IV
Our penultimate day in Vancouver, we took the #44 bus from Nelson/Burrard all the way to UBC Campus to visit the Museum of Anthropology. We were quickly immersed in Coast Salish art and totems from all over British Columbia.
We learned a great deal of the different native tribes that comprise the First Nations. We also saw the Hiroshima exhibit of photographs by Ishiuchi Miyako of clothing and accessories left behind by the victims.
The museum not only contains artifacts from the First Nations, but it also has an impressive collection of objects from all over the world. They even have a searchable database of these collections.
We spent the early half of the day at the museum and decided to return back to downtown Vancouver to continue our eating quest.
We were drawn by the diversity of food on Denman Street, so we ate a second lunch at Damso, a Korean restaurant. I ordered the Very Very Vegetarian Bimbimbap.
After our meal, we took the same walking loop we did on our first day in Vancouver but made a detour through Stanley Park. We had room in our bellies for more food, so we stopped at La Belle Patate for Poutine. La Belle Patate was the only poutine restaurant that offered a vegetarian gravy.
Andy enjoyed the french fries topped with gravy, cheese curd, and peas, but I can't say it was my favorite thing to eat.
Thursday was our last full day in Vancouver, and we had to depart our awesome AirBnB condo, since we had only booked it for four nights. I used my Marriott Rewards points to book a room at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown. Luckily we didn't have to go too far and just put our packs on and walk a few blocks to get there. The room wasn't ready, so we left our bags at the front desk and had a soy latte at Caffe Artigiano (which came highly recommended by Lili).
For lunch, we had read great reviews of a restaurant on Robson Street called Chongqing that specialized in Szechuan cuisine, so we popped in there for a bite. I got a vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup and Green Beans in Black Bean Sauce. Writing about the green beans makes my mouth water still. They were so tender and perfectly cooked.
We did a little shopping on Robson Street to work up our appetite for dinner. This time finding a place was a little tricky especially if you're a Yelp user like we are. Vancouver has a few places with 4.5 stars and a ton of 4 star restaurants. It seemed like we had visited all the 4.5 star restaurants that were within walking distance and our budget. Also, because we were visiting in the lowest of the low season, some restaurants were closed. We settled on Aki Sushi in the West End, since it was only a few blocks away from our hotel.
We tucked in early at the hotel because we had to catch a very early morning train to Portland the next day.
We learned a great deal of the different native tribes that comprise the First Nations. We also saw the Hiroshima exhibit of photographs by Ishiuchi Miyako of clothing and accessories left behind by the victims.
The museum not only contains artifacts from the First Nations, but it also has an impressive collection of objects from all over the world. They even have a searchable database of these collections.
We spent the early half of the day at the museum and decided to return back to downtown Vancouver to continue our eating quest.
We were drawn by the diversity of food on Denman Street, so we ate a second lunch at Damso, a Korean restaurant. I ordered the Very Very Vegetarian Bimbimbap.
After our meal, we took the same walking loop we did on our first day in Vancouver but made a detour through Stanley Park. We had room in our bellies for more food, so we stopped at La Belle Patate for Poutine. La Belle Patate was the only poutine restaurant that offered a vegetarian gravy.
Andy enjoyed the french fries topped with gravy, cheese curd, and peas, but I can't say it was my favorite thing to eat.
Thursday was our last full day in Vancouver, and we had to depart our awesome AirBnB condo, since we had only booked it for four nights. I used my Marriott Rewards points to book a room at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown. Luckily we didn't have to go too far and just put our packs on and walk a few blocks to get there. The room wasn't ready, so we left our bags at the front desk and had a soy latte at Caffe Artigiano (which came highly recommended by Lili).
For lunch, we had read great reviews of a restaurant on Robson Street called Chongqing that specialized in Szechuan cuisine, so we popped in there for a bite. I got a vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup and Green Beans in Black Bean Sauce. Writing about the green beans makes my mouth water still. They were so tender and perfectly cooked.
We did a little shopping on Robson Street to work up our appetite for dinner. This time finding a place was a little tricky especially if you're a Yelp user like we are. Vancouver has a few places with 4.5 stars and a ton of 4 star restaurants. It seemed like we had visited all the 4.5 star restaurants that were within walking distance and our budget. Also, because we were visiting in the lowest of the low season, some restaurants were closed. We settled on Aki Sushi in the West End, since it was only a few blocks away from our hotel.
We tucked in early at the hotel because we had to catch a very early morning train to Portland the next day.
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