Boston

I just got back from a quick trip to Boston and the Cape. I'm embarrassed to admit that it was my first time in Boston, but I'm sure it won't be the last!

I flew out of Detroit late Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Boston around the time that Meagan was getting out of work, and Jessica’s train arrived soon after. Laurissa met us by South Station, and then we headed to Faneuil Hall in search of dinner. Though touristy, Faneuil Hall is beautiful lit up at night. I especially loved the pianos outside with the sign “play me.” We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant for taco salads, quesadillas, and margaritas for dinner. The food was delicious and the company was even better. It was a great way to kick off the vacation.
 

If you read Meagan's blog, you've probably seen most of these photos...

The next morning Meagan took us to the boathouse so that Laurissa could give us a tour of Riverside. After rowing out of LRC this summer, Riverside seemed like a palace. Yet, at the same time, it still held some of the same character that the MSU Club has. After our tour, Meagan headed downtown and Laurissa showed Jess and I her favorite running route along the Charles. Meagan had a work event that day, so we were planning on meeting up with her in the Seaport district afterwards
 

Riverside

After our run, Jess and I got ready and headed into the city. We stopped for iced coffee (#necessary) and a snack before continuing on to Faneuil Hall for a Freedom Trail walking tour with a National Park Service ranger. Storms were forecasted for that afternoon, but when we got our [free] tickets, it was still sunny. Ten minutes later, it was raining cats and dogs. Luckily both Jess and I had brought our umbrellas and agreed that we would still give the tour a shot. Most of the tour group opted out of the walking tour in the rain, so our group shrunk from 40 or so to 10. It was a quick rainstorm, so it all worked out pretty well.

Our guide was great—very informative, knowledgeable, and engaging. Our tour focused on the lives of Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and Governor Hutchinson. We started our tour with a brief background into the actual lives of these men as opposed to the myths. Sam Adams, for example, was born into a wealthy puritan family.  As a puritan, he never drank alcohol, so the man in the photo on Sam Adams beer is actually Paul Revere. Our tour covered the highlights of the north side of the Freedom Trail, including Paul Revere’s house, the site of Governor Hutchinson’s house, and Old North Church. One of the many interesting things I learned was that Paul Revere was a talented propagandist and produced many of the photos that appeared in the Boston newspapers in opposition to the Crown. He was also one of as many as forty others on the infamous Midnight Ride. There was even a woman in the group; her husband was sick on the night of April 18, 1775 and she rode in his place. If you’re visiting Boston, I would definitely suggest taking one of the tours offered by the National Park Service.

Paul Revere's House

Old North Church

After the tour we headed to Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately, the next open tour was in an hour and a half, and we didn’t want to wait that long. So instead we grabbed a seat in the beer hall and ordered two flights, the original Harpoon flight and their specialty flight, and a pretzel to share. I really liked all of the beers in the original flight, but I wasn’t too crazy about the specialty flight. It had beers that had been infused with bacon and gingerbread, and I found it to be a bit much. I guess the German Reinheitsgebot (“German [Beer] Purity Law”) has stayed with me a bit, but I think there are certain things (bacon) that do not belong in beer.

Flights and Pretzels at Harpoon

Meagan joined us at Harpoon and we headed to Legal Harborside on the Liberty Wharf for pre-dinner drinks and an appetizer. We all ordered the sangria and split the prosciutto and burrata pizza. We had a great view of the harbor, and it was so nice to sit back and continue catching up on everything from work to roommates to awkward encounters. We headed to the North End for dinner after, joining up with Laurissa on the way. There are so many Italian restaurants to choose from and Laurissa and Meagan didn’t have a favorite, so we settled for one that was close to Mike’s Pastry. After dinner we walked around the North End a bit before heading for dessert. Meagan and I split a cannoli from Mike’s Pastry and Jess and Laurissa opted for gelato. The cannoli was delicious!

Meagan took the day off on Friday so the three of us were able to spend the full day together before we headed to the Cape. We started with the Back Bay area of Boston so we could do some shopping on Newbury Street. I loved this area of Boston. The street is lined with cute little brick storefronts that, as Jess put it, are unique, but seem to go together. We stopped for coffee at the Thinking Cup before hitting the shops. They had great cold brew and I couldn’t resist ordering an apple and cheese Danish to go with it. The café has a cool chic feel to it, with exposed brick walls and chandeliers hanging over the tables.

Our first stop of the day was Marimekko, a Finish store I had visited while I was in Helsinki last summer. I was excited to see the store in the States, so I asked Meagan and Jess if they wouldn’t mind going in, explaining that it was a Finish store. Apparently Meagan was on a quick struggle bus ride. As we were walking up to the storefront, Jess saw bean bags outside and mentioned that she would like bean bags for her apartment, jokingly asking if she thought we could bring them on the bus. Meagan missed the sarcasm in Jessica’s question and asked her if she really wanted to carry them around the rest of the day. Then, when we walked in the store, Meagan looked around and asked, “Mar, what makes this a ‘finish’ store?” Needless to say, hilarity ensued, and we were still laughing when the saleswoman welcomed us to the store (and Meagan welcomed her back...).

We stopped in a few other stores on Newbury Street, including Barbour. We all tried on jackets and I was so tempted to get the one I tried on, but I couldn’t quite justify it this trip. Maybe next time! After a bit more browsing, we headed to the Boston Public Garden and Boston Commons to grab the T and head to Harvard Square. We ended up taking a tour of the campus, which was a lot of fun and we got to learn more about Harvard’s history and traditions. I was surprised to hear that a majority of the students live on campus, even upperclassmen. Freshmen are required to live in or adjacent to the Harvard Yard. After their first year, they are randomly placed in houses where they will live for their remaining three years. The freshmen also all eat in the same dining hall, but only for their freshmen year. We were able to catch a glimpse of the dining hall, and it reminded me a lot of the dining hall at Christ Church in Oxford, as well as the dining hall in Michigan’s Law Quad, which I’ll begin eating in next week! We learned other interesting facts about Harvard on our tour, and you can read the highlights in Meagan’s blog.

After our tour, we took the scenic route back to Meagan’s apartment, stopping at Trader Joe’s for some drinks and snacks for the trip to the Cape. Alyse arrived at Meagan’s apartment soon after, and we packed up our bags and headed for South Station to catch our train to the Cape. More on that in my next post!

Seattle

Our last stop of the trip was Seattle. We only had the car for the first day in the city (parking is expensive and public transportation is relatively easy to use), so we decided to check out the last coffee shop on my list before heading to our airbnb. The coffee shop is called Slate and is located in the neighborhood of Ballard, which was easier to get to by car than by bus. (Side note: I would highly recommend a trip to Slate! The friendliest coffee bar with the best coffee in Seattle) After we got our coffee and hot chocolate, we headed to Capitol Hill to drop off our luggage. Unlike our previous stops, we had to get literally everything out of the car and into a suitcase so that we could return the car the next morning. We were sad to have to say goodbye to the car, but it was definitely nice not to have to worry about paying for parking downtown.

We had one more iphone to purchase before Luca and Salpa flew back to London and Italy, so we headed for the Apple store near the University of Washington. I was able to get a glimpse of boats going out on the water from the car, and that was really cool. The Apple store was in University Village, an Eastwood Town Center-like outdoors mall, and we decided to grab dinner there after doing some more shopping. We ended up going to Veggie Grill, a west coast chain. It reminded me a lot of Noodles and Co. with less carbs and more vegetables. It was definitely a welcomed meal after our McDonald's lunch stop. We headed back to our airbnb after dinner, which had an amazing view of Lake Union from the deck.

Lake Union from our apartment on Capitol Hill

The car rental had a drop-off location downtown, which was super convenient and only a couple blocks away from Pike Place Market. The market sits on a steep hill overlooking Elliott Bay. First opened in 1907, it is one of the oldest continuously operated farmers' markets in the country. Pike Place is known by many as "the place where they throw the fish." Sure enough, as soon as we walked into the market, we spotted a crowd around one of the seafood vendors, all with cameras and iPhones and anxiously awaiting the next toss. They even let tourists with zero fish catching ability try to catch the flying fish. It was quite the show. We spent awhile enjoying the flying fish before moving on to the other vendors and unique attractions, such as a massive chewing gum wall on the outskirts of the market. I had a pretty big craving for fresh seafood after visiting Pike Place Market and the flying fish. We asked one of the guys working at the seafood vendor where he would go for seafood in the area. He suggested getting the salmon burger at Seatown, which was just up the street, so we headed there for lunch and did just that.

After lunch, we wandered around the downtown area a bit. We stopped at the Olympic Sculpture Park, found a neat map store, searched for gelato, and ended up at Seattle's Public Library. The central library building is a really interesting building. It was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In a way, the exterior of the building reminds me of the Broad Art Museum at MSU. The interior of the building was interesting, too. Our first stop was the restrooms. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and realized I could see over the stall doors without even trying. Very strange. We then ventured upstairs, and stumbled upon a room called the Red Hall. The floor, walls, and ceiling are all a strikingly bright and plastic looking red. Luca had a great idea to take photos on our DSLRs with long exposures and play with the weird lighting. As you can probably gather from the photos, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Red Hall.

We had hit the "main" sites of Seattle on our first full day, so we decided to ask our airbnb host for some more local recommendations for the remainder of our trop. They suggested walking to South Lake Union. The area is home to, among other thing, the Center for Wooden Boats. Our walk to South Lake Union was... interesting. Some of the areas we walked through were picturesque, some were freeways. I guess that's the risk you take with Google maps. The Center for Wooden Boats had a wide range of boats: sail boats, fishing boats, rowing boats, etc. I was beginning to think they didn't have any rowing shells when I turned the corned and looked up to see an original Pocock single hanging over my head. So. Cool.

Our next stop was another local favorite: Serious Biscuit. Our host told us that these were the best biscuits he'd ever had, so naturally we had to go. On our walk to the restaurant, it occurred to us that we weren't sure if he had meant biscuits as in cookies or biscuits as in southern biscuits and gravy. When we walked through the restaurant doors, we realized he had meant the latter. Serious Biscuit is owned by Tom Douglas, who appears to have a very successful restaurant presence in Seattle (he also owns Seatown). Serious Biscuit is part of a hybrid sort of restaurant. Biscuits are made on the ground floor, and Serious Pie (pizza, not dessert) is made in woodfire ovens on the second floor. We split the fennel sausage, egg, and fontina biscuit and a buffalo mozzarella pizza. Pretty perfect lunch, if you ask me.

It was a gorgeous day and we had plenty of time left in the afternoon, so we decided to walk to the Space Needle. It's definitely an interesting area. It feels futuristic, but in the "this was meant to be futuristic in the 70s" sense. It reminds me a bit of the Jetsons. We didn't go into any of the exhibits or up the needle because admission was pretty expensive, but it was still fun to look around. We then made our way back up to Capitol Hill, with a quick stop at a market for a bottle of wine to enjoy on the deck.

Post group nap in front of the Space Needle

It was our last night together, so we decided to go out for dinner and drinks on Capitol Hill. Our hosts recommended a great neighborhood fish house and oyster bar called Coastal Kitchen. I ordered "Cuban Pete's Shipwreck"-- clams, mussels, and chorizo with peppers, tomatoes, and rice. It was delicious! After out dinner, we walked a block to the infamous Liberty Bar and re-met our friend Willi from Slate! He had told us while we were at the coffee bar about this great dive bar with awesome drinks on Capitol Hill that we must go to on Saturday. He later confessed that he worked there, so we obviously had to stop for a drink. I ordered the "Point of No Return," which is a gin and absinthe drink that they light on fire. It was bittersweet to leave Liberty, knowing that packing, repacking, and a longgg day of travel awaited us the following afternoon.

Our flights left later in the day on Sunday, so we spent a leisurely morning walking around the park in the neighborhood, packing (and repacking), and swapping photos from the trip. Early afternoon we got an Uber to take us downtown so we could get on the Central Link light rail to the airport. It all went smoothly, and we got to the airport pretty early. I hate goodbyes, and was feeling kind of sad when we got to Luca and Salpa's gate. In order to make the goodbye easier, we decided to tentatively plan a trip to London during my winter break next year. Who knows if it will happen, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to spending Boxing Day in London. My trip home didn't go smoothly (delays, cancelled flights, literally flying in circles across the country, lost luggage), but my persuasive skills got me a travel voucher, so perhaps I'll earmark that for London! ;]

Pacific Northwest Coffee

The south is the home of BBQ, New England is the home of lobster rolls, and if you ask me, the Pacific Northwest is the home of coffee. That's not to say that other regions can't do coffee well, but when I think of good coffee, I think of Oregon and Washington. Three of the ten best coffeehouses are located here, and I was able to visit two of them on my recent trip to Portland and Seattle.

The first coffee stop of the trip was Heart Coffee Roasters in Portland. This coffee shop has two locations, one on the east side of the Willamette and one on the west side. While it's next to impossible to pick a favorite of the trip, let alone of the list, this one might take the cake. Well roasted coffee beans + latte art + community tables where you can read or work on your Macbook = sold. It also didn't hurt that it was raining outside while we sipped on our coffee, which contributed to the quintessential Portland coffee experience.

The coffee is roasted inside the coffee house space.

While still in Portland, we also visited Stumptown. Though technically not on the (subjective) ten best coffee houses list, this place is definitely worth a visit. The original Stumptown opened in Portland in 1999, and they now have cafes in four cities: Portland, Seattle, LA, and New York. Good lattes, funny ugly dog art, and a garage door that let you enjoy the fresh air even if it was raining outside.

Our last noteworthy coffee stop on the trip was Slate in Ballard. Much more of a coffee bar than a coffee house, Slate would be an excellent first stop in Seattle for even a non-coffee drinker. The second we walked through the door, we were greeted by Willi, the friendliest barista I have ever met. He brought us to three empty bar stools at the counter, asked where we were from, what we were doing in Seattle, and if we liked coffee. He agreed to make Luca hot chocolate and then started working on the coffee drinks. Drinks at Slate are served in wine glasses, if that gives you any indication of the funky nature of Slate. This place definitely takes the award for friendliest and most unique coffee shop. Even the other locals sitting at the bar were friendly. Before we knew it, everyone was shouting out recommendations for restaurants, bars, and getting around Seattle. 

If you do make it to Slate, be sure to ask for Willi. He's the best!

Olympic National Park Part II

The apartment we rented in Port Angeles was definitely the nicest place we stayed on the trip. In addition to the usual bedroom, living room, and bathroom, it had a full kitchen, steam room, and hot tub. We picked up a bunch of groceries on our way into town and Salpa made pasta with sausage and a cream sauce for dinner (yum!). We celebrated our birthday at midnight with a dense brownie that sadly looked much better than it tasted. When you go grocery shopping when you're starving, you buy all the things.

We had saved the next day for hikes around Lake Crescent and a trip to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. We had learned the previous day that options for food are scarce in the park, so we decided to make sandwiches to bring with us. Without giving it any thought, I put the sandwiches in the fridge while we finished getting ready. When we were about ready to leave, I started putting ice cubes in plastic bags to put in the cooler bag I had brought with me. Luca and Salpa, who had apparently been trying to figure out what the heck I was doing in Italian, finally asked me what the ice was for. I replied, "the sandwiches" with a bit of a "duh" tone. They exchanged a "she's crazy" look. Then I remembered the differences in meat/dairy refrigeration needs in Europe. Apparently they go hiking in the Alps for days without refrigerating meats.

Our first stop of the day was a hike to Marymere Falls on Lake Crescent. The trail from the lake to the falls was a mile at the most, but it was a pretty walk with moss covered trees. When we got back to Lake Crescent, we retrieved our sandwiches from the cooler and found a dock to eat our lunch on. Growing up in Michigan, I'm more than used to lakes, but most of our lakes include jet skis, speedboats, and pontoons. There were hardly any other people around, let alone motor watercraft. Later that afternoon we headed to Sol Duc Hot Springs. Sol Duc Hot Springs has three different mineral hot springs that are temperature controlled, but uses water from melted snow that mixes with volcanic rocks. I would definitely recommend it for a relaxing afternoon, especially after a couple of days hiking in the park. Port Angeles isn't a big town, so we spent our birthday evening back at our apartment making dinner, drinking champagne, and watching Prisoners in the hot tub, because it wouldn't be a birthday with Luca if I wasn't coerced into watching a scary move ;]

Lake Crescent

Marymere Falls 

We spent our last morning in the park on Hurricane Ridge, which was less than a mile from our apartment. We were expecting that we would be able to do a mini hike, but when we got to the visitor center at the top, we realized that the mountains were still really snow-covered. We had all dressed for weather at the bottom of the mountains, but the views were pretty spectacular, so we didn't mind the cold.

Hurricane Ridge

We headed for Seattle after Hurricane Ridge, with a quick stop for lunch in Sequim, one of the towns that the main character in The Boys in the Boat lives. The quickest way to get to Seattle from the Olympic Peninsula is to take the ferry from Bainbridge Island. The only ferries I've ever been on either don't take cars (the ferry to Mackinac Island) or seemed a lot more like a ship to me than a ferry (the ferry/boat/ship from Helsinki to Tallinn). I definitely felt very Meredith Grey-like as the ferry got closer to our next and final stop on the trip.

 

Olympic National Park Part I

We left Portland early afternoon on Sunday after visiting the Apple Store, Best Buy, and Five Guys. Luca and Salpa both wanted to get new computers, iPads, iPhones, etc., and the exchange rate makes it a lot cheaper to purchase here. By the time we left Portland, our little rental car had 3 computers, 2 GoPros, 2 DSLRs, and a handful of iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Thank goodness no one tried to steal our car!

We stopped at Five Guys on our way to Cannon Beach, which was a compromise between McDonalds and a salad. For some strange reason, Luca and Salpa like McDonalds here, which I gave them crap for pretty much the entire trip. Every time they would say something like, “The chicken nuggets taste better here!” I would yell back “It’s not even real chicken!”

The drive to Cannon Beach was pretty and uneventful. It started raining as we approached the coast, and was raining pretty hard by the time we got to Cannon Beach. I had never seen or been in the Pacific Ocean, so I was determined to get out and go down to the water. Growing up near Lake Michigan, I’m used to beaches and bodies of water where you can’t see the other side, but this beach was unlike any beach I’ve ever visited. Haystack Rock, a 72-meter sea stack, sits adjacent to the beach and is reachable at low tide.  When we got back to the car, we were completely drenched (the one raincoat and one umbrella we brought on the trip proved to be inadequate for my Cannon Beach adventure), but it was worth it.

Futile attempts at staying dry.

The weather restricted photo taking. Best shot of Haystack Rock we got. :(

We had booked a room at Quinault River Inn on Lake Quinault for Sunday night. Lake Quinault is the first major attraction/landmark in the southwest portion of Olympic National Park. Most of the drive from Cannon Beach to Lake Quinault was in sparsely populated areas, so when we saw the sign for Artic Tavern, we jumped at the chance for dinner. This was the definition of a local place. The entire bar/restaurant stared at the three of us when we walked in the door. We agreed that it reminded us of Merlotte’s from True Blood, but with less people and (hopefully) no vampires. Then again, we weren’t too far away from Twilight areas, so who knows...

Artic Tavern aka Washington's Merlotte's

We arrived at our hotel around 10ish, so we didn't see Lake Quinault until morning. It was beautiful! I wish that we had had more time to spend there, but we had booked an apartment in Port Angeles for the next two nights, and had a lot of the park to see before we got there. Luca and I went for a run around a section of the lake in the morning before we left, part of which included the Quinault Rain Forest. So now I can cross "go for a run in a rain forest" off the bucket list :] I got a chance to speak with the owner of the hotel while the boys were finishing packing and loading the car. He gave us some suggestions of places to stop along the way to Port Angeles, asked where we were from, where we were heading, the typical traveling small talk. Then I mentioned how I had recently read this incredible book about the University of Washington's 8+ that went to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. "The Boys in the Boat," he said, "we love that book out here!" That's the funny thing about the sport. One second you think you're talking to someone who doesn't know the difference between a coxswain and stroke seat, and the next second you realize that you both speak "rowing." It's like slipping into dialect when you meet someone new and find out that you're from the same region. I told him that I rowed on the club team while I was at State. He then told me that he owns a house on Lake Quinault, and that his neighbor's daughter has won two Olympic gold medals. There is definitely something in the water on the Olympic Peninsula.

We left Lake Quinault around noon and headed for the Hoh Rain Forest. The owner of the hotel mentioned that there was a nice place to stop for breakfast (err... lunch) about 20 miles away. 4G coverage was non-existent, so I was a little concerned about not being able to find it or going to the wrong place. Kalaloch Lodge was the only thing around for miles, though, so I clearly didn't need to worry about that one. We had clam chowder with a great view of the Pacific. The weather gods were on our side again that day, and when we had finished our molten lava cake, the sun was poking out from behind the clouds. I was all for going down to the water, and Luca and Salpa were more willing to join now that it wasn't pouring outside. This beach was neat, too, though different from Cannon Beach. The part of the beach furthest away from the water contains piles of tree trunks, which we were told came from the rain forest. We had fun jumping off the trees (Luca and Salpa) and playing I'm a bird in the waves (Megan where were you!?) before hitting the road again.

Kalaloch  Beach

Our next stop of the day was the Hoh Rain Forest. The entrance to the park wasn't too far from Kalaloch Lodge, but we had to drive a good 45 minutes into the park to go to the rain forest. I've never seen so much green in my life. Every inch of every tree was covered in moss, often inches thick. Branches bent from the weight of the moss on the trees, and the foliage was so thick that we stayed dry even when it started pouring. Which was a good thing considering we only had one umbrella ;]

We hadn't gotten gas since Portland and had less than a hundred miles left in the tank when we got to the Hoh Rain Forest visitor center. We didn't know exactly how far away the next town was, and our phones didn't have service either. Why does it always seem like you don't have service at the times when you really need a cell phone the most?! Thankfully, we made it to Forks without any trouble and stopped at the first gas station we saw. It was pretty obvious from all of the "Twilight" signs that the town has embraced it's stardom from the books and movies. None of us are Twilight fans, but I had seen pictures of La Push Beach, and it looked beautiful. We decided to drive out to Second Beach, which just happened to look like the prettiest beach on Google Images. The beach is about a mile walk through the woods from where you have to park, but the path is pretty and the beach itself is more than worth the walk. The sky was so blue that I had trouble believing La Push and Forks are (according to the book) rainy and foggy year round.

Hoh Rain Forest

Hoh Rain Forest

La Push - Second Beach

Found a new friend on our way back to the car.

We spent awhile on Second Beach enjoying the beautiful sun, waves, and salt water air, so we decided to save Lake Crescent for the next day (and the next blog post). Thankfully, our drive to Port Angeles was a straight shot from Forks, and didn't take too long. We couldn't pass up stopping on the side of the road to admire the sun as it set on Lake Crescent. Such a beautiful end to the day!

Lake Crescent at sunset

Portland

I just got back from a little over a week trip with two friends in the Pacific Northwest. Back in the fall, my friend Luca and I started discussing taking a trip to celebrate our birthdays together. Luca was my roommate when I lived in Germany the first time. Originally from Italy, he currently lives in London, so the last time I saw him was when I visited him in London while I was living in Freiburg last year. Luca’s friend from home, Francesco, whom I had met when I visited Luca in Ravenna, agreed to join us, too.

As I tend to be a bit verbose when it comes to blogging about trips (partially for my personal benefit—it's amazing how much you forget if you don’t write about your trips as well as take pictures), I’ve decided to write about my trip in a series of blog posts. Portland is up first!

My flight to Portland was out of Lansing with a connection at O’Hare, which a) allowed me to work a full day and b) was oddly cheaper than flying out of Detroit. While I was waiting in the line (the line that contained all of two passengers) to check-in, I heard someone speaking German. I turned around to hear the elderly women in line ahead of me speaking in what I guessed was Bavarian or Austrian German. I learned that the two women were sisters, one living in Munich and one in the Lansing area. The woman living in Munich didn’t speak English and her sister wasn’t allowed to go through security with her because she didn’t have a picture ID. My heart broke when the sisters waved to each other after the German woman and I went through security, knowing that that might be the last time they ever see each other.

My flight to O’Hare was delayed, so I spent the hour or so waiting with the woman from Munich, checking on our connecting flights and making small talk. I wished that I could have seen her to her next flight; but due to the delay, I literally had to sprint Home Alone style through O’Hare and made it to my gate with seconds to spare.

I landed in Portland around 11pm PDT, and Luca and Francesco picked me up from the airport. It was so good to see them both! We headed back to the apartment we had rented in Sellwood, a cute residential neighborhood in Southeast Portland. We spent a couple hours catching up and discussing what we wanted to do the next day before heading to bed.

We decided to spend Friday morning hiking in the Columbia River Gorge, which I had heard was absolutely breathtaking. After stopping for a quick coffee at Heart Coffee Roasters (more on that later), we got on I-84 and drove a mere thirty minutes out of the city to Multnomah Falls. It amazes me how quickly one can get to nature from Portland. The city did an exceptional job relative to other U.S. cities of discouraging suburban sprawl. It rained on the drive to the falls, but had pretty much stopped by the time we arrived.

Multnomah Falls are breathtaking and an easy trip if you’re short on time and/or energy. They’re literally right next to the highway, so you could park, walk the two minutes to the “main” scenic viewpoint, take a few pictures, and head back to your car. We decided to hike up to the top of the falls, which was also an easy “hike.”

Multnomah Falls

GoPros make for easier selfies.

After we got to the bottom of the falls, we headed back to the car to drive to Wahclella Falls. Unfortunately our phones were being stupid, and neither one of us was able to get Google Maps to load. Thankfully, the trailhead for Wahclella Falls is also near I-84, and I remembered that the directions had said to exit the highway at the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery. Unfortunately, Luca got his headache of the day en route to Wahclella Falls, so he told Francesco and I to go while he waited in the car. This trail wasn’t touristy like the one that goes to Multnomah Falls, and that was a nice change. Everything was covered and moss and so green, including the snake that slithered across the path just in front of us (I didn’t even scream!). Wahclella Falls are not as massive or tall as Multnomah Falls, but they’re still impressive in their own right.

The hike to Wahclella Falls. So green!

Wahclella Falls

By the time Francesco and I got back to the car, the three of us were starving. We headed back to Portland and began searching for the famous  food carts. We walked to the first one we found on Google Maps (Luca’s phone had started working, mine was still being dumb). After a quick survey of the options, I settled on chana masala from an Indian food cart and Luca and Francesco got some egg burger thing.  While we were eating, we overheard two guys talking frantically to someone on the phone about water. Portland has (rightfully) earned its reputation for being home to interesting people, and we assumed that they were probably freaking out about nothing. We were slightly wrong...

After we finished eating, we headed in search of Powell’s Books. It is hands down the coolest bookstore I have ever been in, and we spent an hour or two walking through the various aisles and sections. They even have a rare book room! But we kept noticing signs forbidding the use of drinking fountains. After remembering what I thought was a crazy conversation we had overheard while eating, I decided to ask one of the employees if they knew what was going on. Apparently they had detected E-Coli in the water, and there was a 24-hour tap water ban. Gross!!

Powell's Books

I found the German Lit section (obviously)

After browsing the books and a quick walk along the riverfront, we headed back to our apartment in Sellwood. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up bottled water on the way back, but there was literally no water on the shelves. We ended up getting a pack of Lipton Iced Tea, which was fine but definitely not water. Later that night, we went to Hopworks UrbanBrewery. They had a really yummy kale salad and a good list of beers and ciders. #beerissaferthanwater.

Luca and I went on a run the next morning before heading downtown for the Portland Saturday Market. It is supposed to be the oldest continuously operated outdoor market in the US, and there are a lot of unique arts and crafts stalls to check out. We spent a lot of our time at a stall that sold cement faces with exaggerated expressions. Luca decided to get a set for his flat, and we had a lot of fun arranging the expressions. 

After we finished browsing the market, we grabbed a quick lunch at one of the food vendors and headed back to Powells (what can I say, we're book nerds). We did a bit more shopping downtown and then headed to the riverfront to rent bikes for the remainder of the afternoon. We had a lot of fun biking up and down the Willamette, and got to see different parts of Portland than we would have in a car or by foot.

We grabbed dinner at another food cart in the Hawthorne neighborhood before making the drive up to Pittock Mansion. The mansion is up in the West Hills and offers spectacular views of the city and Mount Hood. We spent some time exploring the grounds and taking pictures before heading back downtown for another photo opportunity: the White Stag sign. We had to dodge oncoming traffic to get a good picture, but it was totally worth it. :]

Portland and Mt Hood

Next up: Cannon Beach and the road trip to Olympic National Park!