We drove from Portland to Seattle via the falls. Went over to Levenworth, back to Seattle.
All the way down to Grants Pass, then back to Portland VIA the coast, for a total of 1464 miles!
Google says it should have taken 27 Hours with traffic..
Here is a close up of the trail to the falls, if you go in near Troutdale along the Historic Columbia River Highway, I think it was really worth the views of the river.
If you take this way the first landmark you come to is the Vista House, and all the falls were huge with the wettest December the Portland area has seen in over 30 years.
Heading to dinner the first night, we saw an arcade, it was the one that was from the Tron Movie...
The Old Town Pizza Place is supposedly the only Haunted Pizza Place in Portland!
It was really good pizza, you will find on Yelp that sometimes the give one star for 'not enough gluten free options'! so read carefully....
We stayed at the Monaco where we saw Adam Savage from Mythbusters at the free wine hour... Here is the main Lounge:
They had an awesome spread of flavors for coffee and cocoa for breakfast:
Mother's Bistro is around the corner from the Monaco, it is well worth any wait you might have to get in!
If you walk around Portland you will see lots of homeless people, an awesome mass transit system, and quad water fountains that never stop.
They apparently don't have a water shortage.
Powell's Books in Portland is absolutely HUGE! It is an entire city block, and has 4-5 stories of books...
The Pittock Mansion would have a fabulous view if we were there during a clear day, but it is still worth it on a typical rainy day.
15-635 years old...
If you take the long way to Mulnomah Falls down the Historic Columbia River Highway, one of the first views is Chanticleer Point where you can see
the Vista House in the Distance on the next overlook:
The Vista House is a nice little historic building that has no heating except in the Coffee Shop:
The very first falls you come to are Latourell Falls
The ground was shaking from all the water!
The trees were covered with moss on all sides, so much for finding north from where the moss is!
Across the Columbia river were a set of three falls:
Multnomah Falls is by far the biggest and most impressive, it was the last falls before the dam.
Andrew and I took the trail to the top of the falls, it was a little icy halfway up:
Katherine and Caitlin took the trail down to the restaurant:
The Salmon Ladder was pretty interesting, I was not expecting it to look like that empty:
The set of generators make 1.3 gigawatts, enough for time travel!
The Bridge of the Gods to get into Washington from Oregon:
Made it to Seattle
The first stop the next day was the space needle, we got really really lucky with a clear day!
The Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum is right next door:
After the Needle I had booked a boat tour with Argosy Cruises, it was really nice:
It used to take them 3 weeks to unload a ship, now they can unload and reload a ship in 3 days.
The Ferris wheel is modeled after the Eye of London only much smaller, and it hangs over the water:
Pikes Market, there is no market I have ever been to that is like it in the United States:
The Original Starbucks!
If you make it anywhere near Redmond, Blazing Bagels is the place to go, they make over 10,000 bagels a day!
Drive to Levenworth over the passes, the Stephens Pass on US 2 was prettier than the interstate, it had a nice river
along side the road for most of the way.
The Gingerbread House in Levenworth was really good!
You can buy sleds in the Australia store down the street!
The Festival of the lights is on the weekends leading up to Christmas, It is a lot less crowded on Sundays vs Saturdays, it was still a lot of people!
The only place you can park and go in at Microsoft is the Visitors center, while not the fanciest place I have ever been too,
it was still interesting.
Dinner at the Crab Pot, it was really really good!
Caitlin's view of the city from the Ferris wheel.
Found a deadpool cutout at Star Wars:
Last day in Seattle in Pike Market! The fruit is amazing if you ever go....
We had a white Christmas in Grant's Pass
Had Prime Rib for Dinner,
Went to Mount Ashland after 2 inches of fresh snow, obviously it didn't help this side of the mountain so much ;)
Caitlin showing off on the snowboard
Blueberry fields along the way:
The Umpqua Lighthouse, it is not real tall, so the stairs are not to much, and
it is one of the very few lighthouses you can poke your head into the light room!
Panoramic of the lens:
Motor that turns the lenses
The Lighthouse was made in France in 1890, even back then, things were not made in America!
If you go anywhere near Elkton, OR, the pastries and coffee here are amazing!
I have hurricane evacuation route signs all over South Texas, I thought these were amusing, it has been 50 years since they had a Tsunami...
The drive up to the Sea Lion Caves was really nice along the coast!
If you look carefully, the black dots are sea lions:
The Sea Lion Cave is one of the largest natural caves in the world, and there is nothing quite like it
Luna Sea Fish House only had outside seating or an hour wait, it was worth sitting out in the cold!
The Portland Science Museum has the last Diesel submarine ever built, the Blue Back. It served 32 years, which is the longest of any sub!
It was the prototype for the nuclear subs of today, they still used it for training long after it proved the concepts of the newer subs.
It only had 200 miles on it when we rented it:
The Portland Airport has the largest Cuckoo clock in America
Heading to Texas finally!
