Because I went to college on the East Coast and have spent
the subsequent time either at home in Portland, OR or living in Asia, I have
rarely seen my college friends since graduation. One of my best friends, my senior year
roommate, Katie, is one that I have seen the least frequently because she rarely
travels. Others have come to see me, or
live a little closer than the complete opposite side of the country in NYC, but
Katie and I have rarely had the chance.
HOWEVER. Katie’s
friend was getting married in San Diego and she decided that meant it was time
to come up to Portland and see me. Yay!
They (she brought her awesome boyfriend, Jon) got in late at
night, so we started fresh the next day, a Wednesday. We started with brunch at Screen Door, a
restaurant in SE Portland. Katie and the
guy I’ve been seeing, Josh, both got chicken and waffles, while Jon got some
kind of eggs. I got the special- a sweet
buttermilk biscuit with strawberry shortcake topping and vanilla whipped cream
which I would take a bath in forever and ever amen. All of the food was good actually.
After that Josh took off and we headed into Northeast Portland to see the Grotto, a place I had never been to previously. It's basically a big path with some caves and such that features a church, religious statues, and an abbey. I'm not religious, but the pictures of it looked beautiful, and it was. The religious stuff was actually pretty interesting, and the gardens were incredible. There was even a labyrinth (pictured below, the circle) that mirrored one at a palace in France or England, I forget which. It was pretty fun and silly to walk through.
Next we went downtown to go to Powell’s
Bookstore. Powell’s is a Portland
institution- the first bookstore in history that thought “Well, what if we got
as many copies of as many books as possible, and just kind of had almost
everything?” So they built it in an old
warehouse, and all the major bookstores followed suit. It’s new and used stuff as well, so you can
often find more affordable versions of the book you want. It was a god-send when I was a literature
student in college and had to buy all my books.
Worked for a lot of subjects, actually.
Just not textbooks quite as much.
Katie and I are both big readers, so she wanted to look
around a lot. I had been recently (I go
once every two weeks or month or so).
Also I’m trying to save up for a big move I have coming up (details to
come as they manifest), so I didn’t buy anything. Both Katie and Jon really liked Powell’s
though (hard not to, unless you’re illiterate, in which case, for a nominal fee
I will teach you to read. Try it- it’s
great). After Powell’s we walked around
downtown for a while, until we made our way to the waterfront and found a bar
on the water. After a few drinks we took
off again, to head back to the hotel and power up for dinner later, when we
would meet my dad at my favorite place- the Deschutes Brewery.
I love the Deschutes over other breweries in the area (trust
me, there are tons) for several reasons.
First, their Twilight Summer Ale is one of my favorite beers ever (although
they didn’t make it this summer, but said so many people requested it that they
will most likely bring it back). Second,
their Black Butte Porter is beyond delicious.
Third, their Obsidian Stout is quite tasty indeed. And last, but most certainly not least
(actually probably most) their food is insanely good. A lot of breweries have good food, but there
is upscale pub food. Fries with rosemary
aioli. Elk burgers. Pasta with pesto cream sauce. The best macaroni and cheese that has ever been
made in the world. Seriously. It’s God’s macaroni and cheese.
After dinner they were pretty tired and we had a long day of
hiking ahead of us the next day, so we went back to the hotel and crashed.
The next morning we had to wake up very early to move my car
from the parking garage where it was.
After that we took a quick jaunt over to Voodoo Donuts to see if it was
open. It was, and there was NO
LINE. To those of you who’ve never been
to Portland, Voodoo Donuts is another institution. It’s a donut place (obviously) that
frequently makes lists for best places in the country. They make all kinds of donuts there, but are
particularly known for their weird ones.
Often, the line is curled multiple times up and down the block, and
people will wait an hour or more for their donuts. Don’t wait.
Go early.
With a donut each in our bellies, we headed off for a day in
the Columbia River Gorge, a must-see for anyone visiting the state. It’s only an hour or so (maybe less) outside
of the city, and it’s absolutely stunning, no matter how many times you’ve seen
it. We drove a bit farther than just to
the edge of the gorge, for two hours until we reached Goldendale, Washington
and crossed over. We drove up through
the hills for a bit, then found our way to one of the most random sites around:
a Stonehenge replica that is a WWI memorial.
We walked around a bit and took lots of pictures. The view from there is spectacular, with the
river snaking its way back toward Portland and Mount Hood in the distance.
After we walked around a little (it’s a bit of a drive, so
if you’re not up for time in the car, skip it.
It’s skippable), we headed back to the Dalles, the main town in the
gorge. We were just planning to eat
lunch and then move on to hikes along the way back to Portland. There is a large amount of worthwhile hikes
in the gorge, ranging from easy to extremely difficult (I couldn’t walk down
stairs normally for three days after one of them, my legs were so sore). We stopped at Burgerville, a chain that
exists only in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The food there is great, and it’s as environmentally friendly as a chain
that large can be. We had fish and chips
and fish sandwiches (the fish is really good there). It was great.
The problem was that once we left Burgerville we discovered
that my car wouldn’t start. We called a
tow truck and got towed three blocks to the nearest garage. Despite having my car checked twice in the
last three months at the dealership, it was a part they’d never mentioned being
a problem. I got it fixed (it only took
about an hour) and then we were on our way again, but it was too late to do
more than one hike.
As such, we picked my absolute favorite: Oneonta Gorge. This gorge is perpendicular to the Columbia
River Gorge, and the hike is not long, but is adventurous. It requires hiking up a creek, clambering
over boulders and logs left by a long-ago flood, and wading through waist and
then chest-deep water. In the end, you’re
rewarded with the sight of an incredible waterfall and pond, where people often
swim. The landscape itself is beautiful
as well, green everywhere, a place that would fit in nicely in Tolkien’s Middle
Earth. Jon and Katie both loved it,
particularly Jon. It's a wet hike, so I didn't take my camera, unfortunately.
When we got back into town we were really hungry, so we
skipped the list Katie had made of places to eat and went straight to Nicholas,
my favorite Lebanese restaurant, which has locations both in NW and SE Portland. The prices there are reasonable, and the food
is extremely worthwhile, particularly the hummus, which might be the best I’ve
ever had. They agreed.
The next day we got up early again for another day of
hiking. I had provided several choices
and we decided on Punchbowl Falls, which is accessible from Eagle Creek
Trailhead. We had read that part of the
trail was thin and abutted a cliff, and Katie was afraid of heights, but she
wanted to do it and decided that she could.
We stopped at Blue Star Donuts on the way (Katie is a donut aficionado
and wanted to try all our best places).
Blue Star is actually my favorite, and with multiple locations it’s
nowhere near as crowded as Voodoo.
We ate the donuts on the way and stopped in Troutdale, a
town between Portland and the gorge, to grab Subway sandwiches to eat for our
lunch after the hike and fill up with gas.
Eagle Creek Trailhead is only about an hour east of Portland, and it
didn’t take long at all to get there. We
took off on the hike and soon discovered that although the surrounding forest
was beautiful, the hike was not partway along a cliff. The entire hike was along the edge of a cliff
with a sharp, long drop off to a creek below, the water coming from the falls
farther back in the woods.
We continued
walking, with me setting the pace and egging Katie along as she clung to the
stone cliff face on the opposite side of the path from the drop off. At points she cried. She shook and held tightly onto Jon most of
the way, although she also held my hand part of the way, much more tightly than
I expected. I hadn’t realized the full
depth of her fear. I sometimes forget that people are afraid of things and that fear is a natural, rational response some people feel to stimuli. I wasn't very sensitive.
She kept going, however, and refused to give up until we had
reached the falls. At some point the
path leveled out and went through the center of the woods, a bit farther back
from the edge. At this point, we were
nearing the falls.
We hadn’t read enough
about the hike to know this, but swimming was possible at the falls, and there
were tons of people and dogs in the water, splashing and having fun. The day was hot, and cooling off would have
been nice, but we had no extra clothes or swimming gear. If you ever go to Punchbowl Falls, TAKE SWIM
STUFF!
On the way home we stopped at Latourell Falls, which I have
written about previously and will no bore you with again. It was also a lot of fun, but we were ready
to head home at the end. We stopped
first at Salt and Straw, an ice cream place with two locations in Portland (NW
and SE). It’s known for having unique
flavors. Katie had lavender. I had Mint Coconut Whoopie Pie. So good.
Luckily, Katie and Jon had come for the weekend of the Bite,
one of Portland’s best festivals, where a bunch of restaurants, wineries, and
distilleries bring their best products to show off. It costs $5 to get in, and then you buy small
plates at any restaurant or food cart you’d like, plus beer, wine, and
liquor. It’s one of my favorite
festivals, and I always eat so much I can barely breathe. We got some amazing carnitas nachos,
delicious pulled pork made with blueberry BBQ sauce, a tasty Italian sub, incredible
mac and cheese, plus a flight of wine, a few ciders and beers, and more food I
can’t even remember. My parents had come
to meet us and they had a ton of good food as well, and were more than happy to
share. It was a perfect way to cap off
their last full day in Portland.
Their flight the next day wasn’t until late, so we had
another Portland adventure day. We started at Donut Byte Labs, a food cart off Burnside, around lunch time (a
little earlier). The donuts there are
inexpensive but small. However, Jon and
Katie greatly enjoyed them (I was too excited for lunch). Then we walked across the Tillikum Bridge, a new bridge built in Portland only for public transportation, bikes, and pedestrians.
After walking along that, we headed up the way to the Alder and
Washington food carts for lunch, an entire city block’s worth of food carts of
different countries and genres of food. I
had Korean, Katie had Thai, and Jon had a Korean burrito. All of it was great. After that, Josh met us and we headed to an
indoor underground black-light miniature golf course that sounded very
Portland-y.
It was a lot of fun. The décor was all from Halloween shops, all
skeletons and pirates, and the golf course itself was neither too easy nor too
hard. We had a lot of fun.
Afterwards we headed over to Imperial for dinner (which was
expensive and underwhelming) and then back to Josh’s place to wait until Katie
and Jon’s flight was ready. We played
some card game I’ve played many times but can never remember the name or rules
of, and then switched to a game I’d never heard of before called Red Flags
(highly recommend- I’m going to buy it).
Then we drove them to the airport.
I absolutely loved having Katie in town and getting to show
her my favorite parts of Portland and Oregon, as well as having some new experiences. The only skippable thing we did was the
Stonehenge replica, and it was still pretty weird and cool. All in all, it was a great way to host a trip
and have adventures in my own hometown.
