The Dream of the 90's is Alive in Portland

On the way to Portland

We had been camping and sleeping in our car for several days. Once we arrived in Portland, we finally checked into a hotel. After checking in, we treated ourselves to a hot shower. There are so many fun things to do in Portland. We didn't know where to start. Our first stop was to the International Rose Test Garden. Portland is known as the "City of Roses." This beautiful garden features thousands of different kinds of roses. It was so much fun getting to see the different roses, I totally forgot that I have a terrible pollen allergy! 

Rows and Rows of Rowses

International Rose Test Garden

 Next, we ventured downtown for shopping. Our first stop was Powell's City of Books. This a massive bookstore literally takes up an entire city block. I could have spent the entire day rummaging through the stacks of books. One gem we found was "Cookin' with Coolio" a cookbook written by rapper (and apparently chef.) Then, we stopped at a few record shops and used book stores. I'm happy we had such a tight budget, I could have easily brought home a car full of books and LPs. 

Afterwards, we stopped at a local bakery. A friend had recommended the place for lunch. Man, I'm glad we took her advice. We each had a soup and sandwich lunch. My sandwich was pork with veggies and sriracha. It's like it was made for me! 

My sandwich and Allison's Mushroom Melt

Fresh Strawberry Tart from Kens Artisan Bakery. So yummy.

The hotel we stayed at was close to the airport. Next to our hotel was an Indian buffet. Now, I love Indian food. But I was skeptical of a buffet next to a hotel that is near an airport. Good thing I didn't listen to my gut, because it was amazing! Each plate was more delectable than the previous one. They even had homemade mango ice cream. 

Some of you may know that I make zines. Portland has one of the largest zine cultures in the country. One of my goals while in Portland was to visit a zine distro. These are small shops that sell zines from all over the world. We asked the employee of the distro for some non-touristy places to visit. He told us about a part of town he called "the place rich people go to pretend they're in the ghetto." How could we resist visiting such a place? Turns out, there was nothing scary about this part of town. There were comic book stores, used CD shops, and a store full of weird toys. Strange fact: Food trucks aren't allowed to be on Portland streets. Trucks have to set up shop in designated parking lots. We didn't have the chance to sample any of the food trucks. But I'm sure the vegan, free range, gluten free burgers were awesome.. 

Portland is an interesting and exciting town. There are so many things to explore. We only got to experience a small fraction of the what it had to offer, and hope to visit again soon. 

-Marc

Still trying to get out of California... Just kidding!

While we were in California, we passed through Sonoma County, which is known for their wine. We didn't have the funds to splurge on a lot of wine tastings at expensive wineries, but we did manage to find one that was open on a Sunday afternoon, Saracina. They let us hang out and we learned a bit about their wine. After we bought a bottle that was only sold in limited quantities at the vineyard, we drove further north.

Beautiful Vineyards

Pink wine

Driving by confusion hill. 

We were pretty excited tovisit the Redwood National/State Park. We got there earlier than the visitor's center was open, so we spent some time hanging out on the beach with the driftwood.

We waited for the visitor's center because the park area was pretty confusing, especially with some construction going on in the area. We took a guided tour with a friendly tour guide and learned all about the coastal redwoods. Everything was beautiful.

The forest was misty, which, we learned, is how the trees get their water.

The banana slug. Apparently, they were almost named as the official mollusk of California. Marc tried to save every one of them. Even though they were ALL OVER the place.

Our tour guide was entertaining. She had a dry sense of humor and was fun to listen to.

Big big tree towards the end of our guided tour through the oldest coastal redwoods.

After our guided tour, we drove a little ways to see the "Big Tree", which was pretty impressive.

On our way to the Big Tree. Sometimes, the trees would fall over and they would cut them up to move them off of the trail, but I suppose sometimes they were too big, so they just cut/carved a tunnel through them. 

A 1500 year old tree, growing out of Marc's head!

Hanging out at a little rest area/beach along Highway 1

I will definitely miss California. It was absolutely beautiful and there was so much to do, at every stop we made in the state. Expensive? yes. Gas screwed us over a bit, but it was so much fun.

-Allison

California Shawerma (pt 3)

We made an early departure from Yosemite so we could spend the day in San Francisco. We really wanted to spend more time in SF and had planned it that way, but with our time constraints, it didn't work that way. We spent our time there at Baker Beach, just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, in traffic, and wandering around the streets.

What is this? I don't remember. Something that we saw in between Yosemite and SF. :)

We were pretty surprised at how relaxed the city was. While we sat in some traffic, even that wasn't too terrible, and once we got out of that area and further west, it was a really interesting place. Baker Beach was beautiful, even if it was fairly cold and windy.

Trafficccc

The beach had a few owners who had brought their dogs, who played in the sand and the ocean. So cute.

Braving the cold wind to hang out at the beach. You might ask, why don't we flip it the right way? Because we can't figure it out. 

We ate at a little Mediterranean place called Truly Mediterranean where we had shawerma, falafel, and baklava- SO delicious. We sat right outside the little shop and people-watched while we ate. Afterwards, we walked a few blocks down the road to check out a little used bookstore and took it easy.

Falafel and Shawerma!

Baklava. We saved it for later, but it didn't even make it out of town.

Then, we drove across the iconic bridge. Ok, fine. We drove across it three times. Whatever. It was our trip and we were excited about it. :)

For the night, we planned to sleep in a casino parking lot, but were kicked out because we weren't customers. Oops! :) We found a little outlet to crash for a few hours before we continued north.

-Allie

Cali- Yosemite!

Our campsite at Big Sur must have been legal (or not just enough to draw attention), so we woke up and packed up to head towards Yosemite National Park! We learned that this area is one of a few different wine countries in California, as we drove past too many vineyards to count. 

A few hours inland, we made it to Yosemite. Since we hadn't reserved any campsites for the night, we drove a couple of hours inside the park (south to north) to get to the campground that we wanted (all had different locations, prices, and amenities). We took it easy the first night and ride the tour bus around the park to check it out, grabbed some local beer, and whipped up some supper.

Yosemite Falls- the highest measured waterfall in North America. It was a bit windy, you can see the water blowing.

Waterfall coming out of Marc's head!

We learned right away about the very real danger of bears in the area. In Yosemite, the bears have become smart enough to break into cars if they see or smell anything appetizing (food and/or toiletries). So, we piled our things into the metal bear box at our campsite (the bear box was a big reason why we decided to go into the park and pay instead of look for free campgrounds near the park..) and called it a night, excited to explore the park the next day.

First thing in the morning, we drove back down to the southern entrance to spend the morning exploring Mariposa Grove, which is basically a huge bunch of Giant Sequoias, some of which have tunnels carved through them, and others that were impressive because, for instance, they were growing very closely for such large, water-sucking trees. We also may have snuck off the path to get a better look at some trees. 

Big fallen giant sequoia roots. Marc for scale.

Tunnel! Carved when the forest was thicker, so vehicles could get in and out. 

My personal favorite- the Clothespin Tree. The middle was destroyed by a fire I think, but the outer sections are still alive. Also, HUGE!

We spent the rest of the day exploring a couple of the shorter hikes in the park, and found a beautiful, relaxing lake/stream to stick our feet in. Other people were swimming in it, but we sat on a pile of rocks where the water was running through.

Our rest stop for the day

We each took the opportunity to take a shower ($5 each, but so completely, totally worth it... we hadn't showered since Phoenix..!) at one of the nicer campgrounds than ours. Clean and ready to go, we got back to camp in time to watch a beautiful sky as the sun set behind the trees, and got ready to move on. 

-Allison

California, pt 1

Alright... We know we have been bad and not updated at all. We do want to finish this up though, so hang with us!
After waking up for the last time in Phoenix, we made our way west to California. The border was littered with windmills, which we didn't really expect, but there was definitely wind to warrant them!
On our first night, wet made it to some free campgrounds in the San Bernardino National Forest. It was quite the drive up into the trees to get to the campground, but it was sure a  beautiful place to be!

To make it all the way to the coast, we hopped onto Highway 1 and found Pismo Beach and our first view of the Pacific Ocean! Pismo Beach is a cute, little, fairly touristy town with shops lining the street leading to the beach, including one that sold chocolate covered crickets...! (We weren't brave enough for those though).

We also came across a few spots with lots of sea lions, lined up, relaxing on the beach. Some were throwing sand on themselves, and others were facing off and talking to each other. We spent quite a bit of time hanging out with them. :)

After a quick stop, we continued north on Highway 1 to hunt out a place to camp near Big Sur. We ended up finding a steep turnoff which looked like it was about where our researched campground was. We got settled, made some sandwiches, and took our books across the sort road to a huge rock overlooking the ocean. It was completely relaxing and gorgeous. (We may have spent the night hoping that we were camping legally... Nothing was really marked).

The ocean was just to the left, down a steep hill

Just across the road from our tent was a big rock that we climbed on and sat at the ocean, reading. Seriously beautiful.

-Allie

Arizona

Our trip to the Grand Canyon did not start out very smoothly. As it turns out, the north entrance, which we blindly selected from the GPS only leads to cabins. 

After another  4 hours, we arrived at the main entrance. We decided to take a quick stop at the Grand Canyon, since we wanted to make it to Phoenix by dinnertime. This was Allison’s first time visiting the canyon. It is very difficult to capture the beauty of the canyon in a photograph. It is a one of a kind, and needs to be enjoyed in person, but we did try our best to get some pictures! 
 

Our next destination was Phoenix. Allison and I both were anticipating this stop. I have several family members who live in Phoenix and Mesa. We don’t get to see each other as often as we would like. Duane greeted us when we pulled up. He asked “Is it hot enough for you?”  I would say 110 degrees was pretty hot! After catching up with Duane and Wink, it was dinner time. Allison helped Duane prepare dinner. Wink and I were given difficult task of shucking pistachios. We continued to catch up over dinner. Duane and Wink gave up some ideas for additional stops in California. Duane and Allison made a delicious meal of grilled chicken with Brussels sprouts. After dinner we took a dip in Duane’s hot tub. It was the perfect cure for our sore feet! 

The next morning we slept in, which is very rare. We took it pretty easy that morning. Duane invited us to his work for lunch. He is a cook at a small restaurant called The Cafeteria. They serve one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. 

After lunch we visited a few used book stores. We didn’t find anything too exciting, but it’s always fun to browse. Next, we headed to Mesa to visit my cousin, Shona. Shona and her husband, Chad, just had their second son, Jake, last month. It was great getting to meet him. Catching up with Shona was a blast. We are both broke and busy, so we don’t get to see each other very often. I had a great time hanging out with her son, Gage. I can’t believe is going to turn four soon. Gage and I wrestled while Allison and Shona talked about stuff. Gage convinced us to stay at their house for dinner. He later extended the invitation by saying, “You guys can stay for five months.” 

We headed off to the grocery store for dinner supplies. The store Shona took us to was super-affordable, so Allison and I took the opportunity to stock up our food box. After a delicious pork chop dinner, I couldn’t stay awake. While I rested, Allison and Shona whipped up a batch of peanut butter sweet and salty cookies! The next morning Shona made delicious breakfast burritos. Gage reminded us of his offer, but we sadly had to leave. We headed back to Duane’s house in Phoenix. We spent most of the afternoon indoors, to hide from the sun. We cooled off a bit in the pool, walking quickly over the hot concrete. For dinner that evening, Duane and Wink took us to an amazing Italian restaurant. It was a small, family-run restaurant very close to their house. Duane told me that this restaurant was very similar to the ones they ate at in Italy. Allison and I don’t normally eat pasta at restaurants. But if they were all as good as this place, I would throw that rule out. After dinner we finished packing up our things, and left very early the next day. 

I had a wonderful time in Phoenix. It was great getting to see my family. I was also glad that Allison got the chance to get to know them better- we haven’t had the chance to hang out with them on more of a one-on-one (or two-on-two) basis. We both hope we get to visit Phoenix/Mesa again, very soon!

-Marc




The McDonalds near the Grand Canyon is one of the most expensive in the country. A double quarter pounder with cheese meal is almost $10!

Cactus, Cactuses, Cacti.



Allison likes taking pictures of people taking pictures with iPads.



It's Grand!





Isn't it Grand?