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