Sarah and Lori's Most Excellent Oregon Adventure
Finally!  Its Friday, its Ridiculously Early O'Clock and time for my long, long-overdue trip to Portland!! I have been trying to visit Portland literally for years and, each time I've booked my trip, the last three times I've had to cancel because of work. This time, however, I was not to be thwarted, and Lori was joining me for the long Memorial Day weekend - its been a while since our last adventure, so we were definitely overdue some fun!

Road trip!!  Our trusty M&M steed.

So, as with all the best trips, the alarm goes off while its still dark, and we're up and bleary-eyed at 4am, and off to the airport ready for our 6.30am flight to Portland.  Thanks to Jeff Smisek (the CEO of United who i'm developing a bit of a crush on - but thats another story), we'd got upgraded to First class on the way out (yey for United 1K!), so it was a very comfortable, smooth - and short - flight.

With barely enough time to chow down on the complimentary chocolate chip scone (still warm!) and chug back even more coffee to wake ourselves up, we arrived in Portland, after having flown over some spectacular scenery.  The ruggedness of the mountains and the verdant cloak of trees bursting with a deep resonant green, reminded me of both Vermont and Bhutan - a hybrid of two of my most favorite places on the planet.  I knew we were going to be in for a treat.

Our itinerary was fairly loose, but we'd decided to head up to the coast for the first day, then across towards Mount St. Helens for the second day, before spending our final day in Portland itself.  We figured that would be enough to give us a taste for the area - not spend too much time in the car driving, but far enough that we'd get to see a lot of surrounding countryside and coast, outside of just the city limits.  Because it was a holiday weekend, I'd booked our accommodation ahead of time, just to be on the safe side, but other than that - it was just time to go with the flow!


As we deplaned and passed through the arrivals lounge, it was soon clear that our destination was somewhat different than the usual tourist hotspots.  Yep.  I think this was the first time ever I've arrived somewhere to be met with an outdoors clothing store in arrivals, rather than the usual array of resort t-shirts, sunglasses and flip flops.  Instead, here was a Columbia store fully stocked with the widest array possible of rain wear, thermal vests and woolly hats.  Something told me it might get a bit chilly here (and prompted instant Biggest Loser thoughts about our state of preparedness....).

What we were also beginning to realize was that, when we flew to Oregon, we also seemed to have entered the Twilight zone.  No, no, no -  I don't mean that one (the one with sulky Kristen Stewart and plenty of cougar fodder - although a lot of it was filmed in Oregon, so...) but I meant the classic one, the doo-doo-do-doo....doo-doo-do-dooo one.  The one where time seems to bend, to slow down or to stop entirely.  The one where you keep checking your watch and saying "I can't believe its only ".   Such as......

Plane lands in Oregon: " I can't believe its only 8.30am!"

We hit the road after picking up our hire car:  "I can't believe its only 10.00am!"

We arrive in Seaside to have lunch: "I can't believe its only midday!"

We arrive at our hotel to check in: "I can't believe its only 1.00pm!"

Waking up after a quick afternoon nap: "I can't believe its still only 2.30pm!"

.....and so on, and so forth.  You get the general idea.  It was very weird.  Well, I guess thats just what happens when you get up at 4am in the morning...there's a lot more of the day to play with.

Anyway, as expected, the drive towards the coast was absolutely spectacular, as we wound our way out of Portland, and up out on Highway 26 through Tillamook State Forest (more on that later...).  There were some fantastic names of creeks and mountains - Clatsop state forest, Wolf Creek, Saddle Mountain, Rock Creek to name a few, although I did get extremely concerned at one stage about "Ebola Creek" - until I realized - because I didnt have my specs on - it read "Ecola Creek" instead.  Phew.   If you're interested in the route we took, here's a link to learn more about the Oregon coast:

http://visittheoregoncoast.com/pdf/OCVA_PCSBBrochure.pdf

Our little red Toyota Corolla (lovingly nicknamed the M&M - i don't know why, it was the first name that came to mind) made jolly good time so, before we knew it (and thanks to cruise control which i finally figured out how to use), we arrived at our first destination of Seaside, just before lunchtime.  Perfect timing.  Enough time to check into the Wayside Inn, dump the bags and then wander off to find somewhere for lunch.

Except we weren't staying in Seaside.

We were staying in Cannon Beach, 5 miles down the road.

Oops.

I'm not sure how that happened but, no big deal, we decided to stop for lunch anyway to rest and refuel after the drive and early start.  Lori ended up having an omelette the size of her head, while I had a Kobe beef meatball thing which was OK, but way too salty.  Fortunately, there was a mimosa (just one!) on hand to wash it all down with.

After lunch, we calorie coma'ed back to the car for the short drive down to Cannon Beach.  According to our waitress, Cannon Beach was much nicer than Seaside, so we felt suitably smug that we were actually staying there, rather than in Seaside (which did have a slightly depressing air to it).  We found our hotel easily, a place called the Wayfair Inn which - as we soon learned the difference - was ocean "view" not ocean "side".   Ahhh....how the devil is always in the details!!  But, despite the ocean being just across the street as opposed to lapping at the doorstep, it was actually fine.   It wasn't all that fancy, but it had a fireplace, a balcony overlooking the sea, a coffee maker and plenty of room, with a separate lounge area, 2 bathrooms (one each!) and two queen beds that were rather oddly placed at right angles to each other.  Made me wonder who effed up the measurements when they were originally planning out the layout of that room.


Anyway, the effort of staying awake after a 4am start, a 2hr flight, a 2hr drive PLUS an enormous lunch simply proved too great, so Lori and I solidified our emergent status as Old Farts In Training by taking a mid-afternoon nap.   Lovely.  But it was OK - we were in the Twilight Zone so, even after a solid hour or so's kip, it was still only 2.30pm!!  Bonza!  Half the day still left to explore!!  We chilled out for a bit more, illegally feeding the birds on the balcony with the completely superfluous garlic baguette i'd been issued with my lunch, before finally getting our arses off the couch to wander over to the beach to explore.

Wow.

Can I just say that the Oregon coast is simply stunning?  Its just beautiful with a far more desolate (in a good way) and raw feel than the Californian equivalent.  I think also the lack of people added to that wilderness edge - despite it being a holiday weekend (even though it was still only 4.30pm!), there was hardly anyone about.  You can see from the pictures that the beach wasn't crammed full of people which was just lovely.  One of the highlights of this particular stretch of coast is Haystack Rock - a big pointy rock that's very impressive.

Almost as impressive was the absolute abundance of Tsunami warning signs that were absolutely everywhere!  And we weren't just talking "oh by the way, you're in a tsunami zone" - the rather off-hand notices you see posted in San Francisco.  Oh no.  These had colors, and maps, and zones, and marked routes and EVERYTHING.  They were posted on the beach.  They were posted in public restrooms.  They also occupied a large portion of the "Welcome to the Wayside Inn" brochure that graced our room.  It was enough to make you feel, if not nervous, then more acutely aware of the fact you are in an earthquake zone than you feel back in SF.

So we wandered along the beach for a bit, enjoying the beautiful views and the sensation of numbness in my toes as I padded in bare feet across the wet sand.   Lori also found a friend - a very cute dog who seemed to be just hanging out, enjoying the beach too.  She had a collar on and was in great condition, so obviously had a home but for a few minutes, it did seem as if we'd picked up more on the beach than just shells - until fortunately she got bored and wandered off.

It was rather chilly, despite the sunshine (at least it had stopped raining from earlier in the day), so after about a half hour or so, it was time to head back to the Inn and get ready to go out for dinner.  Our destination - the Warren House Pub, which claimed "An English Ambience" and a very English-style relaxed attitude towards closing time (lock-in!).  A prime setting for what was to be the Grudge Match of the Century......

Yes, it was time for the Return of .........Wildlife Bingo......

Who won?  STAY TUNED to find out.....

Pretty row of houses in Cannon Beach - for some reason,
reminded me of the UK

In Oregon, Tuesday is the New Sunday

But I don't want an oven - i just want a pizza!

Hanging ten on the balcony.  Hardcore relaxing and chillin'
 (just out of shot: the hundreds of birds congregating hoping
for some more garlic bread action)

Puppy love