NerdyPixel

Our day started in Bend, Oregon. What a cool little up-and-coming artsy town! Breakfast at the Mill Inn was WONDERFUL! (Seeing as we’re eating lots of PB&J sandwiches while touring, a multi-course, hot meal was a welcome change!) We then drove out to Pilot Butte, a dormant volcano within city limits. Did you know that Bend is one of only three towns that has a volcano officially in it? The other two are in Portland and Hawaii. Alas, it would have been a great lookout, but it was closed.

Then, it was off to the Cascade Lakes scenic byway. Despite “road closed” signs, we snaked our way around a few business parks to make it on the hwy, that was in fact, NOT closed =) The 50+ mile detour brought us past no less than 10 pristine lakes. The water was so flat you could see perfect reflections of snow-capped mountains in them. The air was so fresh and crisp. The forest was so quiet, you could hear the birds and the trickle of water. Every lake we pulled into had a handful of campers and fishermen on paddle boats. The serenity and beauty of these hidden gems was truly breathtaking. It’s going to be awfully hard to go back to NC =(

After meandering past the lakes, we arrived at Crater Lake NP. Wow! We pulled up to our first overlook and had to scramble up snowbanks so tall, that rangers had cut stairs into them. Standing on the rim, we were at elevation 7,000 feet. The water was such a deep shade of blue. For a park that is only accessible 3 months of the year (they get 40+ feet of snow there annually), it was surprisingly not crowded. We drove around Rim Drive until we reached Cleetwood Cove. From there, we descended 700 feet over the course of 1 mile (hiking poles to the rescue!) to reach the boathouse on the lake. Unfortunately all the boat tours for the day were sold out, but we enjoyed the different perspective from down below. We heard you could swim in the lake; we thought it’d be cool to claim you swam in one of the deepest lakes in the world (7th, in case you’re wondering; formed by a volcano that collapsed thousands of years ago). As it turns out, there is a rock outcropping about 20 feet about the water that you can JUMP off of into the crystal blue 45-degree water. This was an opportunity not to be missed, and thankfully, we were wearing quick-dry hiking gear. The pictures of us in free-fall are pretty cool, no?

Lastly, we drove out to the Pinnacles, which are these 100-foot spires that stick out of the earth, formed by hardened steam vents when the Volcano was erupting. Very cool! Afterwards, we headed west, back to spend the night in Medford, OR to rest up for our next part of this adventure. Stay tuned!

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Our day begin on the outskirts of Portland. We actually woke up to a thunderstorm. It wouldn’t be the Pacific NW w/o a little bit o’ rain, right? We then drove along hwy 84, which ran parallel to the Hood River.

Despite the cloud cover, you could make out the lush cliffs that line this corridor. First stop was Mantomah falls, a 700-foot year-round waterfall literally right next to hwy. Very cool.

We then stopped at a fish hatchery & dam. We fed the rainbow trout at the hatchery, visited a 70-yr-old 400-lb sturgeon named Herman and got to see a fish ladder with Salmon running up in in action.

Next stop was the cute little town of Hood River. We had a sampler at Full Sail brewery and watched the kite surfers in action on the river below. We then made our way up the hill in town to the “Fruit Loop” – I kid you not. Apparently, they grow a ton of fruit in this region thanks to the fertile land and lots of rain. We bought some Bing & Rainier Cherries and then went Lavender picking.

The moment you step out of the car, you can smell it, and it’s soo pretty whisping in the wind. We now have a bundle of it “drying” in the back of our Ford Escape. Haha! It smells nice every time we get in the car.

It was then on the Mt. Hood. Despite the clouds, the sun started to poke through and we were hoping to have good views from this 11,000 foot mountain. Alas, the clouds kept hanging around on the mountain and the chair lift to take you up for a better view was closed already. We hiked a bit up in the snow and poked around int he beautiful Timberline Lodge.

After Mt. Hood, it was then on to Bend, OR for the night. Along the way, the landscape turned from forest to desert, then to fruit farms. Bizarre, but beautiful. We also passed over a 300-foot chasm that warranted a pull off the hwy. The day was filled with pleasant “I didn’t know this was here, but cool!” surprises.

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After picking up our rental car in Seattle, we drove ~3 hrs down to Portland. We dropped our bags at the hotel and took the lightrail into the city. I had heard many good things about Portland and was anxious to check it out. If you’re looking for a mid-sized city with a really funky culture, good beer, and love to ride your bike (they have entire streets shut off just for bikes), this is the city for you!

Even though it was a Sunday, the “Saturday Market” was going on in town. By far, the biggest market/street fair I’ve ever seen. Also notable was the high local-to-tourist ratio. This market is for Portlanders, NOT just tourists (like Pike’s Place or Fisherman’s Wharf). We then walked past Vodoo Doughnuts, which seemed way cool in my tourbooks (fruitloop doughnuts anyone?), but the line was out the door, so we decided to pass. Instead, we went on the sampling tour at Deschutes (black butte xxiii and chainbreaker w lemonade were our favorites of the day), Rogue (overpriced and poor service), Bridgeport (cool atmosphere, but at this point, we were already “beered” out), and Amnesia, where we had Brats and Beer. We followed it up with some killer ice cream afterwards and went home to the hotel very content people.

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I think we are finally caught up on sleep! After two days of feeling like zombies, we treated ourselves to a relaxing morning at the Empress (as one should do when staying at such nice hotels =) We slept in, went for a swim in the pool and spa (we had it all to ourselves!), then packed our bags and left them with the porter before setting out to explore the town.

We were told that Beacon Hill Park was a nice place in town only a few blocks from the waterfront. Indeed, it was a nice place for a walk with numerous duck ponds, fountains & flower beds. We sat down to eat lunch (and perhaps feed the ducks) and I pulled out my “walking tour” list that I printed out at home. It said something about a scenic overloook nearby where we were. We figured we’d give it a try and my oh my, what a wonderful surprise it was.

After cresting a hill, the trees opened up and one could see snow-capped mountains in the distance (Olympic NP in Washington). As we got closer, we noticed the cliffs that dropped out to the beach. We hiked down and scrambled over rocks; what a neat hike! We ended up at water-break that juts several hundred feet out into the ocean to protect Victoria’s inner harbour. We saw all sorts of marine life (purple sea-stars and an octopus!) while out there. We treated ourselves to ice cream and headed back into town to catch the Clipper back to Seattle.

The boat ride back was also rewarding with views of Whistler, Olympic Mtns, and Mt. Rainier. Pulling 30 knots, we made it back to Seattle just before dark, caught a quick dinner then caught the bus back to the hotel. What a fantastic day!

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We had a very rushed start to the day, after thinking we had allowed plenty of time to catch our ship to Victoria, BC, we discovered en route that we were actually cutting it super close. We made it just by the hairs on our chin and boarded the 7:30 high-speed catamaran. It was smooth sailing. We enjoyed the photo-ops from the deck despite being tousled by the wind.

After arriving in Victoria, we walked around the waterfront, I had my first Nanaimo bar (delicious! I’m learning how to make them when I get home), toured the British Columbia Parliment building and hopped on the bus to Butchart Gardens.

Despite being sleepy and put off by how expensive the tickets to a GARDEN cost, I soon ate my words. WOW! 50 acres, 500 gardeners, and millions of blooms later, I can honestly say that this is the most impressive gardens I’ve EVER seen. As one who can appreciate what it takes to tend to a garden, I was blown away by how perfect each and every flower was and how nicely arranged every bed was. Even more amazing is the fact that they replant entirely 4 times a year for the seasons. I’d move up here just so I could have a season pass to this place.

After returning via bus, we had pizza (yet again) and a local beer, before crashing almost immediately afterwards. The pace and travel has caught up with us and it’s time to recharge the batteries!

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After an almost two hour delay sitting on the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas (apparently the hydraulics on the cargo door weren’t working), we were off to Seattle. Long flight, but happy to be here. Today was about 65 degrees – what a welcome change from the oppressive Charlotte heat! We successfully navigated our way into the city using the bus system (no real need for a rental car until Sunday), we walked through the famous Pike’s Place market, visited the original Starbuck’s coffee shop, had some pizza for lunch (even though it was already dinner time back on the east coast), took some pictures of the Space Needle, visited the Experience Music Project (awesome!!!), did the Seattle Undergound tour, then had dinner at Pyramid Alehouse right next to SafeCo Field. Awesome day, and I’d write more, but we’re going on 3 hours’ sleep in the last 24 and have to wake up EARLY to catch the ferry to Victoria. Today was awesome, but tomorrow should be a bit more relaxing =)

Cheers!
Audrey & JD

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