Oregon

The first stop on our Oregon trip was Mt. St. Helens, which is actually in Washington.  We went to the Johnston Ridge Observatory but knew before we got there that it wasn't going to be a totally fulfilling trip - we could hardly see 50 feet in front of the car.  The observatory was interesting - some interactive exhibits, lots of personal stories from the eruption, and a dramatic movie with a computer generated reenactment.  We never really saw the mountain, which was disappointing, but the observatory is clouded in about 65% of the time so it would be really lucky to get a view.  When we got down the mountain, the weather started to clear a bit.  We went to a Mt. St. Helen's gift shop where we found lots of Helenite jewelry; Helenite, also known as Mt. St. Helen's emerald, is made by burning ash from the eruption.  I have always felt a connection to Mt. St. Helens since the anniversary of the eruption is the same date as my birthday, so I bought some Helenite earrings.  The best purchase though was Ellie's Mt. St. Helen's before and after salt and pepper shakers (a brilliant idea I thought I had come up with minutes before entering the store where I realized someone else had already come up with the idea).

From Mt. St. Helens, we headed to Oregon.  Bypassing Portland, we visited Multnomah Falls about 30 minutes east of Portland along the Columbia River.  The falls are quite a tourist destination complete with paved paths, a restaurant, and a gift shop.  It is not typically the type of site I like to visit since it was so crowded, but the waterfall was beautiful and once we hiked beyond the main viewing area the crowds lessened.  Multnomah Falls is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States.  It is 582 feet but not very wide.  A 1.25 mile hike took us to the top where we could just look over the edge from a platform.  While the hike was mostly uphill, the views of the Columbia River Gorge were wonderful from almost all of the spots on the trail.

Photo by E. Pittinger

After our short hike at the falls, we headed back to Portland where we ate some delicious pub food at Henry's Tavern followed by delicious ice cream (I had Oregon Strawberry) at Ruby Jewel Ice Cream.  The next morning we visited Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Voodoo Donuts where I had the dirt donut (a white frosted donut  with crumbled Oreo cookies on it) and a Portland Cream (essentially just a Boston cream donut).  The donuts were very innovative, but I didn't find them any better than any other donuts I have ever had.  In fact, I think the chocolate frosted donut at Rielly's bakery in Biddeford, ME, though simple, could beat Voodoo Donuts any day.  Portland is a weird combination of classic, modern, and hip though a bit dingy.  I also felt like some of the people we encountered were a little hipster stand-offish as in way too cool to interact pleasantly with us.  We definitely did not spend enough time in Portland to get a true sense of the city.  Later in the morning, we headed to Washington Park where we visited the World Forestry Center Discovery Museum.  The museum was super interactive, so maybe more full for the dozens of elementary school children who were visiting while we were,  but once the kids went to lunch, we were able to try out all the interactive exhibits including simulations of logging, smoke-jumping, and white-water rafting.  After a brief lunch in the Arboretum, we headed west toward the coast.  

Photo by E. Pittinger

Coastal Oregon was by far the best part of our trip.  I have never seen such a beautiful coastline.  Most of what we saw was steep tree covered hillsides leading to cliffs leading to sandy beaches.  There were also many large rock formations out in the surf.  At Smuggler's Cove in Oswald West State Park, a secluded beach accessed by a 3/4 mile hike, we saw wonderful tide pools filled with sea anemones, star fish, tiny fish, and crabs.  The rocks around the tide pools were so encrusted with sea life that none of the rock was visible.  After leaving Smuggler's Cove, we headed a little north to Ecola State Park where we got a lovely view of Haystack Rock (a large rock formation in the surf that serves as a refuge for many sea birds) and Tilly lighthouse (a lighthouse built a bit out to see on a rock formation).  This view is made famous by The Goonies because it is where the shot of the medallion lining up with the rocks was shot.  

Photo by E. Pittinger

Once inspired by the view at Ecola State Park, we headed to Astoria, where parts of the The Goonies were filmed.  Astoria is just like in The Goonies, in fact, it looks a bit stuck in the '80s.  However, this is a good thing because it is not a pretentious town at all.  People were so friendly there.  We had a delicious dinner at the Fort George Brewery, which included their house made sausage and lots of local brews.  After the brewery, we went up to the house used as the Walsh's house in The Goonies.  The owners are so generous as to let people walk up their driveway and take pictures of the house.  From the house, we could hear the barking of sea lions; this was not just a quiet noise, but a loud roar of barking despite the fact that we were about a half mile from the water.  We headed down to a pier to check out the commotion and saw hundreds of sea lions camped up on the pier for the night.  They were piled on top of each other and jumping in and out of the water.  It was better than anything you could ever see in a zoo.  That night, on a Goonies high, we watched the Goonies to prepare for a tour of the town the next day.  Despite the rain the next day, we went to the jail where the opening scene of the movie was filmed; the jail is now the Oregon Film Museum.  The museum had some props from the movie as well as information on other movies (300) filmed in Oregon.  We also saw the history museum that features in one scene of The Goonies (when the kids are riding down the street and wave to Mikey's Dad who is talking down the flag at the museum).   Since it was such a rainy day we had a quiet lunch at T-Paul's Urban Cafe then headed north back to Washington.

Ellie and I doing the truffle shuffle in front of the Goonies house