Road Trip V: Portland

So the day after the Redwoods was mostly a driving day. We had planned to go to Crater Lake but we had been doing so much driving and it was pretty far out of our way, so we decided to just head up to Portland in a leisurely fashion that day. It was a beautiful drive through nice forested areas. We stopped in Eugene around the University of Oregon for some lunch, and then got to Portland in the evening.

Once we made it to Portland we drove up the Columbia River Highway or whatever it's called up the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at some beautiful waterfalls and did a little bit of hiking. The Gorge is really lovely.




Then we had the BEST Thai food we've ever had (even though it was from a restaurant in a slightly sketchy neighborhood -- but Yelp told us to go there, and Yelp did not lead us astray; Todd doubted Yelp, but I believed, and I prevailed). Then we actually made it to our hotel before midnight or later for the first time in several days, so we got some sleep.

In the morning we headed into Portland. We first went to the famous Powell's bookstore. I was surprised at how much fun we had (I mean I like bookstores, but we were taking two small children so it wasn't like we could just leisurely look around). Plus, massive bookstore with massively high shelves and an escape artist for a toddler = recipe for disaster. But Todd and I took turns exploring a bit in the store while the other stayed with the kids at some tables in the children's section and read lots of books with Joseph. Joseph loved getting the books off of the shelves and reading. I took pictures of some books I wanted, and then downloaded them on my Kindle. Sorry, Powell's. We did buy a couple of children's books, though.

After Powell's we went and found some lunch, and then explored a bit around town. We went to a fancy-pants children's toy store that was a lot of fun. Oh, except that the children's toy store did not allow you to throw away diapers in the trash cans. Which I understand because they don't want the place getting smelly, but here is the one problem with Portland: there are no trash cans anywhere in public! This is very bewildering to me because it is a very clean city. But how is it so clean if it is impossible to find trash cans? I guess people are like backpackers and then pack it out. Anyway, I digress.

After the toy store, we went to a splash park/fountain and Joseph had a great time splashing around. Then it was getting time to head up to Seattle so we grabbed some cupcakes and then headed up north to my cousin's house.