Chasing Winter - Days 3 & 4 (Redwood Forrest and Portland)

Day 3

Today was a looooong day. I knew it was going to be long before we started but boy, it was long! Our goal was to leave San Francisco at 6:00am. We accidentally locked the house keys in the apartment before we got our things out. So, I had to call our host and have her call a friend who had a spare key and we had to drive an hour round trip to go collect said key in order to actually get on our way. Needless to say, that set us back a bit.
In spite of the rocky start, the day moved along fairly smoothly. We drove through Napa Valley and saw the fog that San Francisco denied us over the vineyards. I tried to capture a picture but it doesn’t do it justice, it was a gorgeous morning!

We then went from Napa to the Redwood forest. Wow, those trees are huge! They were really awe-inspiring. The colors were so vibrant. Shockingly these pictures were able to capture the clear turquoise water of the river underneath the green moss covered trees. I only wish I could have taken scratch and sniff pictures because the only thing better than being dwarfed by these wooden giants was the smell of the forest. So earthy and fresh! I could have stood there breathing the air all day and I would have been satisfied.

We ended up having lunch on a dock on the beach in Eureka, Ca. We found a great little hole in the wall sandwich shop whose name was literally “Hole in the Wall”. They made me the hugest sandwich I ever ate! One of the most delicious too. Lunch ended up being all we needed for the day which was good because the original plan was to meet up with my cousins for dinner before we got into Portland but because we were running so late we had to nix those plans. Fortunately they are flexible so they will meet us tomorrow night for dinner in Portland.

Our Plan B was to grab some Voodoo doughnuts for dinner. A pretty awesome dinner don’t you think?

Day 4

Well, we ended yesterday with doughnuts and started today with them! For breakfast we had Blue Star Doughnuts which we supposedly better than Voodoo according to the locals. I have to agree with the locals. Voodoo was ok, but nothing special really, I think it is more the presentation. Blue Star was just delicious. I think I could go a long while before having another doughnut though. I am a bit sugared out!

So, the big news is we found it! We found winter! Portland was in the 40’s and raining so we got to wear our winter coats and hats and everything. So happy! The rain made it all so beautiful too. We spent the first couple of hours of our day touring the city. Then we went to the Japanese Gardens, which were so beautiful. It is amazing that they were just nestled in the city. It was an amazing oasis and I loved walking through it.

We then went to Stumptown Coffee to warm up and got beautiful drinks – this is definitely not Starbucks!

And we spent over two hours wandering around Powell City Books. Talk about amazing! I could get lost in there - it was so great! We finished off our day having dinner with my cousins who live near Portland. I haven’t seen them in about 10 years so it was great to catch up even if it were just for an hour.

The best part of our day was the last. We went to The Fish and Chip Shop so that Cheryl could take a picture in “The Tardis Room” with David Tennant. 

This is the place:

Anyway, we walked in and landed near the stage of Karaoke night. Karaoke was taking place right in front of the photo opp. so the only way we were going to get a picture was to sing Karaoke. Cheryl had a mild panic attack and thought of the scene in “Adventures in Babysitting” where they were told, “No one gets out of here without singing the blues.” We hightailed it out of there before they could drag her onstage but she never got her picture. Nerd dream shattered.

Overall Portland was awesome, rainy, and cold. I loved it and will definitely be back.

Oh, and bit of trivia – over 30 characters on the Simpsons were named after streets in Portland. Weird and quirky. Love it!