Good morning! This post is about our most recent escapade - a trip that began in Portland, OR and ended in Seaview/Ilwaco, WA - with a couple stops in between.
We began our drive North on Saturday morning and arrived in Portland around 3 p.m., which was the check-in time for our hotel. I know I teased this hotel a bit in my last post, so here's the full deal:
The hotel we stayed at was called the Inn at the Convention Center. If you ever travel to Portland and are looking up deals for hotels on Hotwire, beware of the 2-star hotel in the Rose Garden Arena area. The price is tempting, but I should have sprung the extra $10-$15 to get us a 3-star. It wasn't like it was crawling with cockroaches and we heard gunshots, but it was extremely old, the elevator smelled like pee, our room was connected to someone else's with a door, and sleeping was near impossible because of the light rail that passed what seemed every 5 minutes right outside our window. Oh - and we're pretty sure that we saw a hooker waiting for her client in the lobby. The one perk was that we got free parking, which is always welcome.
As for Portland itself, it was pretty much what we were expecting, a mix between Seattle and Ithaca, NY, where we went to school. After checking into the hotel, we took the light rail (which, while I cursed it through the night, was free) to our first stop - the Saturday market, where we walked among various food, clothing, and knick-knack vendors and munched on kettle corn. I couldn't help but be reminded of the Ithaca Applefest - especially when we passed some musicians performing to a crowd of hippies dancing freely in the street.
After the market, we made our way across town to the Rogue Public House. I was under the impression that we would be visiting the brewery, but was informed upon arrival that the brewery is actually in Bend, OR. They did have a whiskey distillery at the Public House but it was not currently operating - much to the disappointment of Mr. Adam. Oh well! We made the best of things - we were hungry so we had an early dinner and a pint. I had the Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout, which I must say I quite enjoyed. It was very rich, flavorful, and smooth. I've become quite a stout fan of late. I'm pretty sure Adam had some kind of IPA, since that's his thing, but they served it to him in a special goblet-type glass, so it may have been something else. Whatever it was, it was very hoppy. The pub fare was reasonably priced, nothing extraordinary but not bad by any means.
Our next stop was Powell's City of Books - pure heaven. We spent about an hour in there but we could have stayed much longer. They have every kind of book you can imagine, the store basically covers an entire block. They even had a rare book room - that was torturous. Almost as bad at the rare wines section at liquor stores. I considered buying an older edition of The Blithedale Romance, one of my favorite books by Hawthorne, but it was a bit pricey. It was amazing just to pick those books up and smell them though, I think that's one of my favorite smells in the world. *Sigh*
After the bookstore, we found a cozy restaurant (Davis Street Tavern) and went inside to share a bottle of red wine and some delicious lemon cheesecake. It reminded me of my study-abroad stint in Buenos Aires, when I would meet up with friends every Thursday night for wine and dessert. There's simply nothing better than that combination! I highly recommend that restaurant for anyone who wants to enjoy a quiet, classy bite.
On our way back to our wonderful accommodations, we of course had to make a stop at Voodoo Donuts, and we of course had to wait in line for 20-30 minutes. I was pretty proud of myself for convincing Adam to do that, he is most certainly not a line person. He almost made me regret it though when he loudly imitated the raucous laughter of the group of college bros in front of us - luckily they just got awkward and silent afterwards instead of trying to start something. Oh Adam. In the end it was all worth it because we got three delicious donuts each.
After settling back into our room, we spent a fitful night of semi-sleep in the hotel. We woke up around 7 the next morning ready to get the heck out. We made one final stop before leaving Portland, and it proved to be my favorite - The International Rose Test Garden! Of course, I can't go to a rose garden without being reminded of our wedding last August, so I was bound to love it, but this place was truly beautiful. Roses of every color filled our eyes and noses as we strolled hand-in-hand down the brick lanes of the garden. It set the tone for next part of our trip - the beautiful and relaxing seashore of coastal Oregon and Washington!
Our next stop was Ecola State Park and Cannon Beach, OR. Cannon Beach is where much of the movie The Goonies was filmed (think giant rock on the beach). Well, we saw that giant rock, and many more like it! On the other side of Ecola State Park was Indian Beach, where part of Point Break was filmed. I haven't seen that movie but Adam was pretty excited about it, and the beach was beautiful. Lots of surfers were taking advantage of the crashing waves, and the water was a lovely light blue-green color. After Ecola State Park we kept the Goonies torch alive and headed over to Astoria. We had lunch by the water where we had a view of the incredible Astoria-Megler bridge we would soon be crossing, visited the Goondocks house, and finally visited the jailhouse from the movie, which has been converted into The Oregon Film Museum. They had lots of memorabilia from The Goonies and other movies filmed in Oregon. We even got to "film a scene" from Kindergarten Cop. It was basically just Adam sitting at a table and saying "It's not a tumor!" but it was still fun. As an added bonus, Adam was (of course) able to identify quotes from 10 different movies filmed in Oregon on the wall and received a free dubloon from the museum gift shop!
Finally, we said goodbye to the state of Oregon and crossed the magnificent Astoria-Megler bridge to head to our bed and breakfast in coastal Washington. We checked in at the Shelburne Inn in Seaview and got our keys to the private China Beach Retreat in Ilwaco, the next town over. Our room was truly lovely. Everything that you would expect from a classy B&B - floral bedspread, floral wallpaper, a stunning view of the water, and my favorite - a gigantic jacuzzi bathtub! On our first evening there we drove to Shelburne Inn's restaurant to take advantage of our dining credit (by the way, we found this place through Livingsocial Escapes, which means we basically paid half price for our stay and received a bunch of freebies). Adam had a steak and I enjoyed duck on a bed of greens - we were both quite pleased. We washed it down with some delicious Pinot Noir and the inn's own amazing water infused with herbs, lemon, and cucumber. If any of you are friends with Adam on facebook you probably saw his status about the loud bigot sitting nearby ranting and raving for the whole tiny restaurant to hear about how agnosticism is the devil, college professors are brainwashing students, and there is something "not quite right" about Obama. Oh, and that's right, how happy he was that his daughter got into a horrible car accident because it "shocked her" into believing in Jesus. It took a lot of strength on Adam's part not to turn around and tell him a thing or two about a thing or two, I was very proud. Thankfully, about half an hour after we arrived, he departed with his friend, who barely got two words in during their "conversation". Phew! After that the evening was just beyond perfect. We shared some delicious chocolatey concoction for dessert and headed back to our room for the night. The next day we had breakfast and mimosas at the inn (if you ever go there their "Green Eggs and Ham" is AMAZING - think pesto) did a bit of sightseeing and visited a lavender farm. The lady who ran it was a bit offbeat but nice enough. We climbed the farm's treehouse, smelled a few varieties of lavender, saw some turkeys, chickens, and rabbits, and purchased some lavender sachets and fudge before departing. That evening we went to the inn's pub, where I enjoyed some Malbec and Adam got to try Redbreast Irish whiskey. After the pub we got a pizza and headed back to our room for a relaxing evening. On our final morning, we packed our things, had breakfast at the inn, and began our 3-hour drive back home, where our doggy was anxiously anticipating our arrival.
If you are ever considering a stay in this area, I highly recommend the Shelburne Inn and China Beach Retreat, the innkeepers are delightful, the rooms are gorgeous, and the food is incredible. We got our deal through Livingsocial but they also did one through Groupon and are considering doing it again in the fall, so if you use either one of these services, be sure to watch for it in your email! We had a truly wonderful time and are considering going back to stay in the Cannon Beach area for our 1-year anniversary in August. Either way, we both know we'll be back one day.
