Portland, Oregon Coast, & Southern OR

Hey Everyone! Well, were a bit behind on the posts, but we're catching up. Right now, we're about to head from the Redwoods National Park to central California. We got out of Oregon just a few days ago. This was my favorite state we've been too and it definitely lived up to my expectations, and you'll for sure see some of that here in our pictures, as Nell was on top of her game with the camera...

We came down from Washington State on Friday and woke up on Saturday and headed straight for the Burnside Bridge Market. This sign is right in downtown as you cross the Burnside Bridge.

The market had some characters from all walks of life. Despite this gentleman having one arm, he was actually pretty good.

Still not fully recovered from Bogota, we decided to get a hotel room and have date night. This night we went to a place called McMenamins Edgefield. McMenamins is a company that takes old properties and more or less, "flips" them. They turned this old Edgefield estate into a winery, restaurant, hotel. It was beautiful and their micro brews were great.

Nell is beautiful.

See?

This was taken from inside a tree from one of their gardens.

After a nice stay in a hotel, and church at Imago Dei, we headed east to the Columbia River Gorge where Julie's friend Gaby and her family have a house and opened it up for us to stay the night. Right down the road from her house, on the river, we ran across a kite-surfing festival, thus all the kites above and below. It was really fun to watch.

Sunset from Gaby's cabin. It was beautiful. Nell got some great shots of our setting.

If I ever need a cd cover...

She is so creative and has such a good eye.






We even had a little photo shoot in the window.

Nell's first self portrait. Except with a camera.



Gaby's home. What a great place and wonderful time we had. It was great just to have a place all to ourselves.

I even got to get up and enjoy a quiet morning reading, drinking coffee while looking over at Mt. Hood... ya know, what I was created to do.

Mt. Hood was on one side of Gaby's hill, and Mt. Adams (shown here) is on the other. Also, while looking over the gorge, if you look west toward Portland, you see green, where the rain comes in and spends about 300 days a year. If you look east... desert. The rain trickles out right around their house. It's pretty cool.

Leaving Gaby's, we stopped at cherry orchard. Before this, we thought a cherry was what they put on top of milkshakes at Sonic. Not even close. We might have found a favorite fruit.

Nell had been wanting to pick berries for a while, so the fact that we were picking fruit made her pretty happy.

Multnomah Falls

After that, we went back to Portland to stay with Duke and Caroline Revard. They are starting Lodgepole Fellowship Church there in Portland with Josh and Laurel. We definitely clicked with them and had a great time getting to know them.

One day, we got on our bikes and had our own personal tour guide, Caroline, of the city. This is Doug Fir Lounge, where, apparently, great music happens.

Nell and Caroline. Today, Duke was playing Mr. Mom and we failed to get a picture of him and the girls. Big regret... sorry Revards! But thanks so much for hosting us for a few days!

Me at Pioneer Square.

Portland's famous International Rose Garden.

Mmmm...

If I could describe Portland in a picture, it'd probably be this one... except, with a micro brewed beer in the kid's hand.

Portland

23rd St.

Powell's bookstore... my favorite bookstore of all time. It passed Dickson St. Used Books for sure.

We were on our way out of Portland and I had to stop in Powell's to get a new Moleskin journal.

We loved Portland and we're so happy that at least Josh and Laurel are moving there so we can see it more... who knows, maybe we'll end up there too.

We also went to the Oregon coast to Cannon Beach.

This is Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, where they filmed the last scene of the Goonies.

We walked on the beach for a bit and enjoyed it. It was a little chilly, and so around lunch, we took off and headed south.

And by south, we mean Eugene. We spent a beautiful day on our bikes, touring the college town. (Ps, Oregon summers are incredible).

Duck fans? Why not. Here were are at Track Town, USA. Where, more or less, Nike started. This was really cool and we didn't realize the track and field legacy of UO until we went to the local Nike store. The entire town is about running, and you definitly get the feel of it.

Before we knew what legacy there was, we pulled up to their outdoor track center and were pretty surprised. Being from Fayetteville, record holder of the most track national championships, we were suprised that UO's track was way bigger than ours, then later, we understood it. Haystack Field also hosted the Olympic Trials for track and field earlier this year.

After Eugene, Nell got in the berry picking mood again. Specifically, blueberries. Apparently, cherry picking couldn't fill her void. So we did some research, and made a stop in Roseburg, OR.

The setting was perfect. 80 degrees, in the valley of the Cascade foothills. It felt a little like the Ozarks in May.

Well, this might rival for our longest blog. Thanks for following us. For all you who know Josh and Laurel, you need to go visit them.. they're moving to a pretty sweet place.

Redwoods National Park and Northern California blog to follow soon...