Jess signed off staring down the barrel of a 10 hour drive to Portland, and neither of us were excited to spend an entire day driving. For those that haven't seen the Californian country side, once you leave the Cities and the Townships it is boring. Our trip was spent on the Interstate 5, so that is what my opinion is based off.
It wasn't until we passed the town of Redding that things started to change. We entered the mountains of Shasta Lake and what was originally barren plains of farmland became lush forests. Americans refer to this time of year as Fall, for us Aussies it is Autumn. It was hard to find the right words to describe how the forest lit up as the sunlight hit it. The reds, oranges and yellows set the forest ablaze with colour in amongst the green pines. It was just beautiful, and this scenery carried on all the way to the border. This was how we met Oregon, a brightly coloured beautiful State.
Before we reached Portland for the night we stopped in a town called Salem for Applebee's. No this wasn't the same Salem as the Witch Trials, however it was the first time we ate at an Applebee's! Our general opinion of the experience was great! Cheap tasty food, friendly service and a fun atmosphere mainly because the Colts beat the Broncos. At this point it is 9:30pm and we still have another hour to drive before we reach our pit stop in Portland.
Portland unfortunately wasn't a big stop on our trip, it was an overnight break at Hostelling International's Portland Guesthouse before heading to Seattle so in total we spent maybe 14 hours there, including sleep. Definitely our biggest mistake of this trip. Portland is the kind of city you want to live in, its a Big City with the Small town feel. So let me wrap up our experience there...
10:30pm we check into the HI Northwest Portland Guesthouse. It is one of three stunning Heritage listed buildings on the block that have been converted into hostel style accommodation. Sleep!
7:30a.m Alarm goes off... Sleep..
8:17a.m Wake up realizing we have no time. Showers are had, teeth are brushed, car is packed, we check out and buy a coffee from World Cup Tea and Coffee across the road. Relax... Walk in Couch Park across the other side of the road.
10:30a.m We arrive at Voodoo Donuts. Now these guys have revolutionized the idea of a donut! It's funky, it's original and best of all inexpensive! As with anything worth having in the States there is a line. Thankfully it wasn't an hour and a half like Mama's (not complaining) but within 20minutes we had a box full of donuts and we were ready to go for a walk in Forest Park.
11a.m Jess and I both love nature, Jess being a photographer likes taking photos, I like making stupid jokes about everything. We went for a lovely walk through Portland's Forest Park. It is huge, we only saw like a shard of ice after the titanic hit the tip of the iceberg kind of huge. Words do no justive so look at the pretty pictures below.
3:30p.m Three hours later, 43 punch buggies and an empty tank of Gas we reached Seattle. And yes we counted punch buggies, anybody that knows Jess and I knows that we have intense games but neither of us could believe how many we saw.
Stay tuned for Jess's post on what goes on in Seattle.
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