Oregon Vacation Part 1
My summer vacation occurred early this year due to time constraints at work. Despite the fact that I had a good trip, in hindsight this wasn't a very good time to go to Oregon; Mother Nature dogged me the whole trip.
I left not long after the Iowa floods. The roads were open, but it was still raining, and there was stuff on the roads. I was halfway to Chicago's Midway airport, which is about a 235-mile drive, when something sharp pierced the inside of my tire and I had a blowout on Interstate 80. I pulled all the way off so my right tires were on the grass, zipped up my rainproof jacket, and started changing my ruined tire. Several cars drove by without pulling over to the left lane, and one truck splashed a wall of water all over me. My blue jeans got soaked and filthy. Luckily, my can-do attitude resulted in good karma, and before I could even get the tire off, a handsome DOT worker stopped and changed my tire for me. I was dry by the time I got to the airport, although I was still pretty dirty.
I had driven that distance so that I could fly Southwest, the one airline that still seems to be nice to its customers. My direct flight was inexpensive and included an ordinary baggage allowance and inflight snacks, and Southwest also had the best terminals, equipped with wide seats with electrical outlets for laptops. Southwest doesn't have reserved seating, so when I boarded the plane, I looked for people who seemed nice and were not too wide. I saw a couple of genial men and asked if I could sit between them, and they steered me to the window seat, which was even better. They were flying to Portland for the weekend to visit some old friends, and let me tell you, they had come prepared. They had more free drink coupons than they could use, and they had brought their own in-flight movie, Sideways of course. They were delightful.
In Portland I had reserved a rental car. The West Coast traffic was a bit of a shock at first, and I white-knuckled it until I got out of the city. It was a long drive to Pullman, Washington, where I had a reservation at the cheap and comfortable Pullman Hotel. Unfortunately, the effort was wasted, except as a fact-finding mission showing me that I really liked Pullman. Winter had brought a record snow pack, and all the forest roads around Mount Saint Helens were still closed, which was highly unusual and a huge drag.
Deprived of my hike, I drove back west, stopping for a huge breakfast at a diner. I think an entire potato went into my hashbrowns. While I waited, I watched the short-order cook like a hungry wolf, and every time she brought out someone else's order, I looked disappointed and involuntarily dropped my shoulders. Although the waitress brought everyone else their orders, the short-order cook handed me my food directly with an understanding smile. I ate every last speck of food, left a 30% tip, and took off.
I visited the lowest visitors' center at Mount Saint Helens, where I learned a great deal about the 1980s eruption, and I took the walking path along Spirit Lake, which I had hoped to observe from a great height at Norway Pass. Then I took off driving toward the innermost visitors' center and Johnson Observatory. I never made it there because I started to worry about running out of gas, but I saw some great views. I'll go back some time in August.
After dropping the car at the Portland airport, it was easy to hop on a commuter train into town. I opted to walk about 1.5 miles toward my friends' house, until the sidewalk ran out and I called my friends to rescue me. We visited several Portland parks, and I was really impressed with the city.
In the evening we decided to take our chances at Apizza Scholls, New York style pizza limited to three toppings. They only serve pizza until they run out of dough, which generally takes 2-3 hours. The pizza was pretty decent, though I have to admit that I preferred Nick -n- Willy's, a New York style pizza chain that started in Boulder; they recently went out of business in my town. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for pizza now. However, I think back on the Apizza Scholls beer list with great nostalgia. I may have to start eating pizza at the Sanctuary, which is several miles from my house but has a great beer selection.
Apizza Scholls started out in a small town, where they did spotty business until they decided to pack up and move to the city. Now they are so popular that they only open for a few hours a day. I remember Delfino's Pizza in my Iowa home town, which made such fantastic Chicago style pizza that they did hardly any business and they closed up shop and moved to the West Coast. I think I have located them in Seattle, so I'll be going out there some time to check them out. At Apizza Scholls we ordered two pizzas--a sausage, mushroom, and olive pizza, which was my idea, and my friend's choice of pepperoni and basil, which was better.
The next day was Sunday, and we visited the Portland Art Museum, which was absolutely huge. I had a great time there, and afterward we stopped at Voodoo Doughnuts, which also made me very happy. Voodoo Doughnuts is the coolest doughnut shop in the entire world, and I think no one could dispute that in a way that would carry any weight with me. They offer weddings that are "100% legal, unless you don't want them to be. The service is performed by ordained ministers beneath the holy doughnut and a velvet painting of Isaac Hayes. It doesn't get more legal than that!"
Voodoo Doughnuts offers several inventive specialty doughnuts. I could only try a few, but I particularly liked the dirty snowball: a chocolate doughnut with pink marshmallow frosting and coconut sprinkles, and a peanut butter dollop in the middle. It sounds gross, but it was so good that I ate the whole thing and did not share. What I thought would be delicious was the evil doughnut, all chocolate with a frosting pentagram on it, but it tasted boring. Maple glaze is something they do very well. We ordered both a maple log and a maple frosted bismarck, and they were irresistible.
In the evening we went out for Vietnamese food, and in the morning I left for the coast with college friend R.
I left not long after the Iowa floods. The roads were open, but it was still raining, and there was stuff on the roads. I was halfway to Chicago's Midway airport, which is about a 235-mile drive, when something sharp pierced the inside of my tire and I had a blowout on Interstate 80. I pulled all the way off so my right tires were on the grass, zipped up my rainproof jacket, and started changing my ruined tire. Several cars drove by without pulling over to the left lane, and one truck splashed a wall of water all over me. My blue jeans got soaked and filthy. Luckily, my can-do attitude resulted in good karma, and before I could even get the tire off, a handsome DOT worker stopped and changed my tire for me. I was dry by the time I got to the airport, although I was still pretty dirty.
I had driven that distance so that I could fly Southwest, the one airline that still seems to be nice to its customers. My direct flight was inexpensive and included an ordinary baggage allowance and inflight snacks, and Southwest also had the best terminals, equipped with wide seats with electrical outlets for laptops. Southwest doesn't have reserved seating, so when I boarded the plane, I looked for people who seemed nice and were not too wide. I saw a couple of genial men and asked if I could sit between them, and they steered me to the window seat, which was even better. They were flying to Portland for the weekend to visit some old friends, and let me tell you, they had come prepared. They had more free drink coupons than they could use, and they had brought their own in-flight movie, Sideways of course. They were delightful.
In Portland I had reserved a rental car. The West Coast traffic was a bit of a shock at first, and I white-knuckled it until I got out of the city. It was a long drive to Pullman, Washington, where I had a reservation at the cheap and comfortable Pullman Hotel. Unfortunately, the effort was wasted, except as a fact-finding mission showing me that I really liked Pullman. Winter had brought a record snow pack, and all the forest roads around Mount Saint Helens were still closed, which was highly unusual and a huge drag.
Deprived of my hike, I drove back west, stopping for a huge breakfast at a diner. I think an entire potato went into my hashbrowns. While I waited, I watched the short-order cook like a hungry wolf, and every time she brought out someone else's order, I looked disappointed and involuntarily dropped my shoulders. Although the waitress brought everyone else their orders, the short-order cook handed me my food directly with an understanding smile. I ate every last speck of food, left a 30% tip, and took off.
I visited the lowest visitors' center at Mount Saint Helens, where I learned a great deal about the 1980s eruption, and I took the walking path along Spirit Lake, which I had hoped to observe from a great height at Norway Pass. Then I took off driving toward the innermost visitors' center and Johnson Observatory. I never made it there because I started to worry about running out of gas, but I saw some great views. I'll go back some time in August.
After dropping the car at the Portland airport, it was easy to hop on a commuter train into town. I opted to walk about 1.5 miles toward my friends' house, until the sidewalk ran out and I called my friends to rescue me. We visited several Portland parks, and I was really impressed with the city.
In the evening we decided to take our chances at Apizza Scholls, New York style pizza limited to three toppings. They only serve pizza until they run out of dough, which generally takes 2-3 hours. The pizza was pretty decent, though I have to admit that I preferred Nick -n- Willy's, a New York style pizza chain that started in Boulder; they recently went out of business in my town. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for pizza now. However, I think back on the Apizza Scholls beer list with great nostalgia. I may have to start eating pizza at the Sanctuary, which is several miles from my house but has a great beer selection.
Apizza Scholls started out in a small town, where they did spotty business until they decided to pack up and move to the city. Now they are so popular that they only open for a few hours a day. I remember Delfino's Pizza in my Iowa home town, which made such fantastic Chicago style pizza that they did hardly any business and they closed up shop and moved to the West Coast. I think I have located them in Seattle, so I'll be going out there some time to check them out. At Apizza Scholls we ordered two pizzas--a sausage, mushroom, and olive pizza, which was my idea, and my friend's choice of pepperoni and basil, which was better.
The next day was Sunday, and we visited the Portland Art Museum, which was absolutely huge. I had a great time there, and afterward we stopped at Voodoo Doughnuts, which also made me very happy. Voodoo Doughnuts is the coolest doughnut shop in the entire world, and I think no one could dispute that in a way that would carry any weight with me. They offer weddings that are "100% legal, unless you don't want them to be. The service is performed by ordained ministers beneath the holy doughnut and a velvet painting of Isaac Hayes. It doesn't get more legal than that!"
Voodoo Doughnuts offers several inventive specialty doughnuts. I could only try a few, but I particularly liked the dirty snowball: a chocolate doughnut with pink marshmallow frosting and coconut sprinkles, and a peanut butter dollop in the middle. It sounds gross, but it was so good that I ate the whole thing and did not share. What I thought would be delicious was the evil doughnut, all chocolate with a frosting pentagram on it, but it tasted boring. Maple glaze is something they do very well. We ordered both a maple log and a maple frosted bismarck, and they were irresistible.
In the evening we went out for Vietnamese food, and in the morning I left for the coast with college friend R.
Labels: travel
posted by Margo at 3:00 PM
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