Mount St. Helens & Mount Rainier

A stop along the drive

From Portland, we drove out to Mount St. Helens. It was a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive because we chose to go all the way out to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. There were other visitors centers that were closer to Portland and closer to our final destination (Packwood, Washington), but we couldn't resist the view Johnston Ridge offered.

For those who do not know: At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and blew down or scorched 230 square miles of forest.

At the observatory / visitor's center where you can start you hikes

We didn't hike much around Mount St. Helens. We just went up the trail a bit to a higher view point - taking photos of some of the wildflowers along the way. We watched the 15-minute movie and meandered through the exhibitions.

After a couple of hours, we started our drive to Packwood, Washington where we were staying for our visit to Mount Rainier. It was another 3-hour drive to get there. As a crow flies, it's less than 60 miles away, but because of all the mountain ridges and rivers / streams, we had to drive almost twice that. There is a shorter driving route that takes the exact same length of time because of the winding roads -- all "forest roads." We had hoped to take that scenic route, but it was closed.

Packwood is a tiny town -- with 2 gas stations, 2 coffee huts, a grocery store and a few restaurants to accommodate the "tourists" but not much else. After checking into our motel, we went to the local pizza place. It was pretty good. After dinner, we went to the grocery story to get some drinks and snacks for the room, our drive and our hikes.

The motel was really nice. The Mount Rainier area was the only place we had a hard time finding a vacancy since we were booking so close to our actual trip. So, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. The complimentary breakfast was okay. The eggs and sausage were blah and the sausage gravy was pretty horrible. But they had a make-your-own waffle station, so that made up for it!

Mount Rainier - near Myrtle Falls

After breakfast, I had a quick work conference call. I was surprised to have such clear phone service because we didn't have service in most of the areas around Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. It certainly teaches you not to rely solely on technology (i.e. Google Maps on my phone), but we were prepared.

We got to the main visitor center and trailhead at Mount Rainier via a lovely drive through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We stopped at a number of scenic viewpoints along the way and then opted to hike some of the "easy" trails around the Paradise area. Perhaps I'm out of shape, the altitude was getting to me or we accidentally ventured onto some more strenuous trails...or all three, but the hike certainly got the better of me. The mountain ascends to 14,410 feet above sea level; our hike started at about 5,500 feet and seemed to be straight up.

The mountain was beautiful though along with the waterfalls, patches of snow and newly bloomed wildflowers. And it was a nice warm, sunny day although it started out a bit breezy. It definitely paid off to dress in layers. Despite putting on sunscreen, Scott and I both ended up with slight sunburns on our face and necks. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad.

After hiking for a few hours, we hopped back in the car, drove west through the remainder of the national park and forest area. It was another 3-hour drive to our hotel in downtown Seattle. We arrived at rush hour, but it wasn't too bad, especially since we could use the HOV lanes once we got close to Seattle.

I'll post soon about our time in Seattle -- perhaps tomorrow evening.

Two Days In Portland

For this year's vacation, we're largely staying in the U.S. -- gasp! We figured it was about time to see more of our own country, and with our varied schedules, we weren't able to find a time frame when our calendars aligned until less than 2 weeks ahead of time. So, planning for a mainly U.S. vacation made the most sense. Our journey started in Portland, then takes us through Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier before heading on to Seattle. From there, we spend the weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (not to be confused with Vancouver, Washington). And finally, we spend a few secluded days on Orcas Island in Washington before taking a red-eye back to Atlanta.

So, here's a summary of our time in Portland:

Day 1 -- Our 5-hour flight landed in Portland around 3 or 3:30 p.m. We picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel in the city center. After getting settled into our hotel, we walked just across the street to the river walk. We had an early dinner at Little River Cafe. Scott had a burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions. I had a burger with brie and apples. We ate outside looking over the river with a beautiful view of Mount St. Helens [correction: Mount Hood] in the distance. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day. Very little humidity and a high in the upper 70s. 

Believe this was Peaches and Cream

The food gave us a bit of fuel, and feeling more energized than we expected after a long day of traveling, we explored the walking path along the river and ended up at the Oregon Brewers Festival, which we hadn't planned on attending until the next day.The Festival is an annual event (the last weekend of July each year), and it was only by coincidence that our trip coincided with the festival days. There were more than 80 different craft beers from around the country. Purchase a glass ($7) and you could buy a full glass ($4) or sample ($1) from the ginormous selection. The festival area was huge! And there were tons of people there! I'd love to see the attendance numbers. It was crazy...almost overwhelming. I wish we had taken a picture of the crowds, but we were too busy trying to get in the right lines. Over the 4 days of the festival, they had more than 80,000 people from around the world. I'm not sure how they were counting. If it was just by the # of bracelets they gave out, there are likely some doubling up going on because of people like us who got a bracelet on Saturday and another on Sunday. There was no price for admission, and they just gave you a bracelet to make it easier for the beer pourers to know your ID had been checked.

After trying a few beers, we walked back to the hotel and vegged.

Day 2 -- We were up early (still on Eastern time). It was a very overcast and chilly morning. We had a great late breakfast at Mother's Bistro & Bar. The wait time was about 40 minutes. From what I understand, that's pretty standard at this popular place -- especially brunch time on a Sunday. Fortunately, they take your cell phone number and text you when your table is ready, so you can walk around if you'd like rather than idling around in the crowded waiting area or outside. 

So, we did opt to walk around a bit while we waited, which is a good thing, because after all that we consumed we certainly benefited from walking off a few calories first. We started with a large pecan cinnamon roll that we shared. Then, Scott had one of the daily specials -- eggs benedict with a phenomenal homemade hollandaise sauce. I had a pork apple sausage and cheddar cheese scramble. Both came with incredibly delicious roasted potatoes. Yum, yum!

From there, we walked off more of our breakfast and went to the Portland Saturday Market, which takes place on Saturdays and Sundays. It was okay, but not particularly impressive. A lot of booths, but most of the crafts weren't that high quality. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to amble about.

The sun came out around noon just as we were headed to the Brewers Festival again. There was a MUCH lighter crowd on Sunday. When we first arrived, there weren't ANY lines, and while we only stayed a couple of hours, the lines didn't get very long at all. Really only 2-3 of the most popular choices had any lines.

What we tried over the course of the two days:

• Swill by 10 Barrel Brewing Co.  - This was voted the favorite at the festival and was ours, too. We didn't taste it until the end of the 2nd day we attended. Otherwise, we might not have even tasted anything else. It was that good, and I'm not a beer drinker.
• Traverse Cherry Wheat by 13 Virtues Brewing
• Raspberry Wheat by Cascade Brewing
• Oddland Spiced Pear Ale by Elysian Brewing Co.
• Peaches and Cream Ale by Fearless Brewing Co. - Another of our favorites. Ranked #2 by festival goers. It smelled even better than it tasted.
• Grandma's Pecan Brown by The Dudes' Brewing Co. - Scott really liked this one, but I'm not a fan of dark beer anyway, so this one was much too bitter for my taste.
• Copperopolis by Lucky Labrador Brew Pub
• Portmunder by Old Town Brewing Co.

Voodoo Doughnut sign
(original location) 

After the festival, we went to Voodoo Doughnut, which has a bunch of crazy toppings. There was a long line, which is typical, particularly on Sundays. The Anthony Bordaine show "No Reserversations" and a number of other travel and food shows has made it famous. They have opened a couple of other locations in Portland and will open one in Denver later this year. It was worth it for the entertainment value alone. But the doughnuts were yummy, too. We got half a dozen so we could munch on them for a few days and try as many varieties as possible.

After a couple of long days of walking, we chilled for the rest of the day and had a light dinner at Chipotle.

Day 3 - (This morning) After a couple of doughnuts for breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and started early with a walk around the International Rose Test Garden. Probably not the best idea for Scott's allergies, but I enjoyed it. There were lots of roses, of course. They all started to look the same after a while, but there were a few standouts -- in appearance and smell. Photos below. Apologies for the wonky formatting.

Rock n Roll

Chris Evert

By 10 a.m., we were off to our next destination -- Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. More about that tomorrow.