Stop # 8: Portland, Oregon

Off to Portland!! So excited to see the city I have fallen in love with by simply watching every single episode of Portlandia.

And even more thrilled to catch up with my fellow Americorps NCCC princess who has graciously arranged to host us at her childhood home. Sam and I met 14 years ago (holy good golly, that’s a long time ago) when we served a 10 month term in Americorps on the east coast. Americorps is like the domestic Peace Corps. We had both graduated from college and weren’t quite ready to grow up and get a real job so we joined the NCCC program, a group of 18-24 year olds placed in teams of 10 and given volunteer projects lasting 4 to 5 weeks. You work and live with the same people surviving on $5 a day budget for food and a modest living stipend. It provided me insight into the world I never would have gotten at such a young age on my own, traveling the east coast, and by far some of my best friends to date!

Looking at the map to plan our route for the day we saw a couple different options to make our way towards the city. We easily chose the scenic drive up the coast, even though it would add a few hours onto our car time for the day, we had a feeling it would be totally worth every second. Three years ago we road tripped from Montana to California taking Highway 101. Driving down the Oregon coast left a soft spot in our heart for this part of the United States. Such incredible beauty and we were looking forward to seeing it all over again.

The first little coastal spot we drove through, Depoe Bay, did not disappoint!! Slowing down to cruise the main road through town you can’t help but pull over to take in the sights of the truly jaw dropping views. Just typing this I want to go back there and experience our quick hour in town all over again. We all hopped out of the car to look over the observation point. Almost immediately I noticed there were 3 whale watching cruise boats right in our line of sight. That means whales right? I am bound and determined to see a whale this time. On our honeymoon cruise, ten short years ago, it seemed like every time a whale was spotted I missed it, never saw one the whole time. I am going to break my streak.

Spotted one! There was a whale surfacing right between two of the boats. Then another one off to the side further out by the third boat. We pointed the whales out to the kiddos, and they were able to find them from the “smoke” as they called it, the water sprayed from their blow hole. After watching the whales surfacing for quite some time we decided to walk across the street to get some breakfast. We sat down in a little coffee shop called Toasted. Claire found Checkers and while waiting for our food I taught her how to set up and play the game for the first time. We ate the most delish Berry Blu toast, blue cheese and berry jelly on sourdough. My goodness it was flavorful!

About an hour down the road is Pacific City. I read that Cape Kiwanda was located in this area so we took another little pit stop to check it out. Next time we are in this area I really want to stay the night. There was a great outside restaurant, gorgeous hotel, sand dunes, and of course the sandy beach. The kids loved running into the water and playing in the sand. There was a slight fog when we arrived to the beach but it burned off within 15 or so minutes, allowing as a clear view of the sea stack.

One more short detour, a picture opp @ Roloff Farms and we finally made it to Portland.

We met Samantha at a park to let the kiddos run around for awhile. The park was located at a school, which I am not even slightly kidding, was straight out of a movie. You know the scene where they show the students arriving or talking outside the huge, brand new, architecturally genius building that you think, yeah right schools are never that amazing looking. Well wrong this school looked like all of those and more! Turns out it was also the school Samantha attended for grade school, lucky duck! I mean really Levi and I were impressed. Sam was quick to tell us the neighborhood was out of control expensive…dang it!

Sam always proves to be the hostess with the mostest. She went shopping for our visit and loaded up with all things Oregon: Tillamook Cheeses, Tillamook ice cream, grapes, strawberries, a jam spread, and smoked salmon. All accompanied with a flight of Oregon IPA’s. We never had an empty glass! Claire put on a puppet show, Henry tried to get the cat Milly to let him hold her, and we all caught up, laughed, and enjoyed just being together. Having a friend that you can see once every 3 years, rarely talking in between, yet pick up without skipping a beat like you have been together forever is one of life’s treasures. We love you Sam and thank you and your parents for opening your home to this crazy crew!!