Portlandia, etc.

In case you didn't already know, Luke and I are actually 80 year-olds trapped in 22 year old bodies.  It's quite the phenomenon. So instead of going to Bedrunkeverysinglesecond Beach, FL like every other college student, we have spent the last 3 years quietly staying home to work...but not this year!  With our final months of semi-responsible college living upon us, we decided it was high time we took a wild spring break trip too...so we went to Oregon.

Several years ago, we watched something on the Food Network about this mysterious place called Voodoo Doughnuts.  We put it on our bucket list, and we made a beeline right for it our first day in Portland. 

The line was already well out the door and halfway down the block, but my lord, was it worth the wait.  Now, I don't think I've ever met a doughnut I didn't like, but these things were ridiculous.  I went right for their namesake, the Voodoo Doll.

No, I'm not a foodie psycho.  Let's just say that this semester may have been the target of my little bit of voodoo magic.  We'll see if it works.

Perfectly innocent voodoo snack. 

Luke's modest breakfast.

 And of course, he will never pass up something topped with bacon. 

 Real blood on the inside. Obviously.

Neck veins ewwwwww. Obviously too much effort to lift that thing to his mouth. 

A little view of the Saturday Market.

 We took a little trip down Distillery Row and visited House Spirits Distillery.  It was fun to see the whole process, but I'm pretty sure I was half drunk just from being in there, oof. We also grabbed some cute little pasties before the tour.

 Newport was our next stop on our Oregon tour, so of course we ran around on the beach like 4 year olds/puppies. 

 

 Sour beach..(?)

Thank you God, for Wellies. 

I must return to my people now. 

 Modeltastic.

 Awk.

We stayed at Rogue Brewery's "Beer & Bed" apartment right above their pub.  We had a HUGE 2 bedroom place, complete with 2 great big bottles of beer in the fridge.  Oh, and mustard. Don't forget the mustard. 

Dorkin' with the self timer. Bear with us. 

 Rogue teamed up with our fave Voodoo to make a Bacon Maple Ale.  We didn't try it while we were there, but we made sure to get a bottle for home that we'll be trying shortly.

 Yummy yummy brownie with a beer reduction something something.  Don't worry, we ate cheesecake after that too. Duh.

 Immobile from our unwise sugar binge.  Still not sorry.

We pulled out of Newport nice and early and stopped at this nice little beach early in the morning. 

 Ever the science geek.

 The day stayed nice and clear for us, and we made it down the coast to Cape Perpetua park, where we hiked all the way up a hill over looking the ocean. 

  550 year old spruce.  Can you spot the camouflaged sassy kid? 

The park also had tide pools, so of course we bounced around those for a while and found some pretty cool critters.

 

A few miles down the coast from Cape Perpetua was Heceta Head Lighthouse, our home for the evening.  We stayed in the home where the original lighthouse workers lived.   

  The hideously boring landscape made us feel oh so sorry for those lighthouse workers so many years ago...

Not. 

 Break me off a piece of that serious picture face.

 The B&B served us a seven(!!!) course breakfast the next morning, and it was just to die for...roughing it indeed.

 We stayed up until 11:00 working in a stupid puzzle of the U.S. (way past bedtime for this 80 year old), and I was convinced this place was totally haunted.  The next morning we found out that OUR room really IS haunted, but apparently it's a nice ghost (Casper?  Childhood dream coming true?), so we survived the night. 

 We spent the whole next day drivvvvvving to Sandy, and nothing really interesting happened all day.  Besides our stupid phone in our room ringing creepily and crazies in the room next to us.  No big deal.  Needless to say, we got out of that hotel asap the next morning (missing our 7 course breakfast already, sob.), and took off to check out Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.  The day was rainy, but we pushed on to the very top, and of course it was a full blizzard by the time we got to the lodge.  No pictures here, as we barely even made it to the lodge with all of the ice pelting our eyeballs, but it was beautiful to see the inside.  Google it.

We continued around the mountain and made our way down to the Columbia River and loved all of the stunning orchards and vineyards.  They definitely weren't making it easy to accept our soon return to the tundra.

 We also made a quick stop to see Herman the Sturgeon (soooo huge) at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. 

 And of course, we had to see the falls and the Vista House.

 "Yeah, I think I got a good one of you!"

Whew, thus concludes our Tour de Oregon.  Before we left, Luke and I had a half-serious conversation about "what if we REALLY like Oregon and want to live there?"  Everything we had heard about it was right up our alley: lots of space, not too hot, weird eco people, treestreestrees, etc. etc.  And while we definitely found all those things and more, I realized that what I really wanted when I considered moving west was to finally feel "interesting"; not just that couple that married young and stuck around home forever.  But being in both Cali and Oregon made me appreciate how great it is to be able to really know an area and just be comfortable there.   Yeah, it's usually not that thrilling here, but I wouldn't trade these ungodly seasons and proximity to friends and family for the world.  The best times of the year?  When the frost finally leaves or when it finally comes down from 100+ degrees long enough to leave the one room with the A/C.  These 'always perfect' weather places don't have days like that - how boring!  (Okay, done with the weather report now).  And yeah, sometimes family makes you cringe, but I'm close enough to my nephew to attend his 2nd birthday party tomorrow - how many chances will I have to do that?

We've been so fortunate to be able to travel like we have, but there's nowhere I'd rather call home than right here.  How lucky is that?