Road-trip in Oregon - Portland Part 1

In June hubby and I headed off to the west coast of the US to embark on another road-trip, this time to Oregon. We'd weighed up doing a combination of Oregon and Washington, but chose to concentrate on just one state, since they're both pretty big, and there's lots to see. Part of the reason for the trip was the craft beer scene, the other was photography (for me).

The trip started well, with a little upgrade to World Traveller Plus on BA - nice to be welcomed on the plane with a glass of bubbly, even if I had to give up my window-seat (the extra space was worth it and I could always find a window if the views were amazing). It quickly went downhill when delays meant we lost our slot, then someone decided that they were ill enough to be taken off the plane before take-off (better than after), and so we were delayed about 2 hours. We had a 2 hour 45 minute layover in Seattle, so we were unlikely to make the next flight to Portland. The skies were cloudy for most of the way, so I didn't miss spotting Iceland or Greenland from above. After catching up on a whole load of movies we arrived in Seattle, where of course we didn't have enough time to catch our connection, or the next one that they'd automatically re-booked us on. The next few flights were full, so we had to wait another 2 hours before we got our connection. All pretty annoying at the end of a long flight.

Seattle airport is not the worst place to be stuck, and we tried our first local craft beer in one of the pubs there, before sitting down to watch the world - and planes - go by. The flight to Portland was short and sweet - I had a seat on the left hand side of the plane (as I'd hoped for) and got a spectacular view as we flew past Mount Ranier and then over Mount St. Helens - just before arriving in Portland.

Next stop was to pick up our car - we'd treated ourselves to a convertible and hoped that it would be the Mustang rather than the VW Beetle. We were in luck - it was the Mustang, and it was bright yellow! We'd arrived in a heatwave, and so the roof came straight down as we took the short drive into the city.

We found the Hotel Deluxe - where some friends had stayed recently - just a little outside the main downtown area, checked in and parked the car in the garage next door for the weekend. We had a nice room with a view over the city and the mini-golf bar across the road.

We headed straight into the centre, looking for a recommended restaurant called Andina, in the Pearl District (a few minutes walk north of the downtown area). I'd visited Portland very briefly in 2001 on a lightning road-trip with a friend from San Francisco but barely remembered anything other than the crazy bridges across the river; we must've stayed out in the suburbs with my friend's friend, and avoided the centre. Having watched the show Portlandia we were expecting the city to be very "hipster" but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be - not too many massive beards on show. I loved the city immediately - it had a great feel to it, nice architecture and some great murals.

We found the restaurant and waited for a while, drinking Pisco Sours while we waited. Eventually we were seated and enjoyed a selection of ceviche, empanadas and grilled octopus, washed down with a couple more cocktails.

We headed back home and stopped off at the 19th Hole for one last drink, to try our first Oregonian craft beer. Both were a bit disappointing, but we had plenty more to try over the next couple of weeks.

The next morning we woke up ridiculously early (jet-lag, I guess), so headed out for an early breakfast to a diner-style café - Byways, in the Pearl District. We stopped off along the way to get a coffee at Stumptown, famous for its decent coffee and recommended to me by a Twitter photographer friend, and Murray tried the Nitro. I didn't like it at all, and was also disappointed with my coffee - I'd asked for a black Americano with just a little water (not too hard), but they added too much and it just tasted weak.

We got to a bustling Byways and ordered a couple of different scrambled eggs dishes - they were absolutely delicious. In typical hipster style our juice was served in mason jars (they are everywhere in Oregon!).

Next stop on the day's agenda was a trip to REI, but it didn't open until 10am, so we had some time to kill. We decided to have a wander up to the river, and ended up walking past the sketchy Greyhound bus station and then across the magnificent Broadway Bridge. Even though it wasn't yet 9am it was absolutely scorching, but people were still out running and cycling.

Next stop was Safeway, since we needed to go to the loo, but we checked out the beer area too - quite an impressive selection!

With more time to kill we wandered the streets of Pearl a bit more.

We found another coffee place - the recently-opened Black Rock Coffee shop, and sat out on the raised pavement. This one had good coffee, the loos were beautifully decorated with William Morris wallpaper and it was a great spot to watch the world go by.

Finally it was time for REI to open and we spent a while in there, each buying a few bits and pieces - cheap fleeces, a few summer skirts for me, and a couple of reduced rain-jackets. It was nice to be in a state with no added sales tax - what you saw on the price-tag was what you paid! We headed back to the hotel to dump our purchases before heading back into town for the Pints in the Pearl beer festival, that fortuitously happened to be on that day.

The beer festival was in full swing by the time we got back. We bought a few tokens, got a metal beer cup, note book and embarked on our first beer. The four breweries featured were 10 Barrels, Deschutes, Fat Head's and Bridgeport, so we each tried a different one from each, with hubby writing notes on his thoughts about them. Again, none of them blew us away, but they were nice and refreshing. We wandered around, had a little bite to eat, watched people go by, listened to music, chatted to a few other visitors and like everyone else, clung to the shade, as it was almost 100 degrees and the sun was beating down overhead. It was great people-watching - I'd never seen so many tattoos and beards!

We decided to have a break from the beer at about 4pm, so headed back to the hotel for a bit. As well as the beer festival coinciding with our visit, we were also there for the annual Rose Festival parade, and we noticed lots of rose murals everywhere (as well as some other cool ones - like this dog one).

Hubby felt like some ramen noodles so we found a place opposite the Ace Hotel and ate there. It was a little disappointing - especially having been to Japan last year. 

After supper we watched the crowds gather for the parade - people had brought fold-up chairs and kids played in the street. Before the parade there was a 5km road race - not very pleasant on such a hot day. 

Eventually the parade started - with the usual floats and marching bands. There were some rather bizarre floats and costumes, and we watched them go by and walked alongside for a while, seeing a bit more of the downtown area. 

As the parade came to an end it crossed the highway back towards our hotel. We were both feeling very tired and dehydrated so we headed back to the hotel and had a quick cocktail each at the Driftwood Bar. Lots of the people involved in the parade were staying there, so the atmosphere was buzzy. One of the stormtroopers came in for a drink - I can't imagine how unbearably hot it must have been on this balmy night, but he was still smiling! We managed to stay up until about 10.30pm - not bad given how much we'd fit into the day.

Click here for my blog from Portland - Part 2

Iceland #10 - Day 10: A Stormy Drive Back to Reykjavik (and home)

I woke up on the morning of my final full day in Iceland to the sound of the storm overhead. The intensity would come and go a little, rattling the doors of the guesthouse at its strongest. I had a huge breakfast, stuffing myself with delicious home-made malty bread. All of the guests hung around, not quite sure when it was going to be safe to leave. It was a perfect place to sit and wait for the weather to improve though, with lots of nice people to chat to, a warm log fire, as well as tea and coffee on tap. Eventually the winds did die down and one-by-one the guests departed - heading out nervously. I left at about 1pm, hoping to get to Reykjavik by 5pm (usually it's a 2-hour drive, but with stops and taking it slowly that would hopefully work).

I wasn't expecting to take many photos that day, as even though the winds would drop, it was still forecast to be stormy all day. The rain was blown around by the wind, so taking any photos without getting the lens covered in raindrops would be challenging, and use of a tripod was definitely out of the question. I drove cautiously down the road to the ring-road, but it wasn't too gusty - just a constant wind and precipitation coming and going. My first stop was just past Vík, at the turn-off to the skimobile place, as I saw some crepuscular rays to the south. I pulled on the raincoat and hat, crossed the road and took a couple of shots of the road, hills and the rays. There was pretty good visibility, considering, so at least some of the mountains were on show. The rain was slanted at this point, so it was possible to keep the lens dry for a few shots, using the zoom lens with the long hood on.

Next stop was Skógafoss. I've seen these falls many times, and usually stop there once on each trip. It can be very crowded - especially with coach-loads of English geography field trip students, and it can look very dull in grey weather, with blown-out white skies above. I'd noticed a little road on the far side of the river on my last trip, so decided to give the usual parking area a miss and head down there, to see if I could get a different - or better - viewpoint. I liked the view, but even with the 1.4x extender I couldn't quite get as close as I'd have liked. The surrounding landscape was that yellowy-brown grass, that really needs to be hidden under a good covering of snow (or converted to black and white), and from that point there was too much of it in view. What I did notice, though, was that the wind was blowing the waterfalls upwards. Fortunately it was blowing westward, so the visitors who made the effort to climb up to the viewpoint (I did that on my very first visit and haven't bothered since) weren't getting drenched. It was quite striking, and looks even more so converted into black and white.

I was quite fascinated by the upwards falls, so ended up driving back to the usual parking area to get a closer look.

I think this looks like a man about to punch the waterfall...

As usual it was quite busy, but people came and went, and occasionally just a couple of people would be standing in front of the falls.

While I was there I noticed that the sky had begun to brighten slightly behind me to the south, and for about 3 minutes the clouds parted, the sun came out, blue skies appeared from nowhere behind the falls and the sun shone brightly, giving a lovely brief rainbow. Everyone was delighted! Having looked drab and dull, suddenly it looked glorious.

Within a couple of minutes the sun was gone, and off I went.

The rain and hail and sleet and wind returned. Or rather I drove through it. I stopped very briefly at Seljalandsfoss to use the loo, took a couple of shots of people battling the sleet, and then headed onwards.

Just after I left I drove through the most unbelievably intense shower, with gusty winds and snow coming straight at me. It went on for a few minutes and I felt quite relieved once I'd driven through it. I pulled the car over to capture the storm as it retreated; sun shone on the mountaintops in the distance.

I stopped a little further on to photograph some trees, and a few other times to capture visible rain storms passing in the distance (there were a few).

I was a little nervous about the big hill past Hveragerði and the high pass beyond. When I'd been manically checking the road conditions and weather sites before I set off that was one area that was marked with "storm" conditions. The big sweeping dual carriageway that winds up around the hill was surprisingly clear of traffic (and snow) - just a couple of other cars and me; fortunately no high-sided trucks (they don't seem to drive on weekends and hopefully they also have rules about not driving in windy weather!). At the top the road and roadside were pretty snowy, and I passed a snow plough a little further on, that was presumably just driving up and down that stretch of the road all day. It was no longer snowing and the wind had died away, so apart from a bit of snow on the road, which I was used to, the conditions weren't too bad at all. I'd definitely made the right choice to leave later as I'd clearly missed the worst of it.

I gave Reykjavík a miss and headed straight to Álftanes, where I was expected at around 5pm at Sigrún and Johannes' for supper. The promise of Sigrún's Thai fish soup had been driving me forward all day long (I'd eaten nothing since breakfast)! I arrived on the peninsula a little early so took a little drive to the east side along an unmade road to get a better view of the enormous storm clouds that were passing over the city in the distance. I could just make out the Hallsgrímkirkja, the highest building in Reykjavik (not the tallest from the ground, but its peak is higher than any of the new skyscrapers built on lower ground along the waterfront).

Behind me another storm was coming in and it was great to watch the patches of rain fall in the distance. I knew it would reach me soon, so I got back in the car and headed back towards the west side. I stopped the car at one point as the storm hit me to try to capture the ferocity of the sleet as it hammered the car and road ahead of me.

It's always lovely to get back to see these friends after a trip around their beautiful country, and obviously I was particularly happy to be greeted by the adorable Jökull (the kitten), who was as affectionate as ever. The fish soup was so delicious that I had three bowls. This was then followed by an even more delicious apple and pear crumble with a walnut crumble and home-made vanilla ice-cream. Again I had three helpings and then felt ridiculously over-full for the rest of the evening! It is very nice to have a friend who is an extremely talented cook! I had a relatively early night as I had to get up at 5am in order to drive back to the airport for my early flight home. The kitten slept on top of me all night.

The weather was dreadful again, and this time I was happy to leave (on my last visit I awoke to a beautiful crisp cold day - and northern lights - and was miserable to be leaving).

I dropped off the car - thanking them again for swapping it on the first day for one with a music system (a trip-saver!) - and fortunately there was no damage (always a relief, especially after the blowing sand at Stokksnes and the bumpy drive to the DC3). They dropped me off at the terminal and I checked in, had a delicious breakfast of an open prawn sandwich at the remaining Icelandic café, and stocked up on my favourite stout. We had to walk across the runway in the blowing rain for a short distance to get to our plane, which seemed a little strange - as well as unpleasant! Fortunately I still had my hat with me, but my other Iceland-weather-proof gear was packed away. My seat was at the emergency exit next to the door, so was also covered in rain. I stood around waiting for the last passenger before wiping the rain off it!

I sat next to a lovely American woman who had just got engaged (her fiancé sat behind) and we shared a wonderful couple of hours chatting about our lives. I always meet fantastic people on my flights to and from Iceland.

I took a few shots out of the window along the way, although Iceland was covered in cloud as we left. Above the clouds it was glorious and there were some cool brocken spectres of the plane as we descended through light clouds into Gatwick.

The weather in London was delightful and I was glad to get home to my boys and start the mammoth task of sorting through the thousands of photos I'd taken!

It had been a pretty successful trip, and it had been great to have a proper weekend break with hubby and friends to start with (I really enjoyed playing tour guide in this country I love so much). I'd had some great weather, particularly on my drive east from Jökulsarlón, but no really spectacular sunrises or sunsets. I'd seen the northern lights on three occasions - with the most amazing display on the 4th night, which after my first couple of trips of seeing nothing is always good. The icebergs on Jökulsárlón beach - or rather lack thereof - had been my biggest disappointment of the trip. But that's the thing I love about Iceland and my road-trips there - every visit is different: the weather, the snow, the ice, the light, the experiences I have, and that makes me want to return again and again - to see it in yet another different light again.

Click here for my blog from Day 9 - Driving West to Hrifunes