Oregon

Day 3 - 3 hours to go


We woke up excited about the drive.  Highway 84 runs along the Columbia river, which separates Oregon from Washington, and it contains 77 waterfalls on the Oregon side.  The drive through the Cascades was big, and green, and mountainous.  We passed Mt. Hood (tallest point in Oregon), but Megan was sleeping and I missed it.  Megan's parents told is it was snow capped and enormous, dwarfing all the other peaks nearby (which I already thought were big).  We were a little bummed about missing the view, but decided that we would be traveling up Mt. Hood soon enough anyway, so it wasn't a big loss.

Megan at Multnomah Falls

The part we were most excited about that morning was the Columbia River Scenic Highway, which runs parallel to 84 about 30 miles from Portland, and runs along 7 year long water falls.  We drove the highway, and stopped at the first two falls we came to, the second one we stopped at being the second largest year long waterfall in America.  Multnomah Falls.  Megan had wanted to find the location on the cover of her Fodor's Portland travel guide, and we found it before we even ever reached Portland!

Our apartment was a 20 minute drive from the falls, and is conveniently located right off the highway (we drove right by it at first).  We went and got some lunch at a pizza place a couple blocks away, then returned to fill out our paper work and get the keys.  Our apartment came with a downstairs storage center, a small garden plot outside our building, and, while it is a little old, the apartment was MUCH nicer than I had expected!  It is also filled with convenient storage features, including a giant wardrobe in the bedroom so Megan was able to actually fit all her clothes!

The unloading went smoothly.  We are on the second floor, but the stairs were wide open so transporting the bigger items were much easier than it could have been.  The hardest part of the unloading was returning the Uhaul, as Megan's dad and I had to learn the keys to navigating our south neighborhood the hard way.

After a little organizing, we headed downtown to Rogue Brewery for our first Portland meal (and beers!).  Food was good.  Beer was great.  And the bathroom tour was worth the guy badgering our table for 5 minutes (really was worth the trip, if you are ever offered [this also assumes you will be in Portland sometime]).

Night led to morning, which led to breakfast.  We hopped in the car and headed out to the famous Voodoo Donuts.  Voodoo is known for it's unusual and eclectic donut variety, as well as it's overall deliciousness!

General Custard and Cap'n Crunch...yummmm

We next headed out to Target for some apartment items, and found an Ikea while we were out there.  So we all got to experience Ikea for the first time, which was great! (Megan's didn't really think so).

Shopping led to lunch at Chipotle, which led to the departure of Megan's parents, which led to Megan and I, on our own, in Portland, our move finally completed! (except for that whole unpacking thing)