How is it that an entire state can be so cool? The cities, the coast, the culture, the food. Everything in Oregon is cool and hip. The perfect place to celebrate being 50, definitely the coolest age.
We started our adventure in coolness in the gritty (in a good way), grungy (in a good way), and ecofriendly city of Portland. Actually, using the term ecofriendly in relation to Oregon is redundant. Everything in Oregon is ecofriendly. I’m pretty sure the entire state has been recycled from older, worn-out, less cool states.
In this age of on-line shopping from the safety and comfort of your living room sofa, we were delighted to visit an authentic and enormous bookstore in the heart of the city. Powell’s Books has been a fixture in Portland for over 30 years, famous for mixing new and used books and offering titles on nearly every subject known. Their selection is so large, it actually spills into three different stores, including one devoted to technical topics, and another devoted to home and garden. We spent a nice long time browsing the shelves, safe in the knowledge that we could order from Powell’s website once we returned home, but hopeful that the place will always exist for those of us who like to see and touch our merchandise before we buy it.
We don’t look forward to returning to the bookstore’s parking garage, however. It nearly gave Bill a heart attack. The entrance ramp is at about an 89 degree angle, and making it into a parking spot requires undisputed mastery of the 3-point turn. As if this weren’t stressful enough, just as we backed out of our spot, we ran over a soda can with a BANG! that nearly sent our fearless driver through the windshield. I guess this is Portland’s way of reminding us that to be truly cool, we should ditch the car and ride bicycles. The scene of Bill’s near-demise:
Portland even has very cool hotel rooms. One member of our group — the one who aspires to be a pilot some day — enthusiastically designated our Portland hotel room as the most outstanding of the entire 50/50 Tour. That’s because it overlooked the Portland airport’s runway. He was glued to the window, watching planes land and take-off. I’ll admit, it was pretty cool.
When you’re hungry in Portland, don’t bother with a restaurant. Any city can have restaurants. The really cool people in cool cities buy their meals at cool food carts. Portland is exploding with food carts — over 400 can be found around town! What a treat for the foodie. Within one square block, we strolled past dozens of carts (kind of like glorified trailers) serving everything from pad thai to fish and chips. Such choices, and so far removed from the days when the “roach coach” would pull into a parking lot and sell flavorless, pre-made, packaged sandwiches.
Not surprisingly, Oregon is in the top-ten “Bicycle Friendly States”.
To truly experience Oregon’s spectacular landscape, first we drove south of Portland to visit the dramatic and lush Columbia River Gorge.
We doubled back through Portland and traveled on to the rocky coastline. Our route took us along interstates 84, 205, and 5, and routes 26, 101, and 30. We especially enjoyed Cannon Beach.
These beach bikes looked really fun, but this photo also shows Oregon’s literal coolness. We definitely needed sweatshirts on the beach this mid-summer’s day!
Driving north along the Oregon coastline, we stopped at Fort Clatsop, the site of Lewis and Clark’s westernmost camp. It seemed quite fitting for us to visit here, since one year earlier, we had seen Clark’s camp in Montana. Lewis and Clark ended their western exploration at Fort Clatsop and stayed four months through the winter. Throughout that time, it rained nearly every day.
Lewis and Clark would have clearly appreciated the 50/50 Tour. Here’s Clark’s letter to Lewis, accepting the challenge to join the trek. Amazingly, these are almost exactly the same words Bill used when I proposed the 50/50 Tour.
And this quote sums up our year as well:
Yep, Lewis and Clark would definitely have survived the 50/50 Tour. And if we can last through the next two states, so will we.
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Our last stop in Oregon was the lovely town of Astoria, located just where the Columbia river flows into the Pacific ocean. One of the town’s early families built the Astoria Column to commemorate the area’s history. We climbed the 164 steps on the interior circular staircase and were rewarded with a commanding view.
Astoria was quite welcoming. Just look at this place — doesn’t it make you sleepy?
We dined on the water and were just about ready to move in, until our waitress told us about the reality of living in the Pacific Northwest. She said that in early October, a big gray cloud descends over the city and stays there until about June. She gets a lot of reading done, but doesn’t go outdoors much. Hmmm. Maybe we’ll wait a while before moving to Oregon. We could probably use the time to perfect our coolness anyway.
48. Oregon
Cannon Beach