For those who want the trip summary

Day 1

Food Yummy Lunch in Dunsmuir - where we can attest - they do have "the best water on earth".

Yarn - oh sweet lovely yarn.

(Note the still happy smiles as "pops" snaps some photos - by the end of the day they start to fade)

Day 2

Food Waffles - and yummy stuff made with butter and sugar. Dinner - beer - containing all the food groups in one liquid form. Soon NASA will make this a required food supplement I hear.

Then off to Crater lake

(Note the smile starts to fade - and - it is only day two.) It is like some how my iPhone/Picture taking obsession is starting to interfere in our trip. I can't imagine - can you my precious... my sweet sweet precious.

Day 3

Food - no waffles - but we did have a good lunch in Florence out by the beach. Seal Caves - minus the seals. (Yes - this does prove the global conspiracy that waffles and seals are galactically intertwined - but no time to explain that now) More beer. But also more coffee - yummy yummy coffee.

The photo tolerance level has plateaued as pops has backed off his iPhone and picture taking obsession - poor precious.

Day 4

Morning Glory for breakfast (not the same one in Ashland) - no one told me that cell phones were banned! An iPhone free zone for breakfast?!! UGH!

More touring Eugene - a little yarn shopping - but no purchases. : (

Off to Salem! Then Portland Ho!!!

Day 5

Waffles at the Waffle Window - Yum!

And Yarn!

And where the yarn comes from!

And beer!

(I'm starting to detect a small pattern to this trip.)

No - not bats... Yarn does not come from bats.

The photo excitement is obviously back!!

Day 6

Wine country and downtown Portland.

Burgerville - Yum!

Missed a yarn opportunity... oh well.

Some beer makes it all better - that and an Elk burger for S.

Day 7

Colombia River and fluffy dogs and fluffy yarn and fluffy Alpacas!

A fluffy day over all!

And then a wild time on the Beyond Bizarre tour with special appearance at the end.

Guess it's time to put the iPhone down again.

Day 8

Saturday Market

VooDoo Doughnuts

Yarn - Yarn - Yarn!!!!

Then the flight home!

See you next time Oregon!

Day Ocho

Our final day in Portland. Oregon has had a lot for us on this trip. From massive volcanos that imploded into lakes, to wine country enriched by the very same volcanic activity, to the Mighty O (University of Oregon - and other shows of pride in their academic system), to all the quirky earthy vegan tofu micro beer making great food eating that is Portland - and is Oregon. As their motto says "Keep Oregon Weird" - this day would be all of that.

Our day started early having packed the night before. (We were a bit late - as the Kennedy funeral was being shown and we were inspired by the speeches and ceremony.)

First stop - the Saturday Market. A mix of food, crafts, and "performing arts". It was pretty long, stretching for several blocks near the river. It was busy and full of "as advertised" activities.

S picked up a t-shirt for her beau. And one for herself. T picked up a yummy carnitas tamale - and about 10 pounds from all the food and beer for the past eight days. K - her gifts were yet to come.

After spending some time wandering the market - we needed to refuel and what could be better than a VooDoo doughnut. Where the magic is in the hole - as their slogan says.

T got a MangoTango doughnut (mango filling with a Tang (yes Tang) topping) - K got a Portland Cream (so far - two doughnuts with out a hole - but both very magical) S got a Miami Vice doughnut - a raised doughnut topped with blue sugar and sprinkles. Can we say sugar? Say it quickly before you go into a sugar coma from these little yummies.

Our next stop was the Portland food carts - something we had tried to get to nearly all week long. Sadly not all the carts were open on a Saturday - but with the few that were open - we were not disappointed. T had two carnitas tostadas (obviously a fan of the carnitas), S and K had Thai food - K had a noodle and chicken dish, the noodles were more sweet than hot which is what K likes, and S had a Thai vegan dish with mushrooms and veggies - just what S likes. Also very yummy. We all shared each others meals - and were all very pleased and full.

We continued our walking tour of Portland covering all the areas we missed in the Pearl district.

Along the way we stopped at a few yarn shops and K was pleased with the selections - during the trip the yarn gods have smiled upon K. Additionally K received a very pretty vintage necklace from T.

We didn't have a full day in our last day - but we are tired and have hit all that we can absorb in Portland/Oregon for this trip.

Keep Oregon Weird - so we can enjoy it again when we are sure to return.

Day 7 - Rogue trip... no wait - Road Trip.

Off to see Mount Hood today and some waterfalls.



What's that ... what do I spy with my little eye??? Yarn - Yarn way out here - K and S say "no" can't be yarn out here... Oh ye of little faith..

Yarn and fluffy fluffy white doggies... and Alpacas!!! Oh Joy!

It's the Mother Load of the trip!


How can the majesty of the Colombia River hold up? It's going to be tough...

Despite the scenic beauty - we did have a date to catch. A date with a "Beyond Bizarre" tour of Portland. And it lived up to it's name. Not so much for the fascinating tail of ghosts, murder and strange happenings - that was all very interesting, but for the entertaining girl that helped us end the tour. She got off the train just as we were headed back to our point of origin - out of the mist she came, okay - really she just walked off the train, started talking and just wouldn't stop. Fortunately the only focus of her attention was our poor tour guide who did just about everything to get her to stop and let her finish the tour.

As with the majesty we had seen earlier this day - this little force of nature would only be stopped with the passage of time. Her connecting train came - and off she went.

Off to the hotel - one more day to go!

Day 6! Who's wining?

Today we headed out to the Willamette Valley (Oregon wine country) for some taste testing and some sight seeing.

We've been packing a lot of driving and activities into the trip - but it has been a lot of fun.

We stopped first at Red Ridge Farms

- then off to Wine Country Farm Cellars and purchased some really nice white wines. We met their dog Vino and their cat... life is rough.

We wound our way through wine country - enjoying the sights. It's hard to compare to Napa. I think you just need to take Napa out of your head when you go and visit other wine regions. We do seem to like the Oregon wines better - but mostly the southern Oregon wines.

We then ate lunch at Burgerville which we really enjoyed - S said that it was as good as Habit Burgers. They had some pulled pork cherry chipotle sandwich - which none of us could manage to order - even as a dare.

We ended the evening by roaming around downtown Portland - discovering Cupcake Jones (we are still faithful to you oh mighty icing on a cupcake of Rocklin) and eating at Deschutes Brewery. I of course had the best thing to go with beer - chili cheese fries!! S had an Elk Burger and K had a BBQ chicken pizza. Then back to the hotel for another nights rest.

DING! DING! DING! - UGH!!!! We just realized we missed a yarn stop all the way out there! Drove right through the town.. oh well - even without the yarn stop it was still a nice day.

Day 5 - pre-day activity planner

T- here:

Yes we are running behind in our posts - day 4 will be updated shortly.

We would have more photos - but S has banned T from taking photos of things with his iPhone. Okay she hasn't banned T - she just loudly complains how nerdy and stupid T looks for taking photos of everything with his beloved iPhone.

We went to the Waffle Window today - VERY YUMMY!!

We walked around the area - doing a little shopping.

We stopped on the way back through Portland - on our way to the zoo - at a little yarn shop.

The Zoo was very fun - they are building some new enclosures.