Last I blogged we had done Seattle for the day. That night we slept at Sarah and Carson's again and then got up early and headed to Portland, Oregon. It was really close so we got into Portland by 10 or so and did Portland for the day. We walked along the river and ran into the Portland City Market which happens every Saturday and it was incredible. It was this massive, streets on streets on streets open air market: food, clothes, street performers, artisan crafts, and more!! It was a blast just strolling around and seeing all the goods and all the people. Then we went to Voodoo Doughnuts which is a pretty famous stop in Portland; it has been on the Food Network and other TV shows. The line took about 35 minutes but so worth it! They have all these crazy flavors of doughnuts and they aren't to expensive. That was on my list so we made sure to go. After that we headed to the Kerns district of Portland, on the other side of the river and explored a more "local" area of town. Adorable neighborhoods, great restaurants, neat stores to stop in, lots of bookstores. We eventually got hungry again so we went to Pok Pok, a restaurant that Steinke's friend had recommended. It was Thai and it was amazing. Yum!!! We then made the trek back to our car and then were hungry again.... so we went to a very popular ice-cream place called Salty or Sweet which has these absurd ice cream flavors and home-made cones. They had flavors like honey and lavender or pear and blue cheese or kimchi and rice or coffee and bourbon. After we got our sweet fix, we hit the road. We drove about one and half hours down to Corvallis, OR where Sara's aunt and uncle live. It was so nice staying with them. They were so sweet and fun to hang out with, her aunt Betsy made us a lovely dinner. Plus WE ALL GOT OUR OWN BEDS WHICH WAS MAGIC!!!!!!!!! I wish we'd had more time with them, they were very interesting people:) But we had to wake up that next morning and make another long trek. Okay, so from Corvallis to Crater Lake which was gorgeous of course! Volcano to Lake, nature's pretty neat y'all. Then we did the coastal drive to Arcata, a random coastal town on the Lost Coast of California. Oh yea, we made it to California which was such an amazing moment. We are truly delusion at all points of the day at this point in the trip and so we were super stoked and kinda crazy as we approached the simple blue "Welcome to California" road sign. Anyways, we did the coastal drive which included seeing some of the Red Woods and then we made it to the coast and saw the Pacific. So we for sure whipped the car into a parking lot and straight ran to the beach! What an incredible feeling. Less than three weeks ago I was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and then after two weeks of driving we made it to the beautiful (and very cold) Pacific Ocean. Wow. That was an epic moment. After that, feet sandy and hearts warm, we headed to the Lost Coast Brewery for dinner and a beer. We slept in a hotel in Arcata, woke up and drove to Folsom, CA. This is when we did the Avenue of the Giants drive through the Red Wood Forest WHICH WAS LITERALLY BREATH-TAKING!! I mean I just couldn't' even handle how much I liked that place. The trees were massive! And there were sooooo many, and then the other plant life was so rich and abundant and reading about all the mini ecosystems- you can guarantee I was nerding out so hard. We did the drive and stopped at many of the trails on the way. Eventually we dragged ourselves out of that beautiful wonderland of trees and drove to Folsom to see Richard. Richard is our friend from Virginia Tech, he lives in Folsom now so we had to make a stop to see him. He took us to dinner and then we hung at his apartment. We actually slept at his friends Matt and Amanda's place because there was more room. Today we did the Napa Valley... aka wine country... aka my happy place. There was horrible traffic because of some construction and such but other than that the day was delightful. We went to the Beringer Winery and the Black Stallion Winery- yum:) After our long day of wine tours and tastings we headed to Gotts Roadside for dinner which was, get this, DELICIOUS! Gosh the sites and food on road-trips are just da best. We had a great day but it was time to say good-bye and head to San Francisco. We made it:) We are staying with one fo my best friend, Katelyn, sister's house. It's Joanna and Tim and their two precious children. We got in around 8:30pm and just hung out, planned our day in the city for tomorrow, and are about to hit the hay.
No comments:
Post a Comment