Well it's that time again - time to fill you in on all the hip-happenings of our adventure. When we left off last we were leaving San Fran for the trees of the redwood forest. We ended up camping in a state park that housed 75 of the worlds tallest 100 trees! (While we didn't actually see any of those special big guys we did see a LOT of large trees - very cool!) We had originally planned to stay two nights but after reevaluating our calendar it was pretty clear we were running out of days! Time to put the pedal to the metal and kiss California goodbye. Next up? Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon which was BEAUTIFUL! North America's deepest lake is at the mouth of a once was volcano that erupted and imploded on itself. We spent the afternoon reading on a patio with amazing views of lake before going back to our nice remote campsite and making dinner. The following day we had a lazy morning and then set off to climb Mount Scott the highest peak in the park. It was a relatively short hike but it provided amazing views of the lake and surrounding area. Crater lake NP receives an insane amount of snow a year (FORTY-EIGHT FEET!) and a LOT of it was still around. The first half of our hike was in snow and we were having flashbacks of Mt Meeker but it eased out and was very enjoyable!
The following day we left for slopes of Mt Hood. We drove from Crater Lake to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument which is a neat little area that has a lava flow walk and views from a lava butte (a big 500 foot cone of lava). We explored the ins and outs of volcano explosions for an hour or two and then headed into Bend to run some errands. From there we continued on to Mt Hood State Park and secured a cute little campsite on the shores of Timothy Lake with great views of the famed volcano. The next day it was off to drive along the Columbia River Gorge headed towards the city lights of Portland. I LOVE PORTLAND! (Just had to make that clear IMMEDIATELY!). I doubt I would ever live in the States but if I did I would ONE HUNDRED percent move to Portland. IT WAS SO NICE! Perhaps my favourite thing about Portland was the FOOD. Portland is FULL of food carts which congregate in pods all over the city. They serve EVERY kind of ethnic food you can imagine - so delicious and SO cheap. I really couldn't contain myself. I ordered Pad Thai from one cart but than went by another one that specialized JUST in dumplings and I had to order from there too.
I was dying from overeating but SOOOOOOOOOO satisfied! YUM! We also hit up the world's largest independent bookstore and spent hours browsing through the immense selection. I eventually got a book about a local Portland ER doc who works as a ski patroller and search and rescuer on the side (aka my dream life). From there we toured around the downtown neighborhoods and strolled along the water front. EVERYTHING was so clean and nice. We went out for a delish dinner at Deschutes Brewery, one of the hundreds of local breweries in and around Portland, to top the evening off. All in all a great day!
From there we left Oregon behind and headed to Mt Rainier National Park! Again it was spectacular. Mt Rainier is BEAUTIFUL and sits relatively alone all impressive and looming-like. We secured a campsite and then went for a hike up the slope of the bottom of the mountain. Its the same route that the people who actually are going to summit take and I couldn't help but be jealous. Being so close to such a big mountain made us really want to go to the top! Again, Mt Rainier receives an insane amount of snow yearly and it wasn't even close to being melted. Our hike was entirely over snow and we were impressed to see people carrying their downhill skis up the slope and skiing down. Very cool!
The next day we hiked up a pretty trail to Lake George at the base of a mountain called Mt Wow (for real). It was a pretty hike and we thoroughly enjoyed it! We spent the afternoon playing scrabble and reading on a patio in the sun. It's a tough life really. That concluded our time in the national park and we headed out on our drive to Seattle! We got here yesterday and checked in to our hotel early before heading out into the city to explore. We hit up a GREAT restaurant for lunch with amazing sandwiches (my fig, goat cheese and proschuitto sandwich was to die for) and the strolled around downtown before hitting up Pike Place Market. We ate baked goods, saw the ORIGINAL Starbucks, window shopped to our hearts content and then grabbed some beer at the Pike Place Brewery.
We finished the evening off by going out for another amazing dinner at the Steelhead Diner right in the market with great views of the ocean and neighboring Olympic mountains. Today we are going to visit a couple other neighborhoods that we've heard good things about and then probably head back to Pike Place Market because it was so great the first time round. This might be our last post for a while I think. We only have two more days in the States before we head to Vancouver Island. We start the West Coast Trail on the 10th but I doubt we'll have time to update you before then! Miss and love you allll!
xoxox
Heather and Matt
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