Trist's Travels

Since we couldn't camp in Crater Lake National Park due to all the snow we decided to just push on through and head straight to Portland. We knew we'd be getting in late but that was fine because this way we would have all day to explore the city! We ended up finding a great last minute deal on the cutest little hotel, The Sentinel, right in the heart of downtown Portland. I felt so bad pulling up to this elegant hotel in a very heavily packed Penny, with her windshield covered in bugs, and a bunch of empty Starbucks cups and granola bar wrappers at my feet. To make matters even worse we realized just how unorganized we were when we ended up needing to bring in about 8 bags for ONE night!! I was honestly thankful we were getting in so late because this was pretty embarrassing. We definitely needed to get ourselves reorganized so this doesn't happen again!! Once we finally got checked in and lugged our insane amount of bags to our room we quickly decided we needed a beverage...or five! We freshened up a bit, grabbed our map of the city, and headed down to the lobby bar for a quiet drink and maybe a bite to eat so we could try and plan our day in Portland...or so we thought.

If you're ever in Portland and you want to go out to a very popular bar where all the locals hang out allow me to suggest The Sentinel Hotel's lobby bar - Jackknife! It became abundantly clear we would not be having that quiet drink after all. The bar had a really cool vibe to it though, kind of like 1920's meets modern day. Everything from the walls to the bar itself is made up of old reclaimed wood which gives it that old school Speak Easy feel. The dim lighting coupled with the dark leather couches and bar stools also enhance that old rustic charm. You're quickly brought back to modern day however by the heavily bass driven, electronic mash up that the DJ is spinning. Haley and I worked our way up to the bar and decided on two Dirty Martinis to start off the night. We barely had time to cheers and take our first sip when we were approached by a few locals, probably in their late 20's early 30's, who most certainly had come here straight from work. We chitchatted about our trip and actually received a lot of great advice; they were able to give us much more insight into Portland than our map and brochures ever would. For them the night was early and this was only their first stop. They kindly invited us along for the rest of their Friday night bar crawl but we were far too exhausted for all that. They did buy us another round of martini's before leaving which was sweet of them. We closed out our tabs, took our free drinks, and headed back to the room so we could catch up on some sleep!

We woke up refreshed and ready to explore Portland! First up on our agenda was food; we were starving!! Our new friends from last night suggested this place called Tasty n Alder so we headed that way, only to find it would be about an hour wait. We put our names in and decided to walk around town. I suppose we wouldn't have gotten the true Portland experience if it had been a warm sunny day, so when the rain began to fall we just shrugged on our jackets and embraced it. This town is so cute though, it seems to have a perfect mix of "Big City" and "Small Town" vibes. As we were walking around we saw beautiful murals on just about every street corner! Most of the stores weren't open yet so we window shopped our way through downtown. We did come across this four-story, block-wide used bookstore that we absolutely had to go in! I've never seen anything quite like it; there were just stacks and stacks and stacks of old used books! I've been searching for an old book called The Lion's Paw ever since we read it in school when I was in 4th grade. I thought perhaps in a store of this size the chances might be pretty good of finding it; sadly I was mistaken. Haley on the other hand had great success, she collects really unique or inscribed versions of Jane Eyre and they had quite the selection to choose from! We could have spent hours inside that place but our hour was up so we checked out and headed back to the restaurant.

If I lived in Portland I would be a million pounds because of Tasty n Alder...it was just that good! They have a small plates, tapas style menu with very unique options. I had the Tasty Hangtown Fry; which consisted of fried oysters, bacon lardons, melted cheddar cheese, on top of a buttermilk biscuit and served in a skillet. The menu itself is a bit confusing because everything is so unusual but when our waitress began describing each dish it became increasingly hard to choose. Even their drinks are eclectic and fun; they have an assortment of Champagne Cocktails, Bloody Mary's, and Grown Ass Milkshakes! Naturally we each started with a Champagne Cocktail, then tried a specialty Bloody Mary with our food, and ended with a Grown Ass Milkshake for dessert! We left feeling very fat and very happy...and honestly very tired. As we worked on walking off that amazing brunch we decided to swing by Starbucks to wake ourselves up and head to our next stop; Multnomah Falls!

We left Napa bright and early like we planned. It was hard leaving the beautiful Napa Valley but we were eager to cross into Oregon since that would be a new state for both Haley and me. On our way out of California, however, we had the pleasure of driving around Mount Shasta. When Nance was little, she and her family used to rent a houseboat for a few weeks in the summer there. They would tow the ski boat behind the house and just drop anchor whenever they felt like water skiing! If blogs existed when she was my age y'all would be much more interested in hers, she had such a fun and exciting childhood!! For us we just stopped at the observation view point for a few quick selfies, yes we were those tacky people with the selfie stick! Honestly between my GoPro, her giant Cannon camera, my big Nikon, our cell phones, and Bessie her shitty but cute Polaroid camera that her parents had gotten her for graduation, we had our hands full in the camera department. We quickly decided that we would not be able to bring ALL of these cameras along on our hikes over the next few weeks. But I digress, Mount Shasta was beautiful! The top was covered with snow that looked pristine and untouched by man. There was a large beautiful bird that kept flying around the top as we were taking pictures, it was almost as if he was posing for us! He was too far for us to be able to identify though, we should pick up some binoculars for the rest of the trip, but he made for some great pictures!

When we felt we had taken enough pictures we set off again. We ended up making one more unplanned stop just before getting to the California/Oregon border...did y'all know there was a town called Weed, California?! Because we certainly did not! Naturally we had to stop and check out the gift shop, I mean how could you not! Contrary to what you might think they do not sell weed in Weed, California..well at least not that we saw from our brief 10 minute visit to the gift shop. We got a bunch of post cards and stickers and such for all of our 420 loving friends. According to their "Welcome to Weed" sign, it used to be an old lumber town. Now it seems to be a tourist stop with this gift shop being their only attraction, it was still a fun stop though!

FINALLY we made it to the border! The sign was actually really pretty, and as I'm sure you can imagine we had quite the photo shoot right there on the side of the highway. I lost count at the amount of honks and catcalls we received. It's so nice having Haley on this trip because she's just as crazy about pictures as I am so there will definitely not be a shortage of photos from this trip! Eventually we got back in Penny and headed for Crater Lake. Driving through Oregon was gorgeous, we hadn't even made it to the park yet and I was already in love with this state! The scenery was beautiful and the wildlife was abundant. We even saw a bald eagle which was really cool, we were so in awe that surprisingly neither of us managed to get a picture! Shocking I know!!

Well we eventually made it to Crater Lake National Park and holy crap! I really think it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in real life! I mean these pictures hardly do it justice. There was snow in all the right places so the contrast in colors with the dark blue water, light blue sky, green trees, and white snow just made the whole place look unreal. As we were driving through the park the lake itself was hidden behind a wall of beautiful trees. We saw a slight break in the trees at one point so we pulled off to explore. I was shocked by all the snow that was still on the ground, in fact we were unable to camp because the campsites weren't open yet due to all the snow. Here we are in our cute little Lulu Lemon workout tanks and cropped yoga pants trekking through knee deep snow...clearly we weren't very prepared for this! Thankfully in most places the snow was solid enough to walk on and with the sun shining bright it really wasn't that cold. While I was distracted taking pictures Haley explored a bit and found an even better vantage point...right on the edge of the cliff. One wrong move and we'd get to see just how cold that water was, if we survived the fall that is! Thankfully we managed to get our pictures and enjoy the view without any casualties. It was really a shame that we couldn't camp though because I was definitely not ready to leave this view! I wanted to string up my hammock and take in the scenery till night fall. I can absolutely guarantee I'll be coming back here though that's for sure! Below are a few of our many pictures, including some impromptu yoga at the entrance sign, Haley catching me mid selfie (I have no shame), Penny surrounded by snow (she deserves a cameo since lets be real this trip would not be happening if it wasn't for her!), oh ya and that absolutely GORGEOUS lake!! Next stop Portland!!