Travel Tuesday

Day 3 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge

As I’ve travelled a fair bit in my lifetime it was only fitting that I talk about some of my adventures.

Living on Vancouver Island in the west coast I’d always heard about Oregon and really wanted to go there someday.  Believe it or not I had not seen the show 'Portlandia'.

My first visit was during a time when I worked at a very stressful job and my sister and I planned a 2 day getaway and went to Astoria. We were short on time but we did manage to make it to Cannon Beach and Seaside. Seaside was very busy and they had volleyball tournaments that day and a festival was happening so there was lots to see and do. It was lovely.  We loved the beauty and majesticness  (yup a made up word which I so love to do) of Cannon Beach.

During our 2 days though I had the bright idea to go to Portland but we didn’t leave early enough in the day so we literally drove 2 hours to Portland and managed to find a parking place and then only had an hour and a half to scope out the surroundings and then had to drive back two hours to Astoria because we didn’t want to be driving in the dark. What little we managed to see whetted my appetite. We wandered to the middle part of town where there was a visitor centre and had a bite to eat from a food truck and it was divine. I remember seeing so many coffee huts (those little portable shops that you can drive through and they had such charm).

A few years after that trip we went back with a friend for a conference in Portland around May but tagged on an extra week of time to explore and we had a fantastic time. I’m going to highlight a few must see places (in my opinion).

• Salt and Straw (The Sea Salt Caramel is a fave -oh wow the ice cream is out of this world good, just rich creamy and decadent tasting). We visited several locations while we were there. For those who can’t have gluten, they have gluten free varieties.
• Portland Saturday Market right in town by the river (such a great  variety of artisans and we even chatted up a few). I bought a beautiful blue necklace pendant. Plan a lot of time for this as there is so much to see and do.
• Cannon Beach – Such a beautiful peaceful place and the water stretches for miles
• Stumptown Coffee Roasters
• Nob Hill – a lovely quaint area with great shops to browse