My Canada - US Travels

  
 
Cross Canada

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Quebec - Winnipeg
Winnipeg - BC
Epilogue


North West Drive

Washington
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Utah again
Idaho & Montana
Alberta
BC
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BC Interior

Langley Detour
Okanagan
Cariboo
Prince George to Prince Rupert
Return to Vancouver
Epilogue

Home

Oregon

Thursday 19th
With everything done in Vancouver by lunchtime, we drive all the way to Portland. Wow, it only takes us about 6 hours, not nearly as bad as we thought. Though passing Seattle at Non-Rush hour saved us an hour or two.

We naturally arrive in the dark, we're staying at a hotel called Avalon. It's just south of the downtown core, unfortunately it's a little challenge finding the hotel. We go out for dinner at a Portland institution, called Mothers. The restaurant is in an elegant turn of the century building, the dining room has all the appropriate atmosphere, chandeliers etc, but the menu is reasonably priced good family fare, massive portions. A little incongruous but fun and VFM (value for money).


Friday 20th
We're staying another night at the Avalon before heading on. We can hear the lobby from our room, and the 5 year old restaurant looks like 10 years. The food is mediocre with an uninspiring menu. The hotel is ok, but considering the location and price, we won't be coming back. Next time we'll try and stay in the downtown core.

Arriving from Tax loving Canada to Tax Free Oregon, outlet malls are not surprisingly on the agenda for today. First though we walk around the downtown area. It's the easiest and most enjoyable downtown to walk around of any american city that I've been to (including San Fran, NYC, DC and old New Orleans) - which means flat, easy to navigate, compact (not small, but just not strung out along a long corridor of streets), great architecture, decent shops and restaurants, and the coolest Starbucks I've seen. Obviously the last feature is the most important.

Train Station, Portland, OregonJust on the northeast corner of downtown there are two neat looking pieces of architecture, if you're into that type of thing: one is this really cool old rickety looking steel bridge - trains and pedestrians on the bottom, vehicles on the top level; two is the train station.

But we need to get down to taste some wines. The Willamette (as corrected by the locals, pronounced like Dammit) Valley is only 40 minutes southwest of downtown Portland and home to amongst others many of the best Pinot Noirs in the world. The tourism or the wine board has done a great marketing job, ie it's so easy to get information on the wineries and to get to them to taste. Lunch is very non descript, 'cause we don't want to waste time with a good long meal and let it cut into valuable drinking, sorry tasting time.

We visit 4 wineries: Rex Hill, it's on the main road from Portland, big, commercial, can't miss it, good (at least to my palate); Adelsheim, one of the oldest and best wineries; Penner Ash and Anne Amie, both smaller and newer and with some way to go yet . . .

So now I've had my fun, we can go and entertain her, Woodburn Shopping Mall (Tax Free Outlet Mall), sort of on the way back to Portland.

After returning to the Avalon to freshen up, we drive back downtown for dinner to the Heathman Hotel. It is stunning and fantastic value, made all the better value by having a discount coupon. When you book accommodation through the Oregon Tourism website you get a discount booklet at check-in to your hotel and it has some really good deals. Next time we want to go to the Harrison restaurant, has a great menu, packed and a great reputation, it's just down from Heathmans Hotel.


Saturday 21st
On leaving Portland, we have to stop in at the Woodburn Mall, it's en route and someone needed to sleep on her purchase decisions . . . I obviously buy nothing mmmm . . .

Ashland Hgh Street, OregonIt's the end of October and the windscreen is covered in bugs from driving, isn't this a little late in the season? We just take the easy route south, the highway. The coastal route is stunning, but takes longer, I've done it a few years ago. We're trying to make our driving days only 4 - 6 hours this trip. Anyway it's after lunch before we leave Woodburn! We stop at the southern edge of Oregon, in the town of Ashland. We had no reservation and the town is almost sold out.We take what we can get. Ashland is known for its Shakespeare Festival, which goes on until October 21 this year, what day is it again?


Sunday 22nd
In the morning before setting off on our drive we take a look around Ashland. It's a stunning little town, with some great artisan shops and restaurants. It obviously caterers to the "Theatre Going" market.

We pick up some southern Oregon wines (Abacela Malbec and Roseburg Chardonnay) at the fun wine and cheese store. Southern Oregon boasts another great wine growing region, Umpqua, which produces different style wines from the Willamette and Columbia Valleys of the north. We find a great little bakery, called The Mix, on the square and have a fantastic breakfast, then head off.

Drive from Asland, Oregon down to CaliforniaAgain we just stick to the highway. Approaching San Francisco, the traffic unsurprisingly slows down (even on a sunday). Even once we leave the highway, heading west towards Napa county, north of the city, we're hit by traffic heading up to Wine country.

This being a winter trip, and us living north of the 49th parallel, we have naturally only packed sweater upon sweater. We arrive in Sonoma, it's 85F/29C. Glad we bought some T shirts at Woodburn, well maybe I did do some shopping.

When we'd looked last month at accommodation for San Francisco and "Area", there was virtually nothing in San Francisco (we now know that HP is having a mega conference in San Francisco). What little was left in the city or available in Napa was going to cost 3 - 4 times what we had paid for the Metropolitan in Vancouver.

Fairmont Hotels give away free coupons to their club members, which you can join for free if you have a Diners Club card. These coupons range from free extra nights, free room upgrades, $50 on any F&B (including booze) etc. We have never paid a cent for this stuff, but then we probably wouldn't have stayed at Fairmont otherwise.

So we end up at the stunning Sonoma Fairmont for less than 1/2 the price of a mediocre hotel in Frisco. We are upgraded to a junior corner suite, again because of these free coupons. The suite is in the beautiful old section of the hotel, which unsurprisingly means lots of character and thin walls. We love it.