After a week on the Oregon coast, we headed inland to Portland to visit with friends. Portland was quite different from the rest of Oregon. After wondering all week where all the people were in Oregon, we found them in Portland – all of the people. More than half of oregon’s population lives in the Portland metropolis.
It’s a very unique city, with expansive suburbs and traffic to the south and west of Portland, but an amazing River and scenic gorge and far less traffic and people extending to the northeast of portland along the Columbia river.
The gorge at Hood River is only an hour east of Portland, and my husband ranked it at one of the most beautiful places he had ever kitesurfed, up there with fiji and Maui, and Dominican Republic. While it didn’t have any clear blue waters or fishy reefs to stare down at as he floated across the water, he found himself staring up at the rock walls of the gorge that surrounded him as he traveled upriver to explore the beauty. He was soon out of my sight from the shore, so I was able to get back to my book, “The Husband’s Secret, by Laine Moriarty. After I got halfway through the book, I had trouble putting it down. As soon as I finished it, I started in on another book by the same author called “What Alice Forgot.” Anyways, back to Portland.
In the center of the city, you’ll find a typical large city and lively downtown with a unique foodie, yuppie, millennial hippie twist (yep I just used all of the trendy stereotypes in one sentence). If you are looking for bold menus with original food, spend some time eating out in Portland. Dafna, our hostess and good friend from college days, made sure we hit the right places. However, since we don’t have the patience to wait in lines, we skipped the “Salt & Straw,” Portland’s most popular ice cream shop that serves up crazy favors like strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper.
We ended up exploring the restaurant and bars on Alberta street mostly due to proximity to where our friends were. The neighborhoods we explored had lots of greenery, gardens, and nature on display in an attempt to maintain the beauty of Oregon in the crowded city. Melyssa had her heart set on dancing up a storm, but we decided to cozy up with drinks around a table in the back of a bar instead.
While most cities seem to adopt policies to deter homeless, we noticed communities in Portland that made gestures to try to make life a little easier for their homeless. For example, some people left food and recyclables on top of public trash cans rather than inside them. This person appears to have created some sort of supply station.
We could explore all the different neighborhoods and restaurants in Portland for years, but we were mostly there to visit friends. We thank our hosts and miss them already, but we were ready to get back to exploring oregon’s northern coast for the last week of our trip.
Oregon is beautiful. We are a bit embarrassed it has taken us this long to finally discover it. We have flown to many far away countries that would have trouble competing with the state of Oregon as a summer vacation destination. It’s only a 12 hour drive north from San Diego, but it’s a different world across that California/Oregon border. Oregon’s population is only 4 million people vs. California’s 39 million, so you really have an opportunity to enjoy nature. Put Oregon on your list if you wonder what it might have been like to explore Yosemite 30 years ago. It feels like it has all of the scenery and none of the people.
We packed our car with surfing, kiting, and camping gear and headed north without a schedule or any hotels booked. We visited family in Long Beach, then drove 6 hours to Sherman Island in Northern California to kitesurf on the Sacramento River and visit more family.
The drive through Northern California was easy except for the truckers that will swerve into you without looking so they can pass another truck that is going 1/2 mph slower than they are (even though both are going 10mph below the speed limit). After passing Yolo and Weed, we were almost to Ashland, our first stop in Oregon just across the border. The Shakespeare Festival (Ashland’s main tourist attraction), was not on our list, but we did enjoy a beautiful winery nearby and Bazooka Zoo, a “space rock collective” pushing the boundaries of traditional music at a local bar. They made all of the sounds.
After Ashland, we drove 3 hours to the coast at Winchester Bay. My brother was camping with his family at the dunes there so we crashed their RV and seafood boil, and rode their quads all weekend.
The scenery at Winchester bay is pretty incredible, especially when exploring on a quad. The wind blew almost every afternoon there, creating fresh unspoiled sand dunes, adjacent to miles of beautiful and empty beaches.
“Banshee hill” is the most famous and popular hill at the Winchester dunes because it’s the highest hill there. It’s an exciting ride that provides an amazing view once you reach the top.
After a few days of riding quads without incident, my brother decided to test his limits on steeper terrain. Unfortunately, he “didn’t quite make the corner” but he did make us laugh.
Father’s Day was a treat for my husband. After tackling Banshee Hill, he pumped up his kite and went for a cold water kitesurf session while I read on the beach.
After a weekend of smores and Angry Orchard cider around the campfire, I was eaten alive by mosquito bites the size of tennis balls on my forehead and both of my left cheeks. We decided it was time to treat ourselves to a hotel.
We drove a few hours north on the scenic 101 coastal highway stopping only to take a few photos and to collect another couple of hundred dollars from Oregon’s generous casinos. We had been stopping briefly at casinos along the drive north all week, and luck be a lady because I was on one heck of a hot streak.
After reaching Newport, we decided to stay for a night to enjoy the wide open beach. There is an impressive number of available campgrounds all along the Oregon coast but the casino winnings were burning a hole in my pocket, and so we enjoyed an oceanview room at the Shiloh inn (only $105) and tasty grub at Nana’s Irish pub.
We walked all over the small town and bay bridge in the morning before heading north again to Lincoln city. Lincoln City is a bit larger than the other coastal towns we had seen so far, but still quite small. We are amazed at how few people there are on oregon’s coast. Small home prices just one house from the water were just $250,000 according to Zillow.
We eventually found a wide open beach called “roads end” with heavy winds and bigger waves. I pretended to watch my husband kitesurf and snapped a few photos to appease him, but I was really beginning to get into my book “The Husband Secret.”
Afterwards, I scored another win at the local casino so we treated ourselves to a hotel for a few night. It was fabulous to relax in the hot tub and soak our sore muscles. It was an amazing first week in Oregon!
Earlier this year, I went to Puerto Vallarta with one of my old friends from highschool that I rarely see. Vacationing with friends can be a bit of a gamble because it’s like you’re married for the week. Fortunately, Michelle turned out to be a perfect partner.
We all know how much work it takes to maintain a healthy marriage, even when you only see each other a few hours a day. Vacationing with friends means you are together 24 hours a day for an entire week. Every decision you make, from breakfast to what you will do for the day, to what time you will go to bed requires flexibility, consensus and compromise. If your decisions don’t coincide with your partner’s on vacation, things can get ugly fast.
Our ideas of vacation that week were 100% in agreement. Lots of relaxation and reading, share the occasional two for one happy hour cocktails at the pool, take some leisurely scenic strolls, share some nachos, and have a few nice dinners together, but nothing too fancy or over the top. I leave the kiteboarding, surfing, and extreme hiking to my husband. I can be adventurous sometimes, but it’s hard to beat a day at the pool with your girlfriend.
My husband just got back from a kitesurfing trip in Maui. I haven’t been there yet so I asked him to share his impressions…
Maui is the windy island.
The wind generally picks up in the afternoon which helps keep you cool out on the beach. However, the beach is more beautiful in the morning when the water is flat and the wind is calm.
Not a lot of native Hawaiians –
the entire population of Maui is only about 150k (only about 6% of which is native Hawaiian), yet the island sees around 3 million tourists per year, mostly from the US and Canada.
Best Things to do as a tourist there –
“the road to Hana” is a 2 hour must do drive in all the guidebooks. It has lots of easily accessible cool waterfalls, swimming holes, hiking and scenic picnic areas. Sandals and swimsuit are sufficient for the well marked trails. Hiking shoes become useful if you want to explore beyond the end of trail signs.
Not sure why but abandoning your car is very popular in Maui. You’ll see this all over but I don’t recommend it.
When you hit the beach,
bring a snorkel mask to enjoy the beautiful and very calm clear blue water filled with fish and turtles. Snorkel in the morning before the wind stirs up the water. In many spots, the ocean was so calm in the morning that it reminded me more of a lake. This and small gentle waves attracted a lot of paddleboarders.
Watch out for tiger sharks, a near shore predator that is attracted to the many turtles in Maui. Non-fatal shark attacks seem to be averaging almost once a month recently. However, most attacks have only resulted in minor injuries or a bite out of a surfboard. During our first day kiting, a fellow kiteboarder surfed right over a 12 foot tiger shark about 50 yards from shore at kanaha state beach park. We wished he hadn’t told us, and you’ll probably wish we hadn’t told you.
Maui’s heavy winds are great for Windsurfing and kitesurfing.
Lessons are available there but it’s expensive and really not a good place for a beginner to learn. When there was wind, we kitesurfed in mostly flat water with some small 1-2 foot waves. The regular surf season (without a kite) is in the winter, and even the tiny offseason long boarding waves were very crowded.
When it was calm, we hiked, snorkeled, and drove around the scenic island. We stopped at a melaleuca tree (tea tree) on one of our hikes, but we weren’t quite sure how to extract any essential oil from it for our surfer’s ear aches.
The freakishly narrow winding northern road to Honolua bay and Lahaina is also well worth doing if you want to see the blowhole, local art galleries hidden in the hills, or clifftop scenic photos. Take the safer southern route if you just want to see the towns and bay. Or take the helicopter tour which is only about $100/person.
Accommodations are expensive and a car rental is necessary.
We booked a condo and a house in advance through vrbo. However, next time I think I might camp or just wing it on Hotel Tonight (excellent mobile app that hotels use to fill their rooms last minute at heavily discounted rates). I noticed several nice hotels on the app for $100-150 while I was there. (If you’d like $25 free toward your first Hotel Tonight stay, use the code: JWILEY46 when you download the app.)
It’s a small island.
You can drive to most of the towns in one day. We stayed in Kihei for half the trip which is one of the most popular/touristy towns with large beautiful accessible beaches along the big main drag, calm water, lots of semi-oceanfront condos, restaurants and nightlife. Be sure to have some poke (raw seasoned ahi tuna) while you’re there (it’s definitely better there than what we get in California).
The other half of the trip we stayed in Paia, which is more of a small local “hippie” town with no beachfront hotels or condos, and smaller, less accessible but still beautiful beaches within 20 minutes walking distance (although expect some nudity and tent homes).
Paia is an eclectic mix of local Hawaiians, transplant hippies, and a small main drag that mostly seems to cater to tourists stopping by for some shopping on their way to “the road to Hana.” After returning from a long day of muddy hiking in the humid hills, our long-haired friend threw on some patchouli oil and was pretty sure he was all good to hit the town for a night out.
Just one rule when in Paia – be sure not to smoke brah.
No, we don’t go to summer camp, but our daughter has for the last seven years. This basically means we get a six week break from being a parent every summer. So, it kind of feels like summer camp is for parents too! Our daughter loves it, and so do we.
Sure, we miss our child during that time, but my husband and I both grew up going to the same camp that we send our daughter to – Friendly Pines Camp in Prescott, AZ. Far be it from us to deny our child the same incredible opportunity to develop independence, ride horses, waterski, and make lifelong friends. Nearly all of our best childhood memories come from our experiences as campers there. The same people have been running the camp for decades, and they do an amazing job.
Camp is where I met my husband. While we were both campers there at the same time, we didn’t really meet as campers. However, I do have a memory of him lip synching “Great balls of fire” at the talent show when I was about 11 years old. The short story is… We met later when we came back as counselors, had a summer romance, and got married a few years later.
If you can afford to send your children to camp, we highly recommend it. Your kids will love it, and it’s a great opportunity to give you and your husband some alone time to re-connect. However, they’ll have a very full and tiring day in close quarters with lots of other kids so we find it “essential” to send our daughter with some of her oils to support her immune system and to repel mosquitos.
If you can’t afford to send your child to camp, ask about the family/employee discount. If you can donate your time at the camp as a nurse or something they need, your children might be able to go for free. My parents both work at the camp, so our daughter goes for free!
The scenery at Winchester bay is pretty incredible, especially when exploring on a quad. The wind blew almost every afternoon there, creating fresh unspoiled sand dunes, adjacent to miles of beautiful and empty beaches.
