Keep Portland Weird...

We arrived in Portland after our inbound flight that connected the east and west coasts. Considering we had already been awake for 15 hours when we arrived, we were running on sheer adrenaline. We got our one checked bag (because everything else was carry on because we are cheap!) and went straight to the public transit. Now we have done public transit in many places: NY, Montreal, Wash DC, Paris, etc.... but this was different. We bought our tickets.. then we hustled to the light rail station and waited. We never turned in our tickets... I guess it's the honor system. No one ever asked for our tickets which were cheap to start! I think the 5 of us cost under 10 bucks anyway.

Fast forward to a rail ride through town and a quick walk and we are renting our car. Going to post info on good car rental deals next so stay tuned! While at the car rental place, I peruse the brochures... It was then I notice that this place is very different from my home in Virginia... There are funny tours here... cannabis tours of all things!! Now Camden, being 12 and high and mighty, was horrified! I, being old and jaded, was amused... Turns out it's not that big of a deal there! There's even buses devoted to smoking and touring...

Now for our family... weed is not our thing. Doughnuts and the like would qualify as a vice in our family! While getting the rental car together, we went to my trusty friend, YELP, and asked where the nearby donut shops were located. Found about FIVE! Turns out that VooDoo Doughnuts was just 2/10ths of a mile away... yep.

NOPE. The line was about 200 people deep. NOPE. So we skipped over to the next block and got the highest rated doughnuts in Portland, Donut Byte Labs Mini Donuts food cart... This was fabulous. We had a dozen minis for just over 10 bucks... salted caramel, creme brulee, chocolate cream, snickerdoodle, and the pièce de résistance, maple bacon... Chris was stunned when he showed up a couple of minutes after purchase and I had succumbed to donut delirium as it's not something I normally do... Blame it on the lack of sleep!

Here's a pic and here's the link. Go there. http://www.donutbytelabs.com/

As for the rest of the day, we got the car and drove north as our first nights were in Seattle... We had to figure out the way to order this tour based on from which connection we wanted to take Amtrak, Seattle or Portland... a Facebook query on an Amtrak page had told me that the West to East route was more lovely than the opposite and that the route from Portland would take us through the Columbia River Gorge and that we did not want to miss that... So fly in to Portland, ditch it and go north to explore Seattle first and then back to Portland for picking up the train.

Really quick side trip on the way to Seattle.... Mt. St. Helens! This place was big news when I was a kid so I thought it pretty badass to stop past and see the fussy mountain... We did, took some dark circled pics, and then continued. Seattle up next!

Really quick side trip on the way to Seattle.... Mt. St. Helens! This place was big news when I was a kid so I thought it pretty badass to stop past and see the fussy mountain... We did, took some dark circled pics, and then continued. Seattle up next!