Cannon Beach

On an unusually sunny November day, we decided to drive out to Cannon Beach for the day. (It's only about an hour and a half from Portland) It's got a cute little town and a gorgeous beach. Also happens to be where the Goonies was filmed, so Tyler convinced Megan to watch it since she'd never seen it. 

Multnomah Falls

There are endless places to hike just a short drive away, but we decided to check off Mulnomah Falls from our list early on. Even on a drizzly day, there were tons of people there to see the waterfall. The hike to the top was about a mile of a windy, very uphill path. There were lots of scenic views (already told Lauren Tindall we'll reserve double the time for this hike when she visits for all her picture-taking)

Settling In

We lived with our Air BnB hosts for a week and a half in Portland before moving into our studio apartment in SE Portland. Since we drove with only what we could fit in our cars, we had a lot of DIY projects and craigslisting to do to make our apartment more homey.

One awesome place in Portland, The Rebuilding Center (http://rebuildingcenter.org), has recycled building materials. We got a door to use as a headboard and some reclaimed wood to make the footboard of the bed frame we built. 

We also built a coffee table with some apple crates.

Still more projects to go, including some bike shelves, but pretty happy with how our place is coming together! 

Oh, and pretty happy we live one block from some fantastic food trucks:

DAYS 6-8: Last Leg!

On day 6, we drove from Denver to Park City, Utah and got to visit with Taylor. It's a ski town but the Saturday nightlife was alive even before the start of ski season.

From Park City, we headed out of Utah, through Wyoming, and up through Idaho. We got to make another stop at a diners, drive ins and dives feature: Pizzalchik and enjoyed some baked potato pizza. From Pizzalchik in Boise, we drove just a little further to make it across the Oregon border and stay the night in Baker City, Oregon.

Day 5: Driving Break in Denver

Friday morning we woke up to a light snow covering the ground in Denver. Nevertheless, we decided to brave the unseasonably cool weather and go to downtown Denver and check out 16th street. After that, we headed over to Golden, Colorado to tour the Coors factory. We took an audio tour, followed by meeting up in the tasting room with two of Tyler's high school friends, Mike and Al.

Day 4: Never Ending Nebraska

We thought Iowa was boring, but Nebraska somehow seemed even less exciting, maybe because it was generally flatter. It was raining the majority of the trip, so we had to take our stretching breaks indoors. This led to a snack shopping spree and discovery that Target in Nebraska sells liquor (not that we had space to fit any in our cars) We were very excited to cross into Colorado, but it continued to seem like the middle of nowhere.
We finally arrived in Aurora, Colorado where we stayed with family friends Dan and Sandra...and got to enjoy a home-cooked meal of chili complete with a chocolatey dessert drink.

Day 3: Quest for an Ohama Steak

After 2 really long days of driving, we allowed ourselves to sleep in and get a later start. Day 3's drive was mostly through Iowa, and the landscape didn't have a whole lot of variation. There were lots of random attractions on road signs, and Tyler "accidentally" led us to the National Motorcyle Museum on one of our stops. (http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org) We eventually made it to Omaha to Johnny's Cafe for a genuine Omaha steak. Tyler claims it was in the top two steaks he's ever had. After dinner, we drove just a little further into Nebraska and stayed the night in Lincoln.

Day 2: DETOUR

We decided a few days before leaving to change up our original plan and detour to Madison, Wisconsin. We got to walk around and see a little of the city (including a bike shop in an old train station shown in the photo above) before meeting up with Aunt Sally and Uncle Dave for dinner. They also drove us around and showed us more of the city and the campus. We had a delicious meal at one of their favorite restaurants, Bluephies. And since we were in Wisconsin, we had to start off the meal with some bacon-wrapped cheese curds. The meal ended with selecting the dessert by looking thru that red View-Master (that's the name of that binocular toy according to our Wikipedia search.)

Packing + Day 1

We decided to each drive our own car to Oregon caravan-style, but that decision left us with really limited space. We brought virtually no furniture and went through the trouble of having a "trial pack" a week before the big move. While it was a big help, it still took all day Sunday to pack up our stuff. (Special thanks to Elena for "helping" us, too)

Day one of driving was the longest we had planned, going to Royal Oaks, Michigan (near Detroit). Including stops, it took a total of about 11 hours. Our longest stop was to go to a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives near Pittsburgh. It was called Starlite Lounge, and would probably most appropriately fall under the "dives" category. Megan chose it because it was known for one of her all-time favorite foods, pierogies. They did not disappoint.

 

When we finally made it to Megan's cousin Paul's house in Royal Oaks, we unpacked what we needed for the night and headed to a nearby restaurant, Vinsetta Garage (www.vinsettagarage.com). We each tried out some local beers and feasted on pizza and pasta bowls. We wish we could have had more time to spend in Detroit, but we had to get up early to start day 2's journey. Thank you, Paul for being such a great host to us!

Road Trip!

We have set our departure date for Monday, September 8th and planned our stops along the route to Oregon. Here's a little more info about our stops and if you have any suggestions for adjustments to see/experience exciting things along the way, please leave us a comment! 

1. Detroit - We will be staying with Megan's cousin, Paul, at the lovely home he is renovating.

1.5 Starved Rock State Park - We plan on taking in some nature and sights before we get to the long open stretch through Iowa and Nebraska. Here's a link to the park: http://www.starvedrockstatepark.org/

2. Le Claire, Iowa - Our second night will be spent at a hotel on the Mississippi river near the Illinois/Iowa border.

3. Kearney, Nebraska ... otherwise known as the "Sandhill Crane Capitol of the World" (too bad we won't be there for Sandhill Crane season) http://visitkearney.org/

4. Denver, Colorado - We hope to catch up with some of Tyler's friends in Denver and then plan to stay at longtime friends of Megan's parents, Dan & Sandra. (Also planning on stopping in Boulder on our way out of Denver)

5. Salt Lake City, Utah - We will be staying with one of Tyler's best friends, Taylor.

6. Baker City, Oregon ...because we couldn't pass up a stop on the OFFICIAL Oregon Trail: http://www.bakercity.com/

Last stop: PORTLAND! We have reserved a room through AirBnB for our first week while we apartment hunt.

The Beginning of Our Adventure...

Probably everyone who is reading this already knows, Tyler and I are moving to Portland! We are both very excited for this adventure, but know we will be missing all of you back on the East Coast.
We recently spent five days in Portland in the beginning of June exploring and trying to figure out what areas we might want to live in. I met with a professor with my Masters program at Marylhurst University while we were out there as well. (Link to more about my program) We still have a lot to figure out right now, but the tentative departure date is in early September.
One of the things we are most looking forward to is spending time outdoors. It's only a five to ten minute drive outside of the city to get to some amazing parks and amazing views. While Tyler was in an interview on our visit, I escaped to Council Crest Park and got this view of Mt. Hood in the distance (if you're not impressed by the photo, well then you might just have to visit us and see it for yourself in person because the photo just doesn't do it justice):

We hope to stay in touch with our friends and family and give you some updates here on the blog.
Thanks for reading!