A weekend in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Finn

This past Memorial Day weekend we decided to get the RV out of storage and head to Ainsworth State Park in the Columbia River Gorge.

They have a really nice RV park with full hookup sites spaced far apart but it’s first come, first served so I headed out Thursday afternoon to beat the rush and Kate drove out to meet me Friday after work. We recently got two kittens and thought this would be a good opportunity to get them acquainted with the RV and travel so I brought them along. This was far less traumatic than I thought it would be for both the kittens and us. They understood and used the smaller, temporary litter box like seasoned pros and didn’t get into any outrageous trouble.

Friday morning I took a hike up to Ponytail Falls which is the upper fall of Horsetail Falls. The trail from the campground to the falls meanders through a beautiful, moss covered forest landscape just like the ones I saw in the Oregon entries of the encyclopedia as a child. I didn’t encounter anyone else for miles until I got closer to the falls. Ponytail Falls spills out from the top of a large rock outcropping  into a pool that the trail passes behind.

Ponytail Falls with the trail behind

The stream continues towards the river when it again spills, as Horsetail Falls, out from a cliff top into a pool right next to Scenic Highway 30.

Horsetail Falls

Friday afternoon the RV park filled up just before Kate arrived and the rain began to fall. We spent the evening getting re-acquainted with RV living and playing with the kittens. Saturday morning we headed out to see some of the local sights and got some lunch on the south side of the Bridge of the Gods. After eating we drove across the bridge to Washington State for some sightseeing then headed back to see the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. This place is amazing. It’s a fully functioning fish hatchery that produces millions of fish for local waterways but is also beautifully maintained for and accessible by tourists. You can see the complete production/life cycle of trout, salmon, sturgeon and others. They are also famous for their sturgeon viewing pond where their star Herman lives. Herman is an enormous 70 year old sturgeon. Watch our video here.

After spending quite a while at the hatchery we headed back to camp to build a fire and cook some dinner.

Sunday morning the rain really came down and we decided to beat the crowds and head home. It was a really nice weekend in the forest and we can’t wait to try more new spots this summer. Here are a few more photos we took in Ainsworth State Park.

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Daycation at the Oregon Coast

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Kate

Yesterday we jumped in the car and headed west. We’d been every other direction away from Portland but hadn’t yet gone west to see the ocean. We planned on fixing that and made our way to Seaside, Oregon.

Seaside is a charming beach town and we imagine the place must be jumping in the summertime. Even in December, the stores and resturants were all open and we visited the candy and shell shops you’d find in a destination like this. We had lunch at a seafood restaurant called “Finn’s Fish House” — the name was the draw but the food was great. Later we made our way south to Cannon Beach where we found Haystack Rock.

The giant rock formations were beautiful and striking. I envied the locals living in bungalows nestled in the hillside and overlooking the beach. It must be an amazing sunset.

The monolithic Haystack Rock is accessible from the beach at low tide and I made my way towards it before being driven inland by oncoming waves.

Now that we know some options, we are looking forward to the spring and summer. We saw many RV campgrounds by the beaches and think we could easily travel the coast next year visiting all the towns like Seaside along the way.

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Portland Life

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Kate

We apologize to anyone who might be wondering if we are still alive out here in America. We hit Portland six weeks ago and then… radio silence. I can report we are doing well and all settled in our new home. Time has flown by as we unpacked, bought a few necessities and looked for work. I’ve joined a great company and Finn is still on the hunt.

Portland continues to charm us. It’s full of passion for craftsmanship, cuisine and curious culture. We’ve had one out-of-town friend already pass through on business and we really hope more arrive in 2013. We miss our friends and family and it is probably the only downside to what has become the most epic adventure of our lives.

Above is our new ’hood — the Willamette Riverfront.

I’m not sure what this monkey dance was all about, but it was entertaining.
This year marks the 58th year for the Christmas Ship Parade on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. We live right by the marina and each night we see the festive boats sailing away for the holiday parade. We’re looking forward to our first Portland Christmas and everything ahead in 2013.

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Newsflash: We now live in Portland!

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Kate

This year we traveled for four months and then we found Portland — a place we liked right away and want to settle into and make our new home.

When we left San Francisco at the end of June we put our stuff in storage. Our little 8′ x 10′ storage space is what we called our “apartment in a box” — combined with all the stuff we have with us in the RV, we have everything we need to instantly create a home. Yesterday we rented a Uhaul truck, emptied the storage space and brought our stuff to our new town.

Our "apartment in a box" -- everything you need to make an instant home

We got our stuff moved up to Portland in just two days. It has been exhausting to load the truck with everything, drive 12 hours over two days then unload the truck into the building, up an elevator and down a hall. We were thankful that two new neighbors in our building volunteered to help for awhile with our move in. We’re getting a good feeling about Portland!

Over the past two days we spent any free moments trying to get more news about New York/ Jersey and our friends dealing with the havoc and destruction caused by hurricane Sandy. Like we said on Facebook, we were heartbroken to see the images as they hit the news and learn about the extent of the damage. We know from experience that the northeast is resilient and will bounce back but it’s so hard to see the devastation.

Kate (me) driving our stuff from San Francisco to Portland

Now that we finally have everything in the apartment, I’m probably most looking forward to being reunited with our bed and lots of clothes I haven’t seen in a while. I’m also looking forward to the bathtub and washer/dryer in our new apartment — two luxuries for us after months in an RV.

Our next step will be looking for work in Portland and hopefully, if things work out and we like the town, we’ll be living here a while. In the spring we plan to go on short trips and explore more of Oregon and Washington. What we’ve seen so far is wonderful. Now, if I can even move a muscle, it’s time to unpack!

View from our balcony in Portland

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Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Kate

After some lousy viewing of Mt. Rainier, things didn’t improve in the next couple days when we headed to Mount St. Helens. Unfortunately, the rainy weather and heavy fog didn’t allow us to see much of the mountain or National Monument area.

We drove up to the visitor center and, as always, watched the movie. They used the limited photography from the event and streamed it together into an animation as the narrator explained the 1980 eruption. The National Monument was established in 1982, two years after the event, and there have been several smaller eruptions in the past 32 years. Mount St. Helens is still very much alive and is watched closely by geologist.

In the visitor center they have an audio story accompanied by this awesome visual light display of the entire eruption as it occurred on May 18th, 1980 (below).

The chilly, rainy weather has reminded us it’s a good time to get off the road. Last year we stopped and started living in San Francisco on November 1st and we’re planning to settle down for some apartment living once again. More on that soon!

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Mt. Rainier National Park

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Kate

Mt. Rainier National Park, established in 1899 as America’s fifth National Park, is in Washington state. We drove into the park two days in a row hoping to get a view of Mt. Rainier but we never managed to actually see the mountain. Even when we drove to the Jackson Visitor Center, where we should be able to just look up and see the glaciers flowing down the mountain and its magnificent peak, it was so shrouded in clouds and fog that we couldn’t even make out the outline.

Disappointed that we never saw the main attraction, we still saw lots of other beautiful sites in the park. Below are shots from our drive up the road overlooking surrounding peaks and ridges. I wasn’t prepared for the deep snow that appeared suddenly and covered the pine trees as we ascended.

Walking in the winter landscape was beautiful.

Down below the snow line we went on a hike into the old growth forest. Exploring the two different environments in the same afternoon was wild.

We stopped in the Longmire Museum and checked out their collection of stuffed wildlife and learned some more about the mountain area. We’ll have to return another time and see more.

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Talking with Other Travelers About Traveling

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Kate

Our first expedition into Washington was a beeline straight up to Seattle from Portland. We went there to meet a couple, know online as “Married with Luggage“, who have been traveling the world for the past two years. We’d never met, but I’ve been following their travels online and they put out an open invitation to their we’re-back-in-the-U.S.-gathering. We headed to Seattle and attended the party and then got the opportunity to hang-out some more with Betsy and Warren the next morning.

They’re a great couple who are transforming their personal experiences into tools and books for others to figure out their own dream and take action to make it a reality. They were curious about our transformation from typical NYC-DINKs (that’s my self-classification, “duel-income-no-kids”) to RV-driving nomads. Talking with them about the RV and how we travel made us realize how far we’ve come and how much we’ve learned. We don’t spend much time reflecting yet (I can do it when I finally get the chance to make one helluva road trip scrapbook), but when we think about how much we’ve seen and learned it’s a great feeling of accomplishment.

When we started traveling my goal was to really know the USA. Before leaving New York I hadn’t seen much of America. I knew major cities and general stuff about geography, climate, popular destinations, etc. There was a lot missing in between and I was short on details. I wanted to connect all the dots and fill in the blanks, not just today’s America, but also our American history. In the past year and a half we’ve seen and learned so much about this country. We’ve traveled along the Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark Trail and the Pony Express. We’ve seen gold mining towns, homesteads, president’s homes, ancient Pueblo dwellings and over thirty National Parks and Monuments. These places, plus stops in countless towns, viewing dozens of historical markers and stays at almost a hundred campgrounds across twenty-five states has been a concentrated, massive dose of learning and fun. We’ve accomplished so much and we still have half the states left to visit.

We’re glad we keep taking the time to update this online journal. Sometimes it’s hard to keep it all straight — I’ve woken up and had to think for a minute about which state I was in — frequently we use our blog as a resource to look up where we did or saw things. We’re also glad to have occasional opportunities to meet up with fellow travelers along the way and swap stories. When we’re traveling we’re basically alone and connecting with other travelers, even for a short time, makes any place a bit more comfortable.

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Not your typical travel trailer …

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Kate

This little home just pulled in next to us at the RV campground. The couple staying in it have a pick-up truck to tow it and drop it into place. I’ve seen countless travel trailers, but this one is the most adorable.

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