Oregon

Adventures in Astoria

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This past weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a spur of the moment trip to the Oregon Coast. This was our first trip to the coast and of course because our trip was so last minute, I’m talking we decided Thursday night to go away for the weekend, we had very limited options for accommodations due to Oregon schools being on spring break. We ended up finding a hotel in Astoria and here are a few of the places we visited.

Breweries: Of course we had to stop into Rogue and Fort George for some beer sampling while in Astoria. While I loved the location of Rogue (right on the water literally) I have to say Fort George was the winner with it’s amazing beers.  My favorite Fort George brew was the 1811 Lager, which is surprising to me because I am a lover of hoppy beers which this one is not. Not a beer drinker? Well then you must try the wasabi ginger ale at Fort George. So good. Astoria-Rouge

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Night Life: If you do happen to go to Rogue at night you’ll probably walk outside and be greeted by the sound of sea lions, they are seriously so loud and so cute. You will also be able to take in a breath taking view and sunset. I recommend taking a walk along the water down to the pier so you can see the sea lions up close while enjoying the sunset.

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Filmed in Astoria: I knew that The Goonies was filmed onsite in Astoria but did you know that Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Benji the Hunted, The Ring Two, and Into the Wild were also filmed in Astoria? Of course we had to grab a map (side note: seriously who uses mapquest anymore? Google Maps for the win) and visit The Goonies house and take a photo of the school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed.

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Blue Schorcher: This vegetarian cafe has a small food menu, lots of baked goods, chocolates that I wish I had bought and of course coffee. The menu is vegetarian but vegans don’t get too excited because everything is very dairy heavy.  We ended up ordering the Tempeh & Toast for breakfast and coffees and it was really good, so good I’d recommend going. You can also pick up one of their wonderful homemade breads to take home and if you forget your reading material they have a wall full of really wonderful magazines you can purchase. Also for those of you with little ones there was an amazing little play area that Edith enjoyed for almost our entire meal.

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Coming up later this week I’ll show you a few other adventures from this past weekend.

Have you ever visited Astoria?

Where did/are you travel for Spring Break?

Portland: While We Wait

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Since apparently our movers are off somewhere on a beach with their legs up and an umbrella drink in there hand, well that’s what I imagine they must be doing since they are already five days past due, we have been out exploring the area.  It’s pretty frustrating that they haven’t arrived yet but what can you do? Honestly this is probably the only time in my life I wish I had been unpacking my dishes than eating Voodoo Doughnuts….wait no I’d always rather be eating Voodoo Doughnuts who am I kidding?

 

On Saturday morning we headed downtown to get our Voodoo Doughnuts on and for good measure we chose 5 doughnuts to share between the three of us (my mom is here right now).  Although we ordered 5 we really only shared 4 because after a tiny nibble of one of the vegan cake doughnuts we decided it was awful and tossed it out and moved on to the vegan maple creme (hello yum). We also had to of course get some Stumptown Coffee while we waited in line for doughnuts which had us crossing off two of the top sites to see in Portland.

After crossing those two sites off we headed to Powell’s Books to cross a third top site off the list. This bookstore is insane and I could have spent days in there just browsing all of the books. The children’s book section is especially impressive and I can’t wait to bring E there when she is older. I am already planning a bi-weekly Voodoo-Stumptown-Powell’s tradition in my mind for when she is older where we will all share one (okay maybe two) Voodoo Doughnuts, Neil and I will get Stumptown Coffees and E will get a new book at Powell’s.

After Powell’s we all started to come off our sugar high and decided that we should eat some real food so we walked a few more blocks to Deschutes Brewery. I have to say I am in beer heaven around here and Deschutes has a really beautiful brew pub in Portland. Neil and I got the veggie burger and some avocado for E and my mom and I shared a sampler while Neil had his own. The food was good and the beer was so good- my favorite was the White IPA.

The remainder of of our Saturday was spent at Ikea trying to pick up some new things for the house but we ended up being pretty unsuccessful since our rental car is on the smaller side and our car doesn’t arrive until at least Friday.  So we picked up a few little things and made a list of what we need to go back for next weekend.

Since our things did not arrive on Sunday we headed out for more adventures, this time we took a little drive to Multnomah Falls. Neil and I have been dying to visit since our canceled Portland trip two years ago.  The drive was beautiful and the falls even more so although it was pretty icy and freezing so I can’t wait to go back in the summer when we can also do a little hiking.

So far we are in love with the area and I can’t wait to do more exploring and of course hit up a few food carts- any recommendations?

Head over to Naturally Family to check out more photos of our adventures this weekend.