Happy Birthday America!!!
Backtracking to Seaside from Newport.
We always make a stop at Depoe Bay when we're on the Oregon Coast. Depoe Bay harbor is a 6 acre harbor that the city promotes as the world's smallest navigable harbor. It's a small beach town but their bay is worth the stop because it's a great place to spot whales! and lucky for us we saw a whale. About time too because we hadn't been lucky in the past.
I'm still in awe of all the pretty pines in the PNW! I remember moving from AZ and thinking, look at how green it is here! It was also my first time in WA, back in 2012. I still love admiring all the evergreens. The 101 is very picturesque. I really don't like taking the 5 and avoid is as often as possible.
We arrived in Seaside (where there's a fireworks show) around 2:40 pm. For the past few visits to Seaside we've been stopping by Ruby's Roadside Grill. They have wings, hamburgers, hotdogs, beer and shakes. They're actually pretty decent and we're glad we found a restaurant where we can get good quality food.
This was our second time spending the 4th in Seaside but the first time not staying here. We were just playing things by ear and because we didn't plan accordingly we weren't able to find any hotel vacancies. So we didn't have anywhere to chill and refresh.
We parked near their main street so we could avoid traffic but this meant that we had to walk quite a long way to be near the action by the beach.
I love beach houses especially the ones with shingles, they add so much character to the exterior. It's just so Nantucket.
What a pretty area for a stroll.
Broadway Street is where most of the restaurants and stores are and also where Funland Entertainment Center is located. Jacob and Riley passed the time playing games.
And they also rented a Surrey. It was a very warm day. Jacob said that Riley kept taking breaks from pedaling so he had to work extra hard. They went all over Seaside while I did some window shopping.
There was a lot of people. I'm glad that Police presence was everywhere, as it should be. We found a spot right where the fireworks were set to go off, just across the way from us. Once the sun went down it got very cold and although we were wearing our jackets we were still cold. I guess we failed to layer up.
We know that the PNW is liberal (unfortunately) but we were very surprised about how patriotic the firework show was. They played awesome patriotic songs while the fireworks were going off, gave us goosebumps. It was very enjoyable and made me so thankful for this wonderful country of ours.
After the fireworks show was over we had to walk quite a bit of blocks to get to our car then we drove an hour east to Hillsboro which is located about 30 minutes from Portland. We try to avoid staying the night in Portland, it's just not our vibe.
We definitely got a good nights sleep that night.
The following morning we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We are so happy that we can go to a Cracker Barrel and enjoy good southern food. I also love to shop at their gift shop. I always end up leaving with a few things.
My go to breakfast is Uncle Herchel's breakfast with their delicious hash brown casserole and their coffee is quite tasty too. We like it a lot.
After breakfast we kept driving East to The Dalles (rhymes with the gals). It is the largest city of Wasco County with a population of 13,620 at the 2010 census. It sits along the Columbia River outside the Portland Metropolitan area.
I thought the drive to The Dalles was pretty. There's several exists to hiking trails which some have waterfalls.
We saw a bunch of people windsurfing the Columbia River Gorge.
We pulled over to see them up close because Jacob was very interested about it. He hopes to try it some time in the future.
That bridge in the distance is called The Bridge of the Gods. A toll bridge which connects Oregon and Washington. Here's the story of this ancient legend if you care to know the meaning behind this tribal lore.
Got back on the freeway towards The Dalles.
It was hot over here and the drive felt kind of long. We didn't know what to expect and once we arrived we were shocked about how old this area is. It also looked like a ghost town. We drove through their downtown and there were several stores out of business.
We stopped at Klindt's bookstore. Opened since 1893, one of the oldest bookstores in the West. I was hoping to find a bargain shelf but was quickly disappointed to see they had none and was even more disappointed that this bookstores is very biased. They had no biblically sound books. The "Christian" books they did have were from progressive Christians that I don't care for. The one thing that did caught my eye was a set of pretty pencils that I did end up buying.
The Dalles is very rundown and not really much to see or do so we stopped at a Walgreens to buy some snacks and quickly headed out of here.
Jacob had looked up good places to eat and found Chicken n Guns in E Portland. Bummed that it was in Portland but we went anyway and glad we did. Their chicken is delicious. I don't know what they season it with but the chicken is so darn good plus they serve the chicken with some very flavorful green sauce called Peruvian Aji which contains creamy jalapeño, cilantro, garlic and lime. SO good!! And "guns" stand for their crispy potatoes with lemon and sea salt topped with pickled onions and Aji sauce. We are so glad to have found this place.
We spent one more night at a hotel. This time it was near the Oregon/Washington border.
I guess one needs to try out new things to find out if they will become favorites and which ones to not bother with again. Although there were several things that we didn't care for one this road trip there were more positives and chose to be happy in the moment. One needs to grow thick skin and learn to ignore things that try to put a damper on our happiness. And I don't mean to be ignorant of important issues but to learn to not stress over things we can't control. I make it a point to find beauty even in the ugliest of places.
From my life, I'll never hide, loving the journey with every
stride. Wherever I go, one thing I'll take, smile of joy, each day that I wake.
