This is my first time in Oregon, and I wanted to spend a solid month here, but I also wanted to see other areas. Since I lived a lot of my 20s and 30s in Minneapolis, I thought Portland would possibly be a good fit for me – even if it was a little bigger than what I had originally thought I would like.
Before I could get on the road, I needed to dump my black and grey tanks. Since Arthur doesn’t like to do errands in Estella, I decided to do this right before we left. There was a dump station at the campground, but we had to drive through about 20 truck / horse trailers to get there since there was a horse show going on when we left. 🍫 This wasn’t a big deal, but it did test my turning skills. Luckily, I didn’t hit any trucks, trailers, horses, or people.
After dumping the tanks, I headed up to Portland from Corvallis in mid-March (and yes, I know I’m really late in getting to these blogs from March / early April). My co-worker who lives in Portland mentioned that the last In-n-Out Burger was just north of Albany, so I had to stop on my way to Portland. There’s a lot of hype around In-n-Out, so I wasn’t surprised that there was a line out the door at 11:30 on a Saturday. I only had to wait about 30 minutes for my cheeseburger, and it was worth it – flavorful and comforting. The fries – not so much; they kinda had the texture of styrofoam.
The drive up to Portland was uneventful. There was an accident once we got into the city, but it didn’t hinder us, and we ended up arriving at Jantzen Beach RV Park around 2:30. This RV park is on Hayden Island in the river between Oregon and Washington. We had a good spot – not too big, not too small. We were also right next to the bathrooms and laundry, which was really convenient for showers. The only downside was that there was always security light coming in from that building, and it drove Arthur bananas. 🍫🍫 I had to rig a curtain over the window to block the light, so he wouldn’t be chasing the light across my face during the night.
Portland just reinforced how much I enjoy visiting places where friends live. This time, I got to spend a lot of time hanging out with my co-worker and his wife. They were incredibly generous hosts who made sure I got to see the neighborhoods and downtown Portland on multiple occasions and ran me to / from the airport to pick up and drop off my rental car. We had dinner at places that only locals know about, I worked from their house when the power went out on the whole island one afternoon, and we even solved a mystery together! Unfortunately, we never thought to take a photo, so this visit will have to live in our memories only.
One rainy afternoon after work, I drove over to Multnomah Falls and took the quick hike up to the bridge that you can see in this picture. The path was slick, so I didn’t venture any further up, but it was a great drive, and I ate dinner at the restaurant that they have there. Full transparency, I would not eat there again, but they did have a tasty alcoholic peppermint hot chocolate…. The food was not great.
More to come on my weekend adventure to Seattle next time.
The Adventures of Ms Haps & Arthur 