52 Hours in Portland

The scenery is amazing. Portland is fresher and greener than anywhere I've been in my life. Driving around on the back curvy roads and watching the scenery passing by was an experience in itself.

The Columbia Gorge Vista House. It's been there since the 1900's and provides a gorgeous view of the Columbia Gorge.

Multnomah Falls was extremely beautiful, but a little crowded. If crowds aren't your thing, you may want to check out some of the other falls nearby. Not as large, but just as beautiful.

Portland's minor league baseball team (The Beavers) play at PGE Park downtown -- it was cheap to go, and lots of fun on a beautiful afternoon.

If you are a Goonies fan, a trip to Cannon Beach and Astoria is a must. It's 70 miles to Cannon Beach from Portland and then 30 miles north is Astoria. Do a search on the internet to find the specific locations.

Quick Tips:

Even in the summer, bring a jacket everywhere you go -- it gets cold at night!

The best food in Portland is supposedly Thai and Japanese food. We didn't get to try any while we were there, but I wished we had!

There are lots of "unique" Portland restaurants. I didn't see a lot of chain restaurants. I don't even remember seeing a McDonald's! So, you should have plenty of options for meals. When in doubt, stop by one of the McMenamin's restaurants, located all over the Portland area.

Best Way To Get Around:

We were visiting a friend, so we had a personal chaffeur everywhere we went. Having a car seemed to be a must. He lives about 20 miles from Downtown Portland, so we were constantly driving. Multnomah Falls and the Columbia Gorge are about 30 miles outside of Portland.

Parking was a little difficult downtown. We had to search for parking spots on the street most of the time, or pay -3 to park. Some of the nicer restaurants have valet parking. PGE Park does not have parking. But once you are downtown and parked, walking is fairly easy.

Since the winter conditions are pretty bad (snow, rain, etc), road construction is done during the summers. They don't care that it's a holiday weekend, or rush hour -- the road is closed!

Most freeways have "grooves" worn in the road because of people driving on them with snow chains (which are never necessary in the winter unless you go in the mountains -- according to my friend that lives there).

A lot of the roads and freeways are very curvy -- be careful, especially in the rain.

Our last night in Portland coincided with my friend's 25th birthday, so we wanted to go someplace special. Ringside turned out to be the perfect spot. We called at 9:30pm to make reservations for 10:30 (it took us a while to get ready).

We arrived at the restaurant, and since it was late, we were allowed to park ourselves in the valet lot for free. We walked into the dark, intimate restaurant to be warmly greeted by the guy that made us the reservation. He lead us to a semi-private table in a back room that had been set with everything. After we sat down, our waiter asked us if we'd ever been there, because there had been some changes to the menu and the regulars (some of which have been coming there for 40 or 50 years!) sometimes get upset.

Inside, the restaurant's dark brick walls are decorated with autographed sports memorabilia. Most of the restaurant is dimly lit, but the some of the wall hangings are spotlighted. There's also a separate bar area for 21+.

The front of the menu consisted of appetizers, salads, and the "Three Course Meal" deal. The back of the menu offered a pretty extensive list of entrees. The entrée prices started at $20 and the appetizers and salads were around $5-$10. The "Three Course Meal" offered a choice of any soup or salad, plus an entrée (12 oz Prime rib, an 8 oz Filet Mignon, a dozen grilled shrimp, or Fresh Alaskan halibut), and dessert. All for a price of $35, except before 5:45 and after 9pm (yay, us!), when it's $25. It seemed like a great deal to us!

For the starter course, all of us ordered salads, except for the birthday girl, who ordered the baked onion soup with a gruyere crust. It came out in a small copper pan and she said it was the best she's ever had in her life. I had the "Annie's" salad, which was tossed in a balsamic vinegarette. It was really good. For the entree, I ordered the shrimp, and after tasting the prime rib, wished I hadn't. The shrimp was good, but the prime rib was out of this world. So tender and juicy. Thankfully, it was so large that my friends who ordered it couldn't finish theirs! The halibut and filet mignon ordered by friends were also good. Each entree came with a choice of baked potato, garlic mashed potatoes, fries, or jasmine rice.

For dessert, there were several choices. I had the chocolate silk pie (as did the birthday girl, for whom they brought out the first cake for with a candle). It was very, very rich and dense, but delicious. I also tried the cheesecake and the bananas Foster. Both were very good.

Overall, everything was delicious. The birthday girl called it "the best meal of her life." If I had ordered the onion soup and prime rib, perhaps I would have agreed.

We arrived in Portland around midnight on a Thursday. Our friend immediately took us to the Blue Moon, a bar/restaurant located in a historic building in the "trendy area" downtown. Blue Moon is owned by the McMenamin family and has recently reopened after a fire destroyed much of the inside two years ago. The McMenamin family owns numerous pubs, breweries, music venues, historic hotels, and theater pubs throughout Oregon and Washington. All of them are unique and located in historical locales. The family is known to buy out old factories and buildings and convert them into entertainment districts or restaurants. Each McMenamin's brews its own beer.

Blue Moon's recent remodeling includes the red neon that edges the roof outside and large picture windows that open out onto the street. We arrived at the bar about midnight, after paying $3 to park in a lot across the street. The bar was fairly crowded with young 20- and 30-somethings, although the menu did tout that it was a "family friendly" place. Almost everyone was wearing jeans and dressed "trendy casual." The drink of choice is beer, since Blue Moon brews their own. I'm not a big beer person, but we had some kind of bitter ale with a twist of lemon that I didn't think was very good. But, the beer-drinkers in the group enjoyed their dark stout beers.

Blue Moon is pretty large and mainly a sit down bar, with plenty of tables and barstools. In the back are a few pool tables and dart boards. The decor is wood, and you can tell the place has been around a while, but is well cared for. The bar is located in the back left, and the entire place is dimly lit, making it easy to see everything.

The menu mainly consisted of sandwiches, burgers, salads, and appetizers. We were hungry after our long flight, so we ordered the spinach-artichoke dip. It came with delicious tortilla chips, which lasted longer than the small bowl of dip. Our friend, who frequents the place, tells us that the burgers and fish-and-chips are especially good.

We were only there for about an hour or two, but I can tell this is a popular place and I would probably go back if I were in Portland again.

For more information, visit their website.

Being a child of the 80s, "The Goonies" was my favorite movie. So, when we went to go visit my friend in Portland who said he could take us to Astoria, where The Goonies was filmed, I was ecstatic!

So, on Saturday morning, we set out from Portland and drove the 70 miles to Cannon Beach on the coast of Oregon. Cannon Beach is an adorable little beach town, with one main road running parallel to the beach, crowded with B&Bs, shops, restaurants, small hotels, and some houses. Not commercialized at all -- No McDonald's or anything of the sort. However, it was 4th of July weekend, so it was really crowded. Traffic was awful, parking was a nightmare. We eventually found a spot in a parking lot across the street from the beach. We walked towards the main public beach entrance (which I later realized was where part of the car chase scene in The Goonies took place).

Once on the beach, you can see Haystack Rock, which is a focal point throughout The Goonies. The chase scene on the beach at the beginning of the movie begins here, the rock is used during the "dubloon" scene when it matches with the lighthouse and restaurant, and can also be seen in several other scenes. The beach itself is really wide, but since the water is about 50 degrees, even in the summer, and the weather is commonly windy and foggy, the most popular activity on the beach was riding these low-rider adult tricycles that were for rent all along the beach. Lots of people also had their dogs out on the beach and many were playing frisbee and football. However, the main attraction on the beach is the rock. At the base of the rock are hundreds of tidepools, filled with green sea sponges, purple and red starfish, clams, hermit crabs, etc. We spent over an hour exploring here. You are not allowed to climb onto the rocks, but taking off your shoes and wading into the shallow tidepools is allowed.

After doing a little shopping in Cannon Beach (I bought some delicious saltwater taffy at Bruce's Candy for $5/lb. However, Bruce's is really crowded -- the line was shorter at some of the shops down the side streets.), and eating lunch at Bill's Tavern & Brew Pub (pretty good cheeseburgers, and we girls loved the lightly fruity Blackberry Beauty beer), we headed to Astoria.(See next journal entry.)

Astoria is located about 30 minutes up the coast of Oregon from Cannon Beach (in The Goonies they make it seem like they are really close). My friend only knew where the County Jail (732 Duane Street at 9th Street) was and the Museum where Mikey and Brand's dad, Mr. Walsh, worked (Flavel House Museum @ 441 8th St.). They are pretty easy to find, and located across the street from each other. We were directed to the Heritage Museum (Exchange and 16th Street) where we bought a little book for $1 with all the Hollywood "landmarks" in Astoria ("Kindergarten Cop," "Short Circuit," and some other movies were filmed in Astoria as well).

From there, we followed the map in the book to "The Goonies House" (368 -38th Street). Although it's changed some in the 20 years since the movie was filmed, it is still awe-inspiring. From the hill the house is on (up a private driveway, so you have to park at the bottom of the hill (there's a sign welcoming The Goonies though)), you have not only the house, but a great view of the Columbia river and the city of Astoria. You can even see "Data's house" where data slid down the rope into the Walshs' house. However, the yard is no longer, but you can still imagine Chunk doing the "truffle shuffle." Well worth the trip.

A trip to Astoria is not complete without a trip to the Astoria Column. Many of the establishing shots for Goonies were taken from this lookout point. The column is located on top of Coxcomb Hill and displays 14 scenes commemorating the history of Astoria spiraling around the 125 foot tower. For free, you can climb the 164 steps up to the platform at the top of the structure. Up here, you are offered a gorgeous view of Astoria and the Columbia River. Before you make the trek up the stairs, make sure you go in the gift shop and buy a 70-cent balsa wood plane to throw off the top. As one guy said "it's the best 70 cents he's ever spent." It was cool to watch all the people throw their planes off and they would catch the airstream and float really far.

For more information on The Goonies from some experts, visit thegoonies.org. A great site. Be sure and watch the "movie" that they made -- it's really funny.