Dave Knows Portland

Dave Goes: Storm watching at Cannon Beach

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As luck would have it the weekend we chose to make a trip to the coast featured prime storm watching. The forecast called for wind, rain, huge surf, and bonus thunderstorms!

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The weather delivered on all levels. The water periodically reached the sea grass and rocks, huge logs rolled to and fro on the beach, the ocean churn produced copious amounts of froth and foam.

Foam

And as you can see, Heather and I risked our lives to secure the footage below for our dear readers:

Read more about Foam Dodging On the Coast at Mile73.

National Geographic Traveler says Portland Reigns

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nationalgeographictraveler
The Rose City is the subject of a feature in National Geographic Traveler‘s November/December 2009 issue, Portland Reigns.

This Oregon city gets almost everything right: It’s friendly, sustainable, accessible, maybe even a model for America’s future.

There are at least three things you can do especially well in Portland, Oregon, and they’re all important: eating, drinking, and getting around.

The piece by writer James Conaway hits all the usual topics. Some examples:

Food: Farmers Market, Produce Row Cafe, and of course Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

Bikes: Sprockettes, Zoobombers, and the Naked Bike Ride.

And of course Powell’s, and the word sustainability gets thrown around.

There’s a nice photo gallery too.

Though, alas, there’s nothing about unicorns or poutine!

SP 4449 returns to Portland today

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SP 4449

The SP 4449, the star of Portland’s National Train Day celebration last May, arrives back in Portland today after a summer tour of the Midwest.

The only remaining operable “streamlined” steam locomotive of the Art Deco era will be leaving Spokane at 8pm for the last leg of the trip.

Built in 1941, this trains is 110 feet long, 10 feet wide and 16 feet tall and weighs 433 tons. The engine puts out 5,500 horsepower and the train can reach speeds over 100 mph. In 1958 it was put on display at Oaks Park, but was restored in 1974 so that it could pull the 1975-1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train.

I doubt, though, it will reach 100 mph on today’s trip.

Follow SP 4449 on Twitter – I’m hoping they announce the Union Station arrival time soon.

Update: The SP 4449 will be passing through Vancouver, Washington around 5:15pm, so it should arrive in Portland not much later.

Dave Goes: Crater Lake

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When we last left off, Heather and I were in Elko, Nevada visiting my brother and his family. On the return trip we decided to make a stop at Oregon’s only National Park, Crater Lake, which neither of us had ever visited.

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We arrived early enough to secure a camp site at the Lost Creek Campground, the more rustic (i.e. no RVs) of the two campgrounds within the park boundaries. Our original plan was to spend two nights there but the bugs were the worst we’ve experienced in the past two summers of camping, the sites were small and close together and surrounded by dead or dying pine trees, and both of us were due for a shower. So we changed our plans. We would spend one night, explore the park, then hit the road.

But we had enough time to do the rim drive with frequent stops, have lunch at the lodge, and make a reservation at the Old St. Francis School hotel in Bend.

Neither Heather nor I are interested in rigorous hikes, so we stuck mainly to the road, with our longest trip on foot the 1 mile saunter along the Pinnacles trail. We stopped at countless awe inspiring vistas, which were particularly beautiful in the morning sun.

As usual, Heather has blogged the hell out of our visit to Crater Lake at Mile73.com!

Tank Full Of Gas (Multiple), Chapter Nineteen, Part 4: Crater Lake