What State are we in?

It really was at the last minute that we decided which way we were going to go as we dropped Bonnie and Newt at Seattle airport.  We’d boiled our choice down to northwest onto the Olympia Peninsula which we had been told was beautiful but it has a west coast which is about the wettest place in the states, unless you’re underwater or southwards to see the also reportedly beautiful Oregon coast.  There were nine days left until we were due back in Seattle to drop off our car and make our way by an as yet undecided form of transport to Vancouver.  There was a bewildering choice of public transport, coach, train, high-speed hydrofoil and seaplane.  Current favourite and most expensive is seaplane. 

So we headed back towards the Columbia River, crossed, turned right, stopped for some fruit pie and cawfee and pitched up at Astoria, just at the mouth of the river where it spills into the Pacific.  Astoria is a small attractive town with a Victorian/Edwardian centre which has been mainly preserved and we found ourselves a small place called The Atomic Motel.  The rooms were decorated and furnished in early sixties style and we thought it was great especially as it was cheap and included breakfast.  This town is a Cruise Liner stop and an old trolley car ran on rails just back from the water from the big ship berth into town for a dollar.  However, we borrowed the free bikes from our motel, explored the town and had dinner at a window table in a restaurant/brewery on a pier looking north and east across the river.  In the middle of the restaurant floor was a sound proof and smell proof glass viewing platform and pulled up on the timbers below was a collection of sea lions.   The restaurant had been recommended at the motel but at first we could not pick up the name.  Then we realised this was another of those different pronunciations we have between UK and USA.  We were told that it called the Boo-ee but this is how Buoy (Boy in the UK for any American readers) is said here and I remembered Newt saying it when we were in Massachusetts. 

This was the northernmost point of the scenic route that is the Oregon Coast, all publicly owned since an early enlightened Oregon politician managed to get the whole foreshore between high and low tide declared ‘a highway’ in about 1913 and therefore public land.  It is wild and magnificent in places but I have to say a disappointment to us.  The scenic road runs some way inland from the coast for a lot of the distance and even the sections where it’s possible to divert have glimpses rather than big views.  We were in the northern end so can only comment on that but it wasn’t a patch on the Big Sur coast of California and we saw it in similar weather conditions, rain and mist or cloudy.   Unfortunately for us we’d booked a couple of nights at a place called Tillamook which turned out to have limited restaurant options and not much else.  So, restaurant/brewery again where we first came across IBU ratings against beer which, we were told, stands for International Bitter Unit, then the following night a Steak House where each table had a bowl of unshelled peanuts for diners to nibble at and throw the shells on the floor.  This is entertainment in Tillamook.  Oh and it also had the Famous Tillamook Cheese Factory, a huge tourist attraction which surely gives an indication of the choice of other tourist opportunities in the area.  There were tastings of their five main offerings which were all called cheese but were more like soap, so we left without even making our apologies.

I think it is time with all the whining and complaining that I do to make it clear that I like the USA.  I’ve been here (I think) 13 times and on a rough count that’s about forty weeks of my life and I wouldn’t keep coming if I didn’t like it.   I always enjoy visiting here.  The scenery is fantastic, the people are unfailingly helpful and friendly, the food is good but sometimes difficult to find, especially vegetarian, there is lots of space and accommodation is far cheaper than in the UK.   Re. vegetarian.  At one place in Oregon, Heather ordered the Baked Potato from the Vegetarian section of the menu and it still came with bacon bits on it.  The Americans, unlike the Brits seem to realise that people visiting a city or town are likely to be spending money and make it easy (and often) cheap to get around.  I like the quirky and the odd, the irritations and frankly, the stupidity of things and that is what makes me write.  After all, if I only wrote about the good things it might appear that I’d taken a vow of silence.  

So we gave up on the coast, fearing that the next bit might be tremendous and headed for Portland where we were able to get age related reductions, not as Seniors or Old Fogeys but as Honored Citizens (their spelling).   We had two days here and after the first had decided that Portland was a dump with nothing going for it apart from our recognition as Honored Citizens.  After the second day we liked it more.  So here’s why.   The Saturday Market is hailed as the big draw here so that’s where we went and it turned out to be an ordinary sized street market with loads of stuff we hadn’t realised we didn’t want until we saw it.  The biggest queue stretching some fifty yards was for Voodoo Doughnuts, so we walked around and found nothing much other than newish city centrescape.  That said, I quite enjoyed the guitar/didgeridoo busker.  The homeless here were far more numerous than we saw in Seattle with little tent groups on many area of grass, especially across the river in the less salubrious part of town.  Lot of beggars and clearly distressed people in town.  

We did use the streetcar system quite a bit here in Portland and a day ticket to go anywhere was $2.50 (about £2 these days).  We always just about get to grips with a public transport system as we’re ready to leave town.   What was new to us here as the streetcar trundled along were the announcements as we approached a stop e.g. “Next stop is SW11th and Clay. Sponsored by Hyatt Downtown” or Fairview Apartments or someone else.  

On our second day here we again took the streetcar and then the tram which converted to a quick subway system as soon as it got into a tunnel and we went to the Rose Garden, all still on a $2.50 ticket.   The Rose Garden is high above the city and the lift at the station indicated that we were 450 feet or so below ground.  At the top we got the free shuttle for a ten minute ride to the garden.   The number and variety of roses still in bloom in October was quite astounding and it was an excellent garden.  Oh, and it was free to get in.  But I do have to mention the awards/fake aristocracy stuff that is so prevalent here in the states.  I do sometimes find it quite literally jaw-dropping.  They have a Rose Queen every year, fair enough and I don’t know if they go in for the Rose Duchesses, Rose Ladies-in-Waiting  and all the rest that they have in Tyler, Texas.  However, and this was jaw-dropping time for me, the annual Chairman of the Committee or whatever group are in charge is made The Prime Minister and ‘knighted’ under a particular rose, presumably of his choosing.  For goodness sake.  This is what makes coming here so much fun.

So, Portland.  We had some good meals here including one of the best Indians I’ve ever had but overall I’d say, glad we’ve been, wouldn’t come back, wouldn’t recommend it.   

Now we have decision time again.  We have to head north and to decide between going east of the Cascades probably guaranteeing dry weather and visiting places like the Grand Coulee Dam and the North Cascades or west to the Olympic Peninsula where it could well be wet.  The Olympic Peninsula it is and we head to the Washington State capital, Olympia of which I will say nothing except that it appears to have more tattoo shops than Starbucks.

I titled this one What State are we in? for a reason.  This particular note is set only in Washington and Oregon but the state also means us.   I know it will raise a hollow laugh because here we are on our hols. but we are weary.   We’ve been here a month and not wanting to waste time do as much as we can.  We have now driven not far short of 4000 miles and have had to fit in all that eating, so we could do with a couple of quieter days.  However, that’ll just have to wait until it’s convenient which will be in Victoria in a few days time.

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