Enjoying Portland–Hiking and Imbibing…

In planning our visit to Portland Oregon I knew that Labor Day weekend might be a problem and unfortunately I was correct. We wanted to stay a month at Columbia River RV park but as I predicted Labor Day weekend was completely booked. Therefore we booked 10 days then will leave to stay at another park nearby for the four day weekend, then return to Columbia River RV park for another week. Hopefully, though short of the month we planned, this amount of time should be enough to pursue our goals for our visit.

The last time, two years ago, we were in Portland Sharon had broken her wrist, wearing a splint and taking pain medication. As a result we had to cancel several hikes we wanted to take and she was also unable to enjoy the many delicious crafted beer offerings. This time around we hope to remedy these omissions. It looks like we will have a pretty full calendar as the city has over 30 brew pubs to consider and a long list of hiking options in and around town.

Our first night we met for Happy Hour with friends CeCe, Bret and Julie. We had a wonderful time at their neighborhood bar, Concordia Ale House,  catching up on the news since we last met. It was a great start to what we expect to be a wonderful stay. Our second day was devoted to some maintenance as we had water leaking from the AC in our bedroom. After calling Tiffin, I got some suggestions for cleaning the coil and checking the seals so I followed their suggestions and so far no more leaking!

Our third day we planned a long bike ride along the river and took a quick drive over to a park along the river. Not far into the ride my bike broke down (sigh) so we loaded the bikes onto the car bike rack and took a long walk along the beach instead. I guess this is our year for things wearing/breaking or whatever as the outside lights of the motorhome have also quit working and I have yet to solve that. Anyway that evening we went to Breakside Brewery where we enjoyed some delicious crafted beer while seeing others at the bar ordering up some amazing Happy Hour food such as a brimming bowl of fresh mussels. The only reason we resisted was we had already planned a special dinner of filet mignon meal at home with twice baked potatoes and broccoli (and it was fantastic).

The next day we hiked in Forest Park on the Maple Loop trail. Our GPS gave us a little trouble in locating the trailhead, but we made it by about 2:30 on a gorgeous 72 degree day. The lower loop is 3 miles but with a detour we took a slightly longer route but it was beautifully green all around us as giant ferns lined the trail amidst the towering maple trees. The sun shone through the beautiful maple leaves from above providing for a very scenic hike.

Toward the end of the loop we encountered ripe blackberry bushes so we paused 20 or thirty minutes to pick a quart of freshly ripened blackberries. We learned from our hikes in Montana to pack along a plastic bag in case we run across berries so we filled our bag as we made our way on the last leg of the trail. An hour and a half later it was Happy Hour so we visited Portland Brewing Company where we enjoyed delicious beer and great conversations with other patrons at the bar who gave us even more suggestions for hikes and brew pubs near Portland.

With the fun we are having and a few maintenance issues popping up, we are already talking about possibly extending our stay…..