October 2020
After visiting Ashland, we headed to Portland in October. Portland is Oregon’s largest city and sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. It is known for its parks, bridges and bicycle paths, as well as for its eco-friendliness and its microbreweries and coffeehouses. As of 2019, Portland had an estimated population of 654,741 habitants. In 2018, a national survey ranked Portland as the 10th greenest city in the nation. Its climate is marked by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and Portland has been called the “City of Roses” for over a century.
On our way, we encountered a couple of disaster and anxiety moments. While passing by Medford we realized the devastation that fires have caused to the area. I searched right away about it and found out this particular event is known as the Alameda fire. The fires burned 3,200 acres from Ashland to Medford in September of this year 2020. There were miles and miles of pure ashes where once buildings stood up. Houses, businesses, hotels, gas stations, trees, everything near the freeway was gone – just gone! It was sad and unimaginable to think of what people endured during that time, and it had just happened a couple of months ago. This phenomenon puts into perspective that mother nature is wonderful, vast, strong and so powerful that it can also be unpredictable and destructive. We continue driving in disbelief and in silence. Then our second discovery, we didn’t have enough gas and there were no gas stations nearby. We were climbing hills at this moment, the twisty roads and climbing made me worried and the gas needle kept on going down and down. We were at the point of pure desperation, the next gas station was more than 5 miles away, and there was no traffic to get help if needed. We were crossing our fingers and praying to make it for just five miles more – then we saw the sign to the gas station and felt a complete relief making it to the gas pump. Mike and I looked at each other and couldn’t tell if we wanted to cry or laugh. We just said “we made it” and “this shouldn’t have happened”. We filled out the tank and kept driving – then, we started laughing like two kids after getting in trouble.
We made a stop to the beautiful Eugene, a city in Oregon. Eugene is known for its vibrant art and counterculture scenes, college town vibe, heavy community involvement in government, natural greatness, and a whole other interesting characteristics. This is the home of the legendary Steve Prefontaine, a running legend who attended Oregon University and trained in Eugene. He held seven American Records in various distance events on the track and did workout on these trails. Until now, Eugene remains one of the most popular destinations for top track events and competitions. Mike and I love this town.
We stopped at Hendricks Park to hike and to experience walking the beautiful trails. This park is Eugene’s oldest city park with almost 80 acres of forest, rhododendron garden and a native plant garden. It has several trails and routes for hiking, running, and birding. It was a chilly afternoon at around 53F but it didn’t feel that bad; actually perfect for hiking. We walked for five miles in 1:45 minutes and climbed 757 in elevation. As it is a common characteristic for Mike and I during our adventurous hikes, we go lost! We were following a trail that was not a trail – it was a ghost path which led us into the forest of doom- spiky bushes, dense growth with branches full of huge thorns. The shrubs had thorns everywhere – I held on to one of the branches while climbing a hill and didn’t notice it had thick thorns – I screamed and saw blood in my knuckles. All because we wanted to make it a loop – as it is for the most part Mike’s dream. Thus, we ended up walking on the hedges and forest. It was a messy mess to get out of the jungle. Finally, Mike found the right trail to get us back on track. I must say that when we put ourselves in these situations, I get frustrated at first, but then I enjoy the experience. That is something I love about Mike, of course, among other things is that we explore and by doing so we find the most beautiful places and moments together that otherwise we wouldn’t have- and the most fun is that we laugh afterwards. I tell myself- just chill out and relax- live life!
By the time we finished and got back to the car, we were super hungry and decided to have dinner before continuing with the drive to Portland. We had a superb dinner at Sushi Pure. This is an intimate sushi and sake bar that prepares classic and modern rolls as well as hot Japanese entrees. We were a little concern because it is a small place serving only indoors and not much of a six foot distance apart from each table – we were nervous no doubt about it. The selection of the menu was unique, the food was fresh and delicious. We were breaking our rule of no indoors, but it was so amazing and the food authentic that we took the risk – not much else to say here. In the end, it was one of the best sushi meals I have had in a long time. After that succulent dinner, we walked around downtown to get to know the place. It was lovely to find a running store and I bought a shirt as a memento of the occasion and place. It was time to get on the road again, we had two hours to Portland.
After more driving we arrived at our next Airbnb house. Our place was located near Mt Tabor Park. We never got to meet our host because of the pandemic, all arrangements were done virtually- what a concept. The studio was smaller than we thought based on the pictures, but still comfortable and spacious for two people; it had a kitchen and that was important for us to cook. We checked out and went straight to rest and sleep.
Today is Wednesday and I have to work, but in the afternoon we decided to go out for a run at Mt Tabor Park from the house. This is a large forested park covering an extinct volcano with tennis courts, a playground and amazing views. It has a dog park, picnic areas and a hundred stairs around the perimeter. It has nice views but for me running there was a bit tricky because it had steep descends and didn’t feel like messing up with my injured knee, so I was constantly moving around from trail to trail and getting lost at times. Mike and I decided to run on our own and meet back at home. I ran 4.65 miles in a 1:10 minutes and 667 ft. of elevation. It was 64F and comfortable.
We went to have dinner afterward in downtown Portland for the first time. It was incredible and astonishing to see the graffiti and drawings on the building walls as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S; a movement to build power to bring justice, healing and freedom to Black people. This is very serious stuff and in a way sad, motivational, thoughtful, I don’t quite know how to describe the sentiment and feelings. For sure, I got emotional and sad to see and understand a bit how difficult this country has been for Black people. All the Injustice there has been taking for centuries, the racism, the lack of opportunities to enable them to succeed in this country and all of the sudden this countrywide movement supporting them it’s incredibly touching.
After this, we walked towards the restaurants and found a place to have dinner; a Vietnamese outdoor restaurant called Luc Lac Vietnamese kitchen. It was very techy – the first time we had to order using our phones and the scan bar to see their menu and order from their website so there was no human contact with anyone. When the food was ready they buzzed the table and we picked it up from a window. We ate outside and it was a bit chilly and crisp. The food was okay and afterwards we walked towards the water. We were very close to the Willamette River and it was getting dark; the water looked really peaceful and calming.
We walked towards the Hawthorne Bridge. This bridge is amazing; it has a vertical lift, four lanes and was built in 1910. This bridge is one of Portland’s busiest bridges, safely carrying approximately 30,000 cars and trucks, buses, 8000 bicycles and pedestrians daily across the Willamette River. Vertical clearance for river traffic is lower than the other bridges, requiring as many as 200 openings per month. The main span can be raised 110 feet to allow vessels to pass underneath. After our walk we drove back home.
Today is Thursday and I have to work again. In the evening we went out to do a walking tour and headed to the Hawthorne/Belmont self guided walking tour. These are two bohemian streets running in parallel, in one of the hippest corners of the city. Belmont is the sleepy little brother – laid back, but growing up. Hawthorne is energetic and filled with shops, pubs, restaurants and one of the city’s most historic theaters. We saw the Bagdad theater where they sold popcorn to go because the theater is closed, it was great. We planned to go to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner but because we didn’t have reservations, we couldn’t get a table, so we gave up and kept walking and found another place to eat cheap and good food. Afterwards we stopped at a little bar to have a couple of drinks and it was fun to be outdoors in a small table with wine and beer. After walking more and then went back to the car and home to rest and sleep.
Today is Friday and I have the day off from work to explore Portland. We went hiking to the Forest Park. Forest Park provides critical refuge for hundreds of native wildlife and plant species and acts as an important air and water filter and it overlooks the Willamette River. It has more than 80 miles of trails, it also provides invaluable access to nature, exercise, and educational opportunities for the region. We headed out to the trails and it was a beautiful forest with super green trees, Douglas fir (type of pine), shrubs and sword ferns. Several interconnecting trails and lanes for hikes. It was 55F comfortable and I was wearing hiking pants and layers. We did 10 miles of hiking in 3 hours and 1,258 ft of elevation. On the way, we met an older couple who was hiking and were asking us questions about the trails. They lived right there in Portland but I guess never hiked this trail, anyways they were fun. As always, we did have another adventure because we got lost again! This time was a big deal because we couldn’t find the right trail to get back, in fact, we met the same old couple and we were just laughing. They were on the way back and were surprised to see us again. They were nice and recommended us to visit a place in Astoria. To my surprise, we were lost and to get back I thought it would take us two – three miles, so I told Mike let’s jog and get over it!. Wow!! I was thankfully wrong. We were 4.5 miles away and we jogged the whole time jogging in pants uphill, and uncomfortable shoes – I was glad my knee cooperated to run, but very slow and with short strides. Somehow we made it and were so happy to finish. This was a challenge and a big adventure!!!!
Tonight is our last night in Portland and Mike cooked pasta and meat today, so we had dinner at home – it was great to taste his food again. Afterwards, we went out for exploration. We walked and then decided to go for a drink and went to Muse Wine bar. This was a cute place with a delicious menu and wines from all over Italy, so I was in heaven! The host was a kind gentleman who was running this business and was knowledgeable about European wines and had an interesting talk with him. It was a great night!
