I'm blessed that one of my best and oldest friends has the travel bug just as bad as I do. She's lived all over the world, from Israel and Uganda to New York City and Washington D.C. We've never travelled together though (shocking I know!). This year, rather than going to visit her, we decided to meet in Portland for a girls road trip along the Oregon coast. It was a trip with lots of laughs, reading next to the fireplace, almost getting stuck going up every hill in our rented Prius, and a whole lot of rain.
Portland
Our adventures started in Portland. My fiend had arrived the day before to see the city, since Marc and I were in Portland only a few months before. We used Turo to rent our vehicle. If you haven't heard of Turo, it's an amazing platform that allows you to rent vehicles from individuals, much like you rent spaces to stay on Airbnb or VRBO. Marc and I run our own Turo business out of Phoenix with our cars. It's a great way to rent unique vehicles, or just super cheap vehicles.
We decided to go the cheap vehicle route and rent a Prius. Now, no offense to Prius lovers, but this car was not built for traveling an on-ramp of the highway let alone the steep hills around the coast. But we will get back to that later....
Portland is a weird, but absolutely beautiful city. It sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, so you get a natural northwestern feel while inside a city. It's known for its breweries, coffee shops, local businesses, and parks. One minute your in a city, and the next you are wandering through a forest in one of the parks. You can access our post on Marc and my Portland adventures here.
Before leaving the city, I had to show my friend two important stops: donuts and books. Now, as you all know, Marc and I are donut connoisseurs. And I may get some crap from this, but Voodoo donuts is not the best donut place in Portland. It may be the most well known and you can get a donut shaped like a ghost, but that's about the only appeal for us. We value quality over quantity.
Just north of the city, in a little area called Hollywood, you will find the glory that is Doe Donuts. Doe Donuts is women owned, a local small business, and all the donuts are vegan. Now I promise, even if you aren't vegan, these are the best donuts in town. They have year round donut flavors, monthly donut flavors, and ice cream. The donuts are so soft, tender, and fresh. They aren't overly sweet, because they are made from fresh, natural ingredients. Trust me, even my sweet tooth husband thinks they are divine. If you are a tea drinker, my favorite flavor is the Portland Fog, named after the classic London Fog latte. The earl grey glaze gives just the right amount of deep tea flavor and the whip topping is to die for. It's like eating a cloud. As a season flavor, they typically also offer a fritter. If you like a more dense and fruity donut, this is the one for you. It's very hearty though, so be prepared to share it.
With donuts in hand, we were off to Powell's Books. For those who don't know, Powell's is the world's largest independent bookstore. Even as online giants continue to cause book stores across the country to close, Powell's continues to have multiple locations throughout the Portland area. As an avid book lover, Powell's is a dream come true. Bookshelf after bookshelf fills the space, with little cards denoting staff favorites. Walking in from a rainy day, the smell of paper and coffee beans hits your nose. I could get lost for days, wandering through the aisles all crammed together to maximize the space for books. There's always a light chatter in the background, but otherwise your surrounded by the noises of books being shuffled into place and recommendations being made. If you can't tell, I would permanently live in a Powell's if they would let me. We picked out a few books for our trip, and were on the road again.
Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival - Woodburn
About 45 minutes south-west of Portland is the small town of Woodburn, which holds the annual Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. While it was a little out of the way, we didn't want to miss out on the last day to see the 38th tulip festival. The festival includes over 40 acres of tulips! We ended up in Oregon for a rainy, cold weekend. Temperatures were around a high of 40 degrees and it hardly stopped raining for a moment. As one of my friends who grew up Oregon said, "She's a bipolar weather state." Regardless of the rain, we headed to the festival with jackets and boots ready. While it was very muddy and we may have slipped a dozen times, no one seemed to want to be out in the rain. We basically had the festival to ourselves.
Once you step out into the fields, you are surrounded by tulips in every direction. Some are shuffled together, making a rainbow of colors in one patch. Others were lined up according to color or type. The photo op spots were perfect for those Instagrammable moments, i.e. the moments where we were literally laughing so hard we almost fell over into a pile of mud to take a selfie as tulips. It was absolutely worth the detour, rain or shine.
Red Berry Barn - Sherwood
Getting back on track to our final destination, Haystack Rock, we headed north-west to the Red Berry Barn in Sherwood. Right off the highway, the Red Berry Barn offers local products and food. Depending on the time of year you travel through, they offer a pumpkin patch, berries, and a garden center. They also have a country store and bakery, where we stopped for snacks. Probably not shocking... we go donuts! But not just any donuts, cider apple donuts (my midwestern heart flutters).
Ruby Vineyard - Hillsboro
Now you can't have a road trip without wine to go with your donuts! Ruby Vineyard is on a hill up a small road a bit off the beaten path, about 20 minutes from the Red Berry Barn. It was started by a husband and wife team in 2012, when they purchased one of the oldest intact original plantings of grapes in the Chehalem Mountains. It has a quaint little tasting room that overlooks the vineyard, where we stopped briefly to grab a bottle of Chardonnay. Oregon is more known for their red wines, but we are more white wine drinkers.
Tip - everywhere you go they will offer you wine openers so don't buy one. We made this mistake and ended up with multiple wine openers at the end of the trip.
Cannon Beach - Hallmark Resort & Spa
Our final destination for the night was Cannon Beach, home of Haystack Rock. Cannon Beach is a small beach town known for it's long, sandy beach. It's located north-west of Portland, only about 1 hour south from the Oregon and Washington border. From the winery, it was about a 1.5 hour drive. Our total drive time for the day was about 3.5 hours. If you don't want to make the detours from Portland like we did, you can get from Portland to Cannon Beach in only 1.5 hours.
We decided to stay at Hallmark Resort & Spa Cannon Beach right on the beach, and it was perfect! While we originally planned to stay in a windowless room to save money, my friend was able to get us upgraded to an amazing suite overlooking the beach for the same price! We were greeted with a cookie and our first (of many) wine openers. The hotel hangs out over the beach, with a direct view of Haystack Rock. Our room had a giant jacuzzi tub, fireplace, vanity, dining space, and the best part - a huge balcony overlooking the beach. On a rainy day, the fireplace was heaven and the views were to die for. The hotel includes a small gym and indoor pool. We didn't bother with either, since all we wanted to do was walk the beach. A staircase leads you down to the beach and you are immediately next to Haystack Rock, a 235 foot sea stack in the ocean. It's the third-tallest intertidal structure in the world and very popular with tourists. Since it was raining, we basically had the beach to ourselves. With the sounds of the ocean in the background, we enjoyed our wine, donuts, and takeout before getting some rest. Onto Day 2 of our adventure!
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