Driving through the Willamette Valley and breaking down in Grant's Pass, Oregon

Yeah, so the Willamette Valley is gorgeous to tool through, but try REALLY hard not to break down in Grant's Pass...there's not much to do there. Trust me.

Easy St is off to the right...



There are several Weeds in OR, this here is the way to "Central Weed."



Right about at Grant's Pass, the car started doing some funny stuff, like puttering the way a car does when it's running out of gas. I didn't want to push it and end up damaging it worse, so we pulled into a Holiday Inn parking lot and called up AAA and got our SECOND tow of the trip (the first being in Durango, if you'll recall, Dear Reader).





Grant's Pass -- "It's the Climate!"

Visiting Carson's Grandparents in Eugene, Oregon

We popped into Eugene, OR to visit with Carson's grandparents. It was a nice relaxing time and a great visit.

Shell & Jan, plus Jake the puppy!



Lookin' good, Jake, FETCH!



Eugene has Geese.



The sun shines on Eugene. Oh, and it has a river.



It was great meeting the fam for me and seeing them again for Carson. They're not TOO far away, so we hope to see them again soon!

Images of Portland, Oregon

Portland was another city that was on our short-list of places we were thinking about moving to. Honestly, I loved it and if I knew a few people that lived there already I may well have voted to stay. It was gorgeous, had great public transportation, incredible nature surroundings, and the the best book stores ever (other than maybe Strand in NYC, of course). Everyone there was friendly and warm, the city is well planned out, and the restaurant/foodie/craft beer brewing scene there is fantastic, plus they've got wine flowing in from the Willamette Valley right next door.

We stayed at Ace Hotel, great. Ate at Le Pigeon and the McMenamin's Kennedy School, fantastic. Chilled at the Jupiter Hotel bar, fun. Drank at Portland City Grill on the top floor of the tallest building in town (and at a bunch of other places), excellent. Spent a bunch of time browsing in Powell's Book Store, which is awesome. I liked it, I liked it a lot.



It's not a huge city, and certainly not very tall. Like I mentioned above, we did hang out at Portland City Grill, a piano bar at the top of the tallest buildings in town, which was great.





2,443 miles from Times Square, sigh.



Mt. Hood looms on the horizon.



Powell's Book Store. Note the Elvis impersonator singing out front.



Turkey Vulture at the Audubon Sanctuary, where we hiked some trails and met various ravens, vultures, and other birds.



A couple random shots...





Bye Portland, we loved you!