Ashley and I recently completed a two-week long road trip across the Pacific Northwest. It was a rich and beautiful couple of weeks with trees, mountains, good food, laughter, and time on the road. In this post, I'll highlight some moments from this past week and share a couple of thoughts I had after visiting the numerous cities and the nature of the PNW.
The itinerary was simple - go up the coast from California to Washington, then down. Our main stops went as follows:
San Jose, CA -> Mt. Shasta, CA -> Mt. Rainier, WA -> Lynden, WA -> North Cascades NP, WA -> Portland, OR -> San Jose, CA
At our first stop, Mt. Shasta, we met up with our university friends from UCI. It was our first time reserving a campsite through HipCamp, the equivalent of Airbnb for camping. We stayed near a riverbank in the Shasta-Trinity Forest ranges. It was quite beautiful, and I cannot recommend the campsite enough if you are ever looking for an impromptu, intimate, private camping experience. It was a great weekend with great company.
After saying our goodbyes, Ashley and I packed our bags and continued to our next destination, Washington, USA. Unfortunately, as Washington typically goes, it was raining the whole week we planned to stop by Mount Rainier and the North Cascades. Although we experienced sub-optimal weather for the majority of our time in the national parks (it even started to blizzard while we were at higher elevations), that did not stop us from having a great time. Mount Rainier was wet, wet, and wet. We often alluded back to this article I've read, The Wetter, The Better, through our whole time at Mount Rainier. The cold, relentless, and never-ending rain may seem like it could ruin a trip, however, the wetness helped us be in the moment and reminded us to appreciate the warmth, dryness, and comfort of everything else when we did have it. I definitely would recommend going to the Northern Cascades and Rainier. We would love to visit again in the summertime to view the Paradise Meadows in its' full, natural, and not-so-wet, beauty.
Our next stop was Portland, OR. Oooooh man, Portland - probably one of, if not my favorite city in the United States now - although I have to say my previous love for Oregon and being with great company probably puts a heavy bias on my experience there.
The layout of Portland as a city is fascinating to me. There is a downtown section in the center of Portland, although I can't speak much about it since we didn't visit too much of it. Very walkable though and felt safer than San Francisco. Outside the downtown portion, lies the suburbs - but it's not quite the suburbs. This area is the main highlight. There are nice single-family homes, but mixed in with it are streets of locally owned restaurants, food pods, and craft stores. This portion of the city is easily drivable, very bike-able, and somewhat walkable.
Most stores in Portland are local small businesses. By simply stepping foot into these stores, you could experience firsthand the native community that thrives there. The people working were also extremely kind and hospitable - something we rarely find in California. Even on a Tuesday morning, the cafes were filled with people of all demographics.
Surprisingly, searching for restaurants on Google Maps was as fun as it was to go and eat the dish. The Google Reviews of almost every single restaurant were 4.5 stars or above. The food was so great and creative. You could tell the owners put a lot of thought into certain dishes. Shoutout to Pip's Doughnuts!!!
It was a vibrant, low-key city. Not enough people talk about it, but I'd say that's one of the points that makes me like it even more.
That's enough of praising Portland XD.
We experienced every possible biome and weather condition, from a blizzard to rain showers to a 104-degree desert heatwave. It was a fun reminder that just a short drive could let you experience so many different things.
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Some other thoughts and insights I want to share:
🌳 Lush greenery is great and somehow has the strange ability to uplift your mood.
👕 The clothes you wear and your outside appearance is much more important than I thought. Ashley wearing her UC Irvine sweatshirt garnered a couple of conversations that allowed us to talk to locals who have lived in the OC area previously. A coincidence!? I think not. The clothes you wear represent who you are, where you’re from, where you’ve been, and what you like. It's what makes those types of connections possible. I’ll start making a more deliberate effort to acquire and wear clothes that represent me a bit better.
🧑🤝🧑 People in Oregon are just super nice. Retail employees always asked how our day was and what our plans for the rest of the day were. They conversed with such candidness and welcomed us at every location. We Californians could learn a thing or two.
💓 Spend more time with people and do things together. For me and Ashley, the past 2 weeks created more memories and funny moments we could laugh back to now as we go on with our typical day-to-day. Doing things that are out of the norm with those closest to you is simply the best way to deepen friendships or relationships with them.
I have a couple more thoughts, but I'll save them for a future blog post due to the nature of those topics. I think I'll have to put a lot more time into making sure what I write is what I really believe or not. Some topics include instant gratification vs. delayed gratification, the meaningfulness of a job, the passage of time, and guilt about privilege. That sounds heavy -- that could be for another time XD.
Thanks all for reading if you made it down here. Definitely consider doing a road trip across the Pacific Northwest!!! You won't miss out for sure.
