Sightseeing in Oregon and our activities

Over the last three weeks we have done a lot of sightseeing around the Portland area. Two weeks ago,
we drove 30 miles east of Portland to go to Multnomah Falls, a series of two waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge that totals 620 feet tall. We hiked to the top of the falls (lots of switchbacks) and were able to look down the height of it.

The next day we went to Washington Park in central Portland and walked around the International Rose Test Garden, home to around 10,000 rose plants of all different shades of color. The area also has a nice view of downtown

Portland and Mount Hood.

Later that week, we drove to the Oregon coast, starting in the city of Seaside where Lewis and Clark finished their journey west. In Seaside we walked out to see our first view of the Pacific Ocean in quite a few years. We then drove

south along highway 101 along the coast, stopping at several places to see the beautiful sights. The shore is dotted with tall rock outcrops sticking out of the beach and ocean, which are a result of volcanic intrusions that are more resistant than the surrounding area.

A week ago, we took a drive up to the south side of Mount Saint Helens. We didn't have a particular place to go, but we did see a lot of pretty scenery.

This weekend, we drove to the western flank of Mount Hood in a similar fashion to the way we saw Mount Saint Helens where we saw the scenery. We also have gone hiking within the city limits of Portland. We went to Tryon Creek State Park where we hiked around a dense forest area that was very green and did not feel like we were only about five minutes from downtown.

Since we have moved here, Derrick has been busy with school and being a TA at Portland State. He is teaching a lab section for physical geology and taking Environmental Geology and Sensors & Instrumentation. He has been taking the bus downtown to school and has found that to be a very nice means of transport here.

Lynn Ann has been looking for a job and has an interview coming up this week. She has also been enjoying reading romance novels now that she doesn't have class work to keep up with. Since we hadn't visited the library she has been re-reading books that she already read, but just yesterday we joined the Beaverton library and came home with a whole slew of new-to-Lynn Ann romance novels (and some non-romance novels too).

Tulip has been spending most of her days entertaining Lynn Ann with how adorable she is and especially loves playing with her new banana catnip toy that we bought earlier this week.

We also found out that to get an Oregon driver's license, we have to take a driver knowledge test, so we have to study up, yuck! We haven't gotten around to many local restaurants yet, but we did find a place called The Whole Bowl that only serves one dish, a bowl filled with brown rice, red and black beans, avocado, salsa, black olives, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and their secret Tali sauce...which is delicious.