Hey Guys! We spent two weeks in Troutdale, OR so we could check out Portland and see the Columbia River Gorge area.

We really enjoyed staying in Troutdale. It was a cute little town and was close to pretty much everything we wanted to check out in the area.

The RV park we stayed in was right by the river. On weekends it was crazy busy, but through the week it wasn’t too bad. There were tons of marionberry bushes all loaded with ripe berries down by the river and the boys would walk down with me to help pick some. They would eat a few then wander off to the river. Honestly, I think I ended up with more berries in the bowl without their help, but I appreciated the company. We enjoyed fresh marionberries daily while we stayed at this park! Yum!!

At a local food chain called Burgerville we found an amazing marionberry shake! It was so good!

My favorite thing about the location of this RV park was it’s proximity to the river and all of the available walking paths we had. We like to get out and walk around everyday. Some parks make this easier than others. At this one we could walk down by the river, then make our way over to the main street of Troutdale. We could easily spend more time in this area. Troutdale is the cutest little town with art dotted here and there down the main street. We made ourselves a walking loop we liked to do in the evenings. Down by the river then up to the main street and back. We’d get right around 2 miles in when it was all said and done.

Location, location, location. Our home-base for the area was right next to the Columbia River Gorge. The Columbia River Gorge is where the Columbia River makes its way through the area by cutting a path right into the Cascade mountains. If you drive the Historic Columbia River Highway, you’ll come across some amazing waterfalls! This one is a popular one called Multnomah Falls and it’s right off the highway. You don’t have to put in a long arduous hike to get to this one which makes it nice and quick to visit but also is probably why this place was absolutely packed when we got there one morning. We were lucky to find a parking spot! To get to the falls you have to walk in a tunnel that goes under the highway and then under a railroad track. A train went by while we were there…I have to admit that the crowd and the location of the highway/train kind of detracts from the beauty of the falls.

If you stay on the Historic Columbia River Highway you’ll come to the Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint. From the road, it doesn’t look like much. When we pulled in, there was one other car…and I think the guy was living out of his car and staying there over night. But, we pretty much had the place to ourselves to ogle the view. And what a view it was! In the picture above you can see the Vista House sitting up on the cliff over to the right of the picture. That’s where most people go and that’s where we were headed when we saw this little gem of a pull-off.

When we eventually got back in the car and headed to the Vista House, it was packed. There were so many people even though the Vista House was closed. We got there just before they officially closed. I barley had enough time to grab a couple of souvenirs. We hoped that everyone would leave after closing, but we definitely weren’t the only ones hanging around for the view. It is a great view, but I’ll be honest…I think I prefer the view from the Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.

Now, y’all know we love our foodies. And y’all have probably heard how Portland, OR is a huge foodie town. One of the things we wanted to experience is the famed Portland food truck scene. There are several areas of Portland that have a big gathering of food trucks…they call them Food Cart Pods. We did a little research on what was where and landed at this pod. I don’t remember what it was called, but it had food options for everyone. Charles got some Asian, a couple of us got Polish food, Nicholas had Mexican, and then one of us had Salvadorian food! I expected it to be a fast food setup with everything disposable, but some places had actual plates that you return to them when you’re done. There were tables to sit at while we ate. We were very pleasantly surprised by our food pod experience. We tried to go to a different one while we were in the area, but it didn’t work out. We went on a Sunday and tons of the carts were closed and there wasn’t a place to sit down to eat…so we passed.

But Guys…Portland did not disappoint with the foodies. Not even a little. It’s probably a good thing we were only there for two weeks…there are so many foodie spots to try!

We squished quite a few adventures into the two short weeks we had in the Troutdale area so I’m going to break this area up into two posts. I’ll leave you with these two pretties that we saw on one of our evening walks.

Stay tuned for part two!

See y’all down the road!

#westernloop2018