Mt. Hood

Last year we did a roadtrip in Washington and had an excellent time, so this year for our summer vacation we did a similar trip in Oregon. Our plan for Oregon was oddly similar to what we did in Washington - a clockwise roadtrip around the state starting and ending in the big city and taking in the mountains and coast. 

Our trip started with a delayed flight. We didn't see anything, but the pilot announced we had returned to the gate so that a belligerent passenger could be escorted off. First time we've ever had that happen! We took off about an hour late, and then once we landed in Portland there was another 90 minute wait for the rental car since they were running a bit behind. Luckily, we had enough time built in to still have a late lunch, drive over to the Mt. Hood area, and sneak in one hike before sunset. 

Hello, Mt. Hood. We're going to walk all over you. 😉

We ate at Sa Bai Thai near the airport. It had great food, although it's in a weird industrial area. From there we set off toward our first destination of the trip, Mt. Hood, about an hour away to the Southeast. We checked in to our hotel at the oddly named little tourist town of Government Camp, and then went on the short Mirror Lake loop trail. It had nice view of Mt. Hood over the lake and plenty of wildflowers. Great for a first little hike! Next we checked out downtown Government Camp and had a pretzel and some beer at the Ratskeller before heading off to bed.

Our route for the trip - a full circle of western and central Oregon, with a tiny bit of California.

We were really hungry by the time we ate, especially with the delays and time change!

Part of the trail was almost completely covered in flowers and shrubs.

Mirror Lake was a nice start to the trip!

We woke up early the next day (partly due to the three hour time zone change), and started with our first big hike of the trip - the Ramona falls trail. It was a nice long trail - a little over 7 miles round trip. It wasn't a particularly difficult trail, but it provided some nice diversity with forested parts, a few streams, some mountain views, and of course the waterfall itself. Maybe the most interesting part was about a mile into the trail, where it crossed a pretty large stream. Luckily, there was a fallen tree that provided a natural bridge. In normal situations you'd have to forge the river (Oregon trail computer game flashbacks). The waterfall was nice, it was a big cascade in a shady canyon. Unfortunately, there was a very loud family hanging out there so we didn't stick around too long. 🤣

David crossing the stream on a log.

A lil spider in the morning light.

Ramona falls is an impressive and broad cascade.

Great views of Mt. Hood along the way.

After our Ramona Falls hike, we drove up to Mt. Hood - specifically, the Timberline Lodge area, which is the farthest you can drive up the mountain. It was surprisingly busy, with a large number of tourists up there to hike, check out the gift shop, and even... ski! Yes, even at the height of summer there were still people skiing at the resort. We just walked around for a bit taking in the views of Mt. Hood and the mountains in the distance. Next we drove down and had lunch at Mt. Hood brewing before a little nap at the hotel.

Mt. Hood towering over its surroundings.

A far off view of Mt. Jefferson.

Beer flight.

Big lunch after a big hike!

That afternoon we did another waterfall hike, to Tamanawas Falls. This was shorter than the morning waterfall hike, but still pretty substantial considering a few fairly steep sections over rocky hillsides. The falls were beautiful - a twin cascade into a green canyon. A couple that was hiking was about to drink some of the water but asked us if we thought it was OK and we advised them against it. 💀

After our hike we went back to town and had some ice cream at Volcano Cones, did a little shopping at the Govy general store, and relaxed with our leftover lunch at the hotel.

Lots of gorgeous views while driving.

Much more official than the log on the morning's hike.

Pretty stream/woods on the  hike.

Tamanawas Falls.

That ended what would be our longest hiking day of the trip. David has had a fitbit for almost 8 years and this was the fifth most steps he's taken in a day...so overall, a pretty successful start to a hiking/outdoors adventure week. The Mt. Hood area was just the start of our Oregon tour, and next we'd head south to Bend and Crater Lake.

New Jersey / New York Birthday Soccer Trip

For Paul's belated birthday we took a trip to New York City over the Independence Day holiday weekend. The goal was to watch two Atlanta United away games - against the New York Red Bulls on Thursday night, and New York City FC on Sunday night. Since we were flying in to Newark, going to a soccer game in New Jersey, and also planning on riding some roller coasters in NJ, we decided to base ourselves in Jersey City rather than Manhattan.

Our AirBnB was the top floor apartment in a cute brick rowhouse, with a view of downtown Jersey City skyscrapers and little bit of Manhattan. Central Jersey City is actually pretty impressive. It has big city issues like litter on the streets, but from an urbanist standpoint it's fantastic. Good public transportation, lots of bike lanes, shaded sidewalks, and a walkable street grid. After a quick stop at the grocery store to stock up for the weekend, we walked through a little farmers market and took the train to the Red Bulls game. The stadium is in a weird area mostly surrounded by a huge parking lot and truck loading areas, but they're starting to build some apartments in the area. The game was fun - Atlanta was expected to lose, and we did, but at least we scored a goal. After the game we caught the PATH train back to our AirBnB.

The view from our AirBnB.

Our cute little apartment!

Downtown Jersey City is surprisingly nice!

View of Red Bull Arena from our flight.

It's a very nice stadium - too bad it's surrounded by parking lots and marshalling yards.

Paul in the stadium. We got there a little early. :)

Pride night rainbow smoke.

Friday morning we started off with a visit to Nickelodeon Universe. It's in the "American Dream" mall in the Meadowlands, north of Jersey City. The area is a bit of an urbanism dumpster fire - huge parking lots, sprawling highway interchanges, and no sidewalks. It's entirely set up for cars to drive in for the stadium, race track, and mall. The mall, which opened right before the pandemic, has already filed for bankruptcy. So it was high on Paul's list to visit to ride the roller coasters in case they end up closing forever. Unfortunately, the park is having staffing and supply chain issues (so they say), and three of the five roller coasters were closed. Paul rode the two open ones, including his 800th coaster. The mall itself was nice, but it's just not what people want anymore. We prefer real city streets, not bland chain stores.

Paul's 800th roller coaster!

Squidward (l) and David (r) waiting on the bus.

Just chillin with the Rugrats grandpa.

The coaster was closed but here are some fiberglass turtles.

The park is nice overall - if only more rides were open!

The mall is still mostly empty.

Leaving the mall, we caught a Lyft to Hoboken, and walked along the waterfront. There's a really nice tree-lined path, a few little parks, and fantastic views of Manhattan. We decided to walk all the way back to the AirBnB in Jersey City. It was hot and sunny, but a mostly pleasant riverside walk. The New Jersey side of the river is definitely under-rated.

The waterfront paths in Hoboken.

Awesome views of Manhattan across the Hudson.

Nice place to sit for a spell.

The historic Lackawanna train station.

Lots of tree-lined pathways along the river.

That evening we had an early dinner at Razza in Jersey City. It's known as one of the best pizza places in the New York area. It was really good Neapolitan style pizza, and we had some meatballs as well. This was technically Paul's belated birthday dinner! It was a really early dinner because that's the only time we could get reservations, so after eating we took the train into Manhattan and met our friend Alexis for some happy hour drinks at Dante. Many of the streets in Manhattan have been improved by replacing street parking with outdoor restaurant patios. It really makes walking around (as well as dining outdoors) much more pleasant. After drinks we visited Little Island for sunset. It's a cool little new park built on piers over the Hudson river. We had a nightcap at Entwine before heading back to New Jersey.

Meatballs at Razza!

New York is lovely - this is the sidewalk setup at Dante.

Looking back toward New Jersey.

Little Island is really cool.

Saturday morning we set off for Coney Island, which is about 14 miles from Jersey City and took a bit more than an hour on the PATH train and then MTA train. Paul picked up a couple of roller coaster credits and then we took the train back to downtown Brooklyn and the Dekalb Market food hall. It's a trendy little food hall in the basement of a skyscraper - we grabbed a bubble tea and walked around a bit before our reserved time at the nearby New York Transit Museum. This is a great museum in a former subway station. We spent a few hours there looking at the exhibits, boarding the vintage subway cars, and checking out the amazingly nerdy gift shop. Highly recommended! We then walked around Brooklyn a bit, taking in views of the river. For dinner, we ate at Al Badawi, a Palestinian restaurant. It's hard to find good Levantine food in Atlanta, so when traveling we're always on the lookout.

The classic Coney Island Cyclone.

The beachfront boardwalk in Coney Island.

Wheeee!

We got an empty subway car for a few stops.

Downtown Brooklyn.

Dekalb Market.

Photo display in the transit museum.

Trains in the museum.

A bar on a boat in Brooklyn.

Views back to Manhattan.

Brooklyn Heights has adorable streets.

We had a feast at Al Badawi!

After dinner we took the train back to Manhattan, stopping at the World Trade Center station and walking around for a bit to check out the architecture, before continuing on PATH back to Jersey City. Since the weather was nice, we decided to wander around Jersey city for a bit. We got some ice cream at Milk, Sugar, Love on Hamilton Park, then ambled back through the different neighborhoods and parks towards our AirBnB.

The new transit station designed by Santiago Calatrava.

A pedestrian/bike street in downtown Jersey City.

Jersey City has a few squares scattered around. They are nice little green spaces.

Sunday, our last full day of the trip, we caught a train up to the northern tip of Manhattan. We had Thai food for lunch, then walked up to the Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's an amazing museum with medieval art. But the main attraction is the architecture itself - French monasteries and abbeys, centered around four cloisters that were brought over from France. It's also a beautiful setting, high atop a hill in forested Fort Tryon park, with great views.

Lunch at Unique. David is more excited on the inside for Thai food than the outside...

A whole chapel (actually parts of several European churches).

David in one of the cloisters.

The main tower of the cloisters.

Another breathtaking room.

Some demons in stained glass.

Probably the most famous piece at the Cloisters - a unicorn tapestry.

Do you KNEED anything?

Walking through Fort Tryon Park.

After leaving the cloisters, it was time to head to the next Atlanta United game, this time at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx... yes you read that right, NYCFC plays in the baseball stadium. The stadium itself is really nice, but the sight lines are awful for soccer, and it's the smallest field in MLS because it's crammed into the outfield. Do better, MLS! The game was exciting, and Atlanta walked away with a tie, which is a good result for this team on the road in a rough season.

After the game ended, we crammed ourselves into a packed subway car, like it was not still a pandemic, to head back towards Manhattan to stroll around Central Park. The park was busy with people out for a stroll or sightseeing in New York. The weather was great and it was near sunset so it was a very nice time to wander around. We went back to Jersey City and had some take out pizza by the slice for dinner.

Inside Yankee Stadium.

Paul in Yankee Stadium. Great for baseball, horrible for soccer.

There are a lot of new super tall skyscrapers near Central Park. Very impressive!

To wrap up our trip, we met up for breakfast with Alexis in Jersey City at Short Grain. It was a nice ending to our trip on a wonderfully sunny morning. We hope to get back to NYC/NJ soon - there's so much to see in this bustling metropolis.

Yummy breakfast.

It was great to see Alexis for the first time since before the pandemic!