Let's Go Places: Portland and Salem, Oregon & Olympia, Washington

 

Friends, who's ready to go somewhere?  On the agenda: two state capitals, one FLW site, and time in a cool city with a friend.

How This Trip Came to Be

Sometimes my trips pick themselves.  In August Kyria and I went on a two week road trip, where we discussed many things, including where my next trip was going to be.  The contenders were Maine, since they have a lighthouse day in September, or a prairie rampage in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Kyria threw out another option.  She was headed to Portland after our trip, and since we had already been together 24/7 for two weeks, why not reunite for a few days?  I've always wanted to go to Portland, and I do like hanging out with Kyria, so this plan made a lot of sense.

The plan came together:

Wednesday, September 9: fly to Portland, hang out with Kyria, her friend, and the friend's pets
Thursday, September 10: hang out with Kyria in the AM, drive to Olympia in the PM
Friday, September 11: tour the Olympia capitol and do Olympia stuff
Saturday, September 12: finish up in Olympia and drive to Salem
Sunday, September 13: do stuff in Salem, including a stop in nearby Silverton to tour a FLW house
Monday, September 14: tour the Salem capitol, head back to Portland
Tuesday, September 15: do Portland stuff with Kyria
Wednesday, September 16: come home

On the travel hacking front, I worked my magic with my Chase/United points to come up with a free ticket.  United was also running a sweet deal on car rentals, and it was the first time that I had ever seen them come in for less than Costco's price, so I had an attractively priced set of wheels.

Wednesday: Let's Fly to Portland!

My nearest major airport is notorious for having super slow security, so naturally I got there early and also naturally it only took five minutes to sail through.  That gave me enough time to score yet another travel hacking brag.  You see, a mere 364 days ago I'd gotten the United credit card, which comes with two annual lounge passes.  I'd used the first when I went to see Elisabeth last year, but hadn't had a chance to use the second until now.  One day later and it would have expired.

Eh with that said, the lounge is nice but it's not wildly exciting.  I scrounged enough snacks to be able to call it a free lunch.

Five hours later I landed in Portland and my next move was to Kyria's friend's house.  At this point it had been exactly one week since Kyria and I had seen each other in person, so we had a lot to catch up on.  But first I met (and instantly liked) Kyria's friend and her three cats and one dog.  It's fair to say that a stranger who is a friend of Kyria's is a friend that you haven't met yet.

Thursday: Let's hang with Kyria, check out Portland, and go to Olympia

Kyria and I started the day by doing what we do best, which was to go for a walk at Forest Park.

I can take pictures of squirrels at home, but sometimes I chose to do it when I travel.

What I can't take a picture at home of is a banana slug.  TBH I'm not sure if I would have noticed if Kyria hadn't pointed it out.

Or snails.  I mean, I'm sure that we have them at home, but they don't hang out on trails for folks to take their pictures.

After our walk we headed for Portland to get in on some iconic tourist stuff.

I got two donuts just to say that I did, though I didn't have them until later.  How were they?  Sorry folks, they were donuts just like any other donuts and nothing special, at least IMO.  But I enjoyed the shopping experience.

I didn't have any room to take on sweets just then because we were headed to brunch at Pine State Biscuits.  I got a plant based breakfast sandwich/biscuit n'gravy mashup with a [non plant based] egg.  It was yummy.

With that it was time to say goodbye to Kyria for the weekend and to continue on in my journey.  A few hours later I was in Olympia.

Let's Rate the Airbnb - Olympia Edition

The unit was described as a "charming midcentury duplex".

Not only did it have the look, it had the comfort to back it up.  This one falls somewhere in my Top 10 Airbnb stays of all time.

Friday: Let's See the Sights of Olympia

My first stop will come as no surprise...

After that I went in search of PNW nature and stopped at Squaxin Park.  I noticed that there were foot washing stations near the parking lot and on the playground, which made sense because I knew that there was a beach somewhere nearby.

Sure enough a short walk on the trail got me to a beach, and of course I went out to the shoreline as one does.

Which quickly got me more than I bargained for.  I had just gotten new sneakers, and the closer I got to the water the more muddy it became.  But I was so close to the water, and I knew that I had to break the new shoes in sometime...

What happened next is that the weight of the mud took my shoes down and I could not physically lift my feet while they were still in the shoes.  I did a quick de-shoe/de-sock operation, and it was still quite hard to pull my shoes out of the mud.

Well, at least I'd taken note of the foot washing stations by the trailhead so I had a way to get myself fixed up.  Except that I had to get back to the trailhead.

Luckily it wasn't very far, and let me tell you that this is the first and hopefully the last time that I have taken a barefoot hike.  I don't know how Doggo does it.

After a somewhat lengthy stop at the foot wash station, I was back on the road.  I went to another park for a short-ish nature walk, and then made my final stop of the day, which was something that caught my eye on Google maps.  There is no website for it, but this is Rainbow Rails.  It's an old railroad line that someone brightened up.

You can see it from the bridge, but there were a couple of people on the tracks so naturally I wanted to get closer.

Getting there was not straightforward.  This blog post that came up on Google got me there, but I can't explain how.  

In general I would not recommend walking across old railroad bridges with very wide spaces between the ties, and I am not sure if people are "supposed to" walk on the Rainbow Rails, but I did and it's an experience that I appreciated getting to have.

Saturday - Let's Go to Salem and See Things Along the Way

On Saturday I headed out the door and made my way to Salem.  My first stop was in Vancouver - that would be Vancouver WA and not Vancouver BC.

Kyria's friend had been talking up matcha, and I've never been crazy about it but the conversation stayed with me and I was in a mood where I felt like giving it another chance.  I stopped at a fancy coffee shop near the waterfront for fancy avocado toast and a blue matcha.  I was [September 12, 2026] years old when I learned that there is green matcha and blue matcha.  Blue is milder tasting and has no caffeine, plus it is pretty so that's what I had.

Pros: my first time ever getting latte art and the avocado toast was a satisfying lunch.

Cons: confirmed that matcha is not my thing.

Next up I saw that the bridge that connects Washington to Oregon had a pedestrian walkway, and I do like walking across borders on bridges when I get the chance (previous examples: Ohio to Kentucky in Cincinnati, Ontario to Quebec in Ottawa, and the US to Canada in Niagara Falls).

But once I got on the bridge, the vibrations of the cars were jarring, it was noisy and smelly, the weather was not the best, there were no other people around, and the bridge seemed endlessly long.  I couldn't tell exactly how long the bridge is, and I don't think it's more than a mile, but I also don't think that it's much less than a mile, which meant an awfully long time going out and then an equally long time coming back.  Yeah...I bailed.  Just because you've done a thing once doesn't mean that you need to do it every single time that you get the chance.

For my next stop, I had debated between the Columbia River Gorge and Silver Falls State Park which was closer to Salem.  It was afternoon by this point, and I thought that CRG might take a bit too much time, so I headed for Silver Falls.

It turned out to be a three mile waterfall binge, so I was satisfied with my choice.

Around dinner time, I wheeled into Salem.

Let's Rate the Airbnb - Salem Edition

It was a one bedroom apartment, and it was perfectly fine but also a very impersonal, standard issue Airbnb.  It felt like a letdown after Olympia.

Also Saturday - Let's Eat!

In fairness, I was very hungry but also I feel like my quick choice from the options on Google was really that good.  I went to Encore in downtown Salem and shortly thereafter found a mango martini working its way down my throat.  

Soon to be followed by a smash burger and The Most Yummy Fries I Have Had In A Long Time.

Sunday - Let's Get Some FLW

There is only one FLW site in the PNW, and wouldn't you know that it is 20 minutes away from a state capital...this is the Gordon House.

The lady of the house was a weaver, and FLW designed her loom room (actually a space in the upstairs hall) to have a view.

The man of the house also had a special nook with a view.

Of course you're wondering which room it was in, and it was in a small room located near his home office...yep, that small room.

In fairness, the original owners were farmers so the only eyes on the outside of the window belonged to their cows.  The house was originally located outside of Portland with a killer view of Mount Hood, but was later slated for demolition and moved to another site.

Also Sunday - Let's Have an Uncomfortable Experience

I prefer to walk rather than drive whenever I can in my travels.  I wasn't sure if I would have enough time to walk to the capitol on Monday, so I decided to do it on Sunday afternoon.  It wasn't much more than a mile away.

My route took me straight into a homeless camp in a park.  My feeling is that it is never OK to show up uninvited to someone's home, even when their home is a tent on the sidewalk, so I skedaddled in a hurry.

Monday - Let's Capitol

It's a little stark on the outside, but it's an Art Deco wonder on the inside.

The carpet in the House of Representatives reflects Oregon's #1 economy leader at the time.

Also Monday - Let's Hang Out With Kyria!

Well of course I wanted to hang out with Kyria, but I'm not gonna lie, I also wanted to hang out with the fur babies.  Portland Doggo took us out on the town.

For funsies, Kyria and I went to a pub like the party animals that we are and did trivia night.  This meant eating an enormous amount of bar food (the scotch eggs tho...) and coming in #13 in a field of 21.  13th place...always earned, never given.

Tuesday - Let's Go to CRG!!!

Remember how I'd thought about going to Columbia River Gorge on Saturday but decided not to?  Guess where Kyria suggested that we go?

Our plan was a four mile hike, but the trail turned out to be six miles.  It happens.

There was a lot of uphill and a lot of questioning of life decisions...by which I mean that we drank in the views and spent a lot of time talking about the pizza that we were going to have for dinner.

Then what went up came down, with numbered switchbacks.

Plus a waterfall.

When we got home it was 3:00.  Normally retired people do not eat dinner until 5:00, but hungry hikers have no such standards.  The pizza place was in walking distance and we had a dog, so we added on to our step count.

For our final night together, we finished season two of UK Traitors, and I got some lap candy.

Wednesday - Let's Go Home

Nothing lasts forever.  Wednesday started with a final walk with Portland Doggo and then I headed for the airport.

It was time to have another new experience.  I've always wanted to fly first class, but most of my flights are short, and it's never felt worth it for a two hour flight.  For a five hour flight, I was willing to turn my $0 ticket into a $300 ticket so I went for the upgrade.

Verdict: it was nice but not so nice that ya girl will never fly coach again.  More legroom, seats that slide forward to incline so that you don't bump or get bumped by your neighbor, and a meal.

And with that the adventure came to an end.  But what did we learn?

That Portland is awesome, the PNW is gorgeous, and PNW beer is epic.  That the majority of August and a few days in September was not too much time to spend in person with Kyria.  I don't know when our next meeting will be, and it's not likely to be soon, but you can bet money that our paths will cross again.

Let's Go Out on a High Note

The porta potties of Portland tho...

Who has been to Portland, Salem, or Olympia?  Have you ever gotten your shoes stuck in the mud?  Flown first class?  Any good porta potty sightings to report?