Portland

The planned sleep-in never eventuated! Our body clocks still had us up and ready for breakfast at 7 am. We were off and on the road before 8 am. We could appreciate the rugged beauty of Astoria better in the morning light. Although we could hear the seals clearly we couldn’t sight them!

Many buildings used to be canneries, the other big industry in addition to lumber

Astoria -Megler Bridge in the background

One of the reasons we stopped by Astoria was that The Goonies, one of Mal’s favourite movies, was filmed here. We drove by the house that was used for filming but alas the new owner was not so sympathetic to fans. There were signs up warning people not to drive up to the driveway or to take photos! Sheesh! We respected his wishes and kept driving to Cannon Beach for a quick stop before continuing on to Portland.

Cannon Beach

There would be moments of fog patches that came and went

The drive took only around two hours so we stopped by Opa’s favourite of Applebee’s for lunch. With time to spare, we stopped again at the nearby Sears to ease the shopping crave. 800 fill down jackets for only $49! Bargain! No sales tax! Even better bargain! Our detour chewed up enough time for us to be able to check into our rooms at the Marriott downtown waterfront.

It was time to sightsee and the first stop was Chinatown. It was pretty quiet and seemed a bit rough. We were headed to Ground Kontrol. Malcolm wanted to visit it as it was known for preserving classic arcade games. The children enjoyed it but they only had about 20 minutes before the arcade switched over to became adult only.

Chinatown!

Ground Kontrol

Portland was also known for its many food trucks. You could easily have your pick of cuisine from Asian to middle eastern to Western. After perusing some of the offerings, we chose Thai for our dinner. Eating standing up without making a mess was a somewhat of a challenge…

Food cart time!

The highlight of the evening was without doubt Powell’s Books. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to browse through physical books! The store was MASSIVE, so much so that it was overwhelming to begin with. It had one of the most impressive children’s sections I had ever seen. We could have easily spent a few more hours in there! The prices were reasonable, and we walked out with a big bag of books. Don’t ask how we were going to bring it all back home…

Literally a city of books

The children's section!

Jonah found his spot and stayed there for most of the time we were at the store

Many many interesting things to look at

By this stage, legs were getting tired and we returned to our hotel for free desserts in the M lounge. The family took some time out to chill, with some watching a movie, some reading, and others playing board games. Energy recharge was of utmost importance for tomorrow’s activity of shopping!