We woke up at 7:45am and watched the conclusion of the Tour de France (go Discovery!) and had a fantastic breakfast at Morning Glory, a recommendation from the good people at Chowhound, which was conveniently located a couple of doors down from our hotel (more (much more) on restaurants we ate at as time allows), checked out, and hit the road, continuing north on I-5.
The Rogue Valley area is very pretty and green, turning into rolling hills as we drove on for what seemed like a long time. We fueled up in Roseburg ($2.75/gal) and eventually got to our mid-day stop in the nice college town of Eugene, where we’d intended to visit some of the excellent antique collectives in the area. Unfortunately many shops were closed (it was a Sunday), and the ones that were open didn’t yield any “treasures.” After a lackluster lunch at the Steelhead Brewery, we rejoined Interstate 5 and headed north for the last ~120 miles, the last of which were plagued by surprisingly heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon.
Arriving at my Mom & her hubby Brian’s place, we settled in and had a nice burger dinner, chatted for a bit, then retired.
Monday morning found us at the incredible Powell’s Bookstore in downtown Portland, by far the best bookstore I’ve ever been in. We had fun browsing their endless racks of new and used books, finding a few goodies as we did. If you haven’t been there, Powell’s main store is an entire city block and 4 stories tall – wheew!
We had a terrible lunch at a Vietnamese place on Broadway & 9th, then went back to Mom’s place to relax for a bit. Re-energized, we hit the 3 Stars antique collectives in WestMorland, and had much better luck than we’d had in Eugene, finding several nice items at well-below-SF prices.
A little internet research back at the house yielded Typhoon! in the Alphabet district as a promising dinner restaurant, and after waiting a bit for a table, it proved to be excellent. Sated, we slept well.
On Tuesday morning, Mom, Sarah & I went to the Portland Audubon Society’s HQ in Forest Park, situated on a lovely preserve. They have a bird rehab facility on-site, and we enjoyed getting very close views of their permanent residents, a Great-Horned Owl, Spotted Owl, Peregrine Falcon, and Red-tailed Hawk, as well as watching the volunteers feed the (hopefully!) transient residents, including a very angry Barn Owl, an American Kestrel, and several fledgling American Robins. Good stuff, and good work that they do!
A resident Great Horned Owl at Portland Audubon’s rehab center
Portland Audubon has a very large and well-stocked bookstore, with an amazing selection of bird guides for all over the world, in addition to various bird-themed gift’y items.
Extremely verdant grounds at Portland Aubuon, in Portland’s Forest Park
Sarah & I went for a short walk on their preserve while Mom napped in the car. Although it was a nice walk, we didn’t see any unusual birds. At the numerous bird feeders at the center, though, I spied a Black-capped Chickadee (LIFER!) among the Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncoes.
Afterwards we drove to the Hawthorne district and had a tasty Lebanese lunch, then browsed the funky stores there, many of which reminded me of the shops at home in the Haight-Ashbury. Powell’s has a home and garden bookstore here, and next to it, we tried two of the odder floats I’ve had to date: Sarah’s a raspberry lambic and vanilla ice cream, mine a double chocolate stout with mocha ice cream. Mmmm, beer floats….
We meandered a bit more, then had BBQ hot dogs for dinner, retiring early in anticipation of the start of the real road portion of our trip.
(sorry for the lack of photos from these 3 days – we were busy with family and I didn’t want to make everyone take special trips so I could get shots of Portland, which, BTW, is a lovely city)
Trip Index:
- Day 1 – SF to Ashland, OR
- Days 2, 3, 4 – Portland, OR <– You are here!
- Day 5 – Portland, OR to Pacific City, OR
- Day 6 – Pacific City, OR to Florence, OR
- Day 7 – Florence, OR to Gold Beach, OR
- Day 8 – Gold Beach, OR to Eureka, CA
- Day 9 – Eureka, CA to San Francisco
Adam Paul 
I just love all the green in the Audubon photo that you took! WOW! Glad that you spent some time with your family! That is the most important thing! BTW: Would have loved to seen the chestnut-backed Chickadee (thta would have been my lifer)!
Powell’s Bookstore is really mind blowing isn’t it? Boy, it sounds like you had an enviable time! Beer floats? well… there you go then… I’ll have to check that out when I wander back in that direction. (p.s. fabulous shot of the owl)
I’m glad you got to see the Black-capped Chickadee. After nearly three years of hearing their three-note call, I finally figured out who was making it and it became my favorite bird. That call is so haunting to me when it drifts in from a distance.
Great shots Adam, Audubon, I believe had a home in Key West, I think we are going to stop there sometime next week.
Monarch: Thanks! C-B Chickadees are pretty common on the west coast – we have them in most parks here in SF, even.
Aullori: Yes, Powell’s is amazing! The holy grail of bookstores if you will. Their Home & Garden store in the Hawthorne is itself bigger than most other bookstores, including the dreadful B&N & Borders.
Montucky: Rats, I didn’t get to hear it calling (at least not that I noticed). Birdsong is something I have, as they say, “learning opportunities” in 🙂
Bernie: Thanks! Have a safe & fabulous road trip