Last weekend my wife and I decided to go exploring from Portland to Hood River, Oregon. Our new hometown of Portland, of course, you probably know well from the documentary series Portlandia. We moved here to do our part to help keep Portland “weird.” I took that as a personal invitation.
The city of Hood River is located about 60 miles east of Portland, 30 miles north of Mount Hood, and up the mighty Columbia River, upriver of the Bonneville Dam. It’s well known for it’s apples and pears.
Most of the journey cuts through the geologic and massively impressive Columbia River Gorge. Multnomah Falls is a well known landmark visible from the highway along the way.
After visiting Hood River, we departed on a 35-mile scene drive north of town named the “Fruit Loop” that wound its way through “orchards, forests, farmlands, delicious fruits, wineries, fields of fragrant lavender, and adorable alpacas.”
Of course my travel slog photography includes practically none of that scenic stuff. Below please enjoy other things that happened to catch my eye instead.
Shouts from the Abyss 
Haha…the guru selfies just made me spit out my coffee!!
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I’m very glad to hear that! 🙂
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Flying in to Portland, our plane was at the height of the summit of Mount Hood.
Stunning.
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Someone looks as happy as a pig in shit. Oh. I see what you did there. *grin*
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Snort! 🙂
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Yes, I’ve seen that “Portlandia” documentary 🙂 and am eager to join up with the craft -brewing, handlebar mustache-growing citizenry, at least for a few days. I’ve only been to Oregon once, which is a darned shame. Some day I will show up on your doorstep (with no warning!) and hope you will be my tour guide at least in your neighborhood. (Nice, generous vegetable growing neighbor, btw.) I know we like the same things, based on your photographs. I try to photograph goats wherever I see them, for example. I have a fine collection and will some day post for all to enjoy! “Get Your Goat” here!
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Did you notice the contraption I threw in, just for you? 🙂
I am feverishly wont to criticize the fedora I see around here quite a bit, but I don’t think that’s a strictly a Portlandia thing.
The facial hair thing is quite perplexing. Some day I hope to a study about trends and what they say about the people who think it makes them cooler (fedoras) and the people who stubbornly avoid them with all of their might (like me).
Everyone loves to grow around here and they end up with too much and hate to see it go to waste. That’s where I come in. I can literally swim in tomatoes. Cucumbers are almost as prolific. Corn is solidly in third place.
Now, when it comes to Portland and microbrews, this city lives up to the hype. Swoon.
That little goat was so cute. I wanted to bring him home. 🙂
See you soon!
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I’m jealous of your tree-bedecked license plates.
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