Author: Priya Nayar

We had a vibrant introduction to Portland with our arrival at our Airbnb, The Sunshine House. Hosted by the lovely Grace, we moved into our new home for three nights and were ready to explore the The City of Roses.

We began our Portland tour with a visit to Washington Park, a sprawling 159 acre public park that offers something for everyone from the gardens to a zoo to memorials to walking trails as well as a great view of Mt Hood in the distance. We managed to spend hours wandering around here, taking in the sun and the scent of roses alongside tourists and locals alike.

Founded in 1917, the International Rose Test Garden covers 4.5 acres and is a kaleidoscope of color with literally thousands of rose bushes in full bloom. In contrast, the Portland Japanese Garden immediately enveloped us in a Zen-type atmosphere as we ambled amongst the different trees and landscaped gardens. The Japanese garden opened to the public in 1967 and covers 12 acres of tranquility.

We cannot let our Portland post slip by without two specific cuisine mentions: Voodoo Doughnuts and the Portland food trucks.

Voodoo Doughnuts is a Portland institution that we had to experience if for no other reason than everyone who has ever been to Portland told us we had to. We arrived at 10.30am on a Thursday morning to find the queue to get into the shop lined up along the side of the building. The array of doughnuts on offer are fantastically diverse and our choices, The Maple Bacon and The Loop (covered in Fruitloops) are just a tiny sample of the crazy menu. Was the wait worth it? Yes. Do we need to eat another doughnut in a hurry? Most definitely not. 😂

Portland is also famous for its food trucks, scattered all over the city in what are known as pods. We visited a few, including Cartopia and Hawthorne Asylum, and joined the crowds for al fresco dining which was diverse and very satisfying.

A visit to Powell’s City of Books is a must. Spread over an entire city block, Powell’s has nine different colour-coded rooms and well over 3000 sections and claims to be the largest independent bookstore in the world. It was a sight to behold from our very first step into the shop and it was brilliant to see so many people throughout the shop poring over the shelves, reading books in the aisles and walking out laden with bags of books.

We finished our stay in Portland with the famous Saturday Market. Founded in 1974, this market is the largest continually running outdoor arts and crafts market in America. Local handcrafts abound, if you cannot find something to buy at this market, you are simply not looking hard enough. From clothing to jewellery, candles to chopping boards, artwork to food, you can easily lose an entire day here.

A special shout out has to be made to Oregonians and their love of dogs. We have seen happy contented dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds out and about with their owners throughout the city and we love all the shops selling doggy apparel and accessories alongside human being shops.

Oregon, we leave you with happy bellies and our faith in nature restored. Onwards to Washington we go.

S&P

Hello Oregon!

Leaving California behind, we headed straight for Crater Lake, making a quick stop for breakfast in Klamath Falls, our first Oregon overnight stay. Pri had her first taste of biscuits and gravy which were super good and super coma-inducing. In fact her legs seemed to have trouble remembering how to walk after this very intense carb overload. No more biscuits and gravy for a while methinks.

Crater Lake took our breath away. The lake is the result of the volcano Mt Mazama collapsing 7700 years ago. Reaching a depth of 594 meters, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and is an incredible clear blue that is hard to look away from. We did a fantastic two hour trolley tour around the lake that took us to all the scenic viewpoints. As well as the hypnotic lake, the chipmunks were totally camera worthy and you’re all very lucky that I’ve held back from posting the 40+ chipmunks photos I ended up taking 😂

From Crater Lake we headed back to Klamath Falls for the night. Having taken all day to recover from the morning’s biscuits and gravy, we had our first American food truck experience. Thai food it was and if all food trucks in this country are as good as Sontum Thai, we’re very excited for what lies ahead of us.

My birthday dawned bright and sunny and off we headed to Florence, a central Oregon coastal town. The drive was spectacular. Nearly half of Oregon is covered in trees and we were riveted by the sight of forests stretching for literally as far as the eye could see as we drove.

Florence sits at the mouth of the Siuslaw River and is as picturesque as we imagined it to be when deciding where to stay the night. A farmer’s market, riverside dining, friendly folk, great accommodation and beautiful scenery made our stay here charming and we loved it.

A great huge thank you to everyone who sent me happy birthday messages. It was a great day of road tripping and finished with a sunset on the coastal dunes.

P&S

Visiting Sonoma has been a two-fold treat: we were able to visit California wine country and everything it offers, but more importantly we had our first Doha reunion with Denise and Ron who live in Santa Rosa. They welcomed us into their beautiful home and were tour guides extraordinaire as they introduced us to the vineyards, woods and beaches of Sonoma.

Our tour started with wine tasting at Woodenhead Wines, a local winery with beautiful views from their sunny deck. A picnic prepared by Denise paired with wine tastings including chardonnay, sparkling, pinot noir and zinfandel made for a lovely relaxed lunch with good friends and good conversation and a well rounded introduction to California wines.

From the wide open spaces of the vineyards, we visited Armstrong Woods, home to California’s coast redwoods, the world’s tallest living trees. Like the sequoias, these trees are breathtaking as they soar up to the heavens. The silence that surrounds you as you walk amongst the trees is testimony to how tall these trees are, as any birds or wildlife resident in the treetops are so far out of earshot you can’t hear them on the ground. We also met sequoia General Sherman’s redwood counterpart, Colonel Armstrong who, at 1400 years old, is a whopping 308 feet tall.

Next was a visit to Duncans Mills, a village on the Russian River, 6km/4mi inland from the Sonoma Coast. Formerly a lumber mill town, there are beautiful little shops with gardens and window boxes and connected by wooden walkways. From Duncans Mills we headed out to foggy Goat Rock Beach to see the seals relaxing on the sand.

Dinner was at the River’s End restaurant and yet again, California cuisine did not disappoint. Showcasing local king salmon, the food was good accompanied by a fine pinot noir. In fact the salmon chowder was so good it may have disappeared before I remembered to take the photo.

One last thing we managed to fit in during our time here was a visit to the Charles M Schulz Museum. Dedicated to the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, this museum gave us a great couple of hours to hang out with Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. A special exhibit dedicated to Woodstock the bird is currently in place, celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the famous music festival after which the yellow fellow was named.

Denise and Ron, thank you so much for your warm hospitality, the great home cooking and an amazing time in Sonoma. We leave with great memories as we wrap up our California chapter and head north to Oregon.  P&S

“On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…” As we made our way through the California desert toward the National Parks, the words from the first line of The Eagles’ Hotel California kept running through our minds. Granted it was daylight, but the view of the western side of the Mojave Desert looked unforgiving and completely unlike any desert we are used to in the Middle East or Australia. No sand in sight but instead a spectacular barren landscape sweeping into the horizon. From this to the lush green orange tree crops that appeared out of nowhere, we did not run out of scenery to look at. Including the Mojave Wind Farm, the 3rd largest onshore wind energy project in the world and the largest in America.

And anyone who has spoken to Sammy about her excited anticipation of seeing the largest ball of twine in rural Kansas, will appreciate her delight when we found the Big Olive in a town called Lindsay 😂

Heading to Sequoia National Park at the crack of dawn to beat the summer tourist crowds was easily the cleverest move we’d made here by far. Even at 7.50am the cars were beginning to line up at the park entrance. And with good reason too. The park is amazing, in particular Giant Forest which was our destination to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest known living single-stem tree by volume.

The sequoias are enormous and in places it was like walking through some kind of tree wonderland. General Sherman was magnificent and I’m happy to be able to tick seeing him off my bucket list of things to do in America. But not just the sequoias were amazing to see. The scenery around the park itself was pretty impressive as well.

We followed up Sequoia National Park with Yosemite and wow. Just wow. Yosemite is spectacular. Photos do not do El Capitan, a granite monolith towering over Yosemite Valley at over 3500 feet, justice. From Bridalveil Fall to Half Dome, it is not hard to see why Yosemite attracts over 4 million people every year. Consider us impressed Yosemite.

Off to California wine country now and to see our friends Denise and Ron. California National Parks, thank you. S&P

Let me start by saying this:
We LOVE San Diego 💜

Here in California’s oldest town: The sun shines non-stop. The atmosphere is so relaxed you’re almost asleep. People walk around with their pets everywhere. And the food is sublime.

Our Airbnb, hosted by Min and David (humans), Wilson and Pickle (dogs), Squishy (a cat) and a bunch of peacocks, was the perfect abode to come to at 10pm after a full day of driving. A good night’s rest and we were up and on the go the next day. Found the hop on hop off trolley and met Jack, our trolley driver, who we cannot rave enough about. Personable, informative and totally entertaining; as veterans of hop on hop off tours, we have to confess there was no hopping off or on happening because we didn’t want to leave Jack. In fact we only got off the trolley once the tour was taken over by Philip who, in comparison, was like watching paint dry on Sidra. Sorry Philip.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Seaport Village and the bay waterfront. Ate an amazing meal at Sally’s which included a simply perfect prawn and scallop cobb salad. If you are ever in San Diego and you like seafood, you have to go here. Particularly great service was provided by Drewski who also offered us free gelato while knowing we were too stuffed to eat another bite.

We also visited the USS Midway museum, a naval aircraft carrier (or in Pri’s terminology: the ship with the planes on it). The Midway served the US for 47 years before retiring in San Diego and in 1945 was the largest ship in the world.

Our visit here coincided with Comic Con 2019 and while we didn’t attend ourselves, it wasn’t hard to spot those who did, including the pets.

My San Diego highlight was catching up with Steph, my friend from university, and her husband Martyn who now live here. It was so good to see them both and begged the question: where have the last 24 years gone??

We leave San Diego relaxed, rejuvenated and ready to get back in the car. Thank you San Diego. You’ve been pretty unforgettable.

S&P

After picking up Ruby, our Chevy Equinox, we set out of San Francisco and headed down the Pacific Coast highway. Easily one of the most beautiful coastal drives we’ve ever done. And probably the longest because I kept making Sammy stop every 10 minutes to take photos. Note to self: if you need to get from San Francisco to anywhere south in a hurry, take the inland highway 😂

The fog added character to the scenery and towns like Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea slipped past us in a picturesque montage of coastal towns.

Heading along the coast to Big Sur, we went to find Bixby Bridge. At 714 feet long and 280 feet high, Bixby Bridge is one of the tallest single span concrete bridges in the world.

Rocky Creek Bridge is a bonus bridge we discovered which we assumed was Bixby Bridge. And then realised (many photos later) that it actually wasn’t, when driving further up the road to find somewhere to turn the car around safely, we found the real Bixby Bridge patiently waiting for us. 

Pismo Beach was our overnight stop and the first Airbnb of the trip. Bethany and Oliver are brilliant hosts and in exchange for two boxes of Nutrigrain, four blocks of Cadbury chocolate and a bag of Minties brought for Aussie Oliver, they gave us a great tour of Pismo Beach and the surrounding area and introduced us to our first American drive-through burgers at In-N-Out. A huge thank you to Bethany, Oliver and Boomer the dog for a great night’s stay.

From Pismo Beach to Ventura, where we walked to the pier and had tacos laden with fresh tuna and popcorn shrimp. Hunger satisfied, it was onwards to Malibu and then Santa Monica. Santa Monica Pier was bright, noisy, crowded and absolutely everything I was hoping it would be.

An amazing two days taking in the sights of the Pacific Coast Highway and despite ending up being hours out of schedule both days, it was totally worth every minute. Even the 2 hour traffic jam to get past Los Angeles.

San Diego, you’re up next.
P&S

San Francisco – our first stop in America and she didn’t disappoint us. Our hotel being in the suburb of Nob Hill, we swiftly became acquainted with the city’s hills as we set out to explore. With two full days to make the most of, we’ve ticked off most of SF’s landmarks including cable cars, Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, Sausalito, and the Golden Gate Bridge. 

A trek up Lombard Street (that took Pri 10 times longer than everyone else who seemed to sprint past her up the hill, including Sammy) brought us to Lombard Garden which covers a block of residential street with eight hairpin turns, designed to reduce the hill’s 27 percent gradient and making it possible for cars to drive on it. The street was impressive to see and the gardens beautiful, but the view of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill was pretty spectacular as well.

Hands down one of our favourite sights were the sea lions at Pier 39. And the harbour cruise was worth it to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz but how is it no one ever warned us that San Francisco is windy and cold in the middle of summer??

Also, on a completely different note, we’re fascinated with the external fire escapes on the residential buildings here. At the risk of having eyes rolled at us, they’re just like in the movies. I feel that’s not the last time we’re going to say that… sorry in advance.

We finished our SF stay last night with Beach Blanket Babylon, the world’s longest running musical revue. Hilarious and very very good. Great humour, superb music, and a brilliant cast. Topical, irreverent, and on point. We loved it. 

Quick cuisine mention: Sammy got to tick Bubba Gump Shrimp Co off her bucket list. Priya discovered the best hash browns in the world in a tiny cafe on Sutter Street. 

So now we pick up our car and get this road trip properly started. 
Hoping our friends and family are all doing ok.

S&P

Hi! Here it is… our 50-state road trip of America is finally beginning! Those who know us know we have been planning, saving and working towards this adventure for some time now. We’re excited to be starting in California as we work our way around the USA heading to Hawaii as our 50th and final state.

Join us as we travel from state to state and share our experience as we play tourist, take photos, sample cuisine, experience the culture and discover America.