Portland to Home with some biased ratings for the trip

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We allowed ourselves a couple of days to drive back to Cochrane from Portland. We thought we could make it from Portland to Kimberley in one day. That was all fine and good at 10am when our GPS displayed an arrival time in Kimberley of 4:30pm. What transpired was a bit different.

The time shift or, as I started thinking of it, a time warp, started with a coffee break at a unique coffee shop just outside of Portland. It was a quaint place on a side road with a talkative, older woman (all right - our age then), who gave us the complete background of her business, her husband’s health, and her positive philosophy on life. All this was fine, but she didn’t seem to be able to make our drinks and talk at the same time. We left this planned 5 minute stop over half an hour later.

The next shift occurred in The Dalles when we stopped for brunch. The PETITE PROVENCE restaurant/patisserie was packed and we had to wait a bit for our food. Jack’s meal was awful while Les’s was pretty good. We left there with groaning stomachs and made pretty good time to Pasco, Washington. Travelling east from The Dalles, we were driving out of the Columbia Gorge and away from anything worth looking at as far as I was concerned. From Pasco to Spokane the countryside is dreadful. The country is windswept desert with little precipitation and there is basalt rock lying very close to the surface. The result is miles and miles of nothing. Saskatchewan prairies look pretty good compared to this country.

While in Pasco, we went in search of our afternoon espresso, but ended up with some rather ordinary coffee at a place with a big ESPRESSO sign out front but no real barista in sight once we went inside. We took this coffee and went to find a park where we could break open the pastries we bought at the PETITE PROVENCE and nibble those along with our coffee. After about 20 minutes of driving around only to discover all the shade trees were in private yards, we finally found some shade in a parking lot behind a warehouse. Not exactly a romantic coffee and pastry by the river, but we had a good laugh about the whole fiasco and enjoyed it anyway.

The rest of the afternoon was through that dreary country I talked about before and we arrived in Spokane, worn out, at about 6:30pm.

The next morning (Thursday) we started out for Kimberley, but after a short time decided to push on to Cochrane in one day. We thought we could get home by about 6pm. Again, the day unfolded differently. We started by having breakfast in THE OLD EUROPEAN RESTAURANT. This place was great. It took more time than we planned, but for me, the German potato pancakes made it worthwhile. We left Spokane with a forecast arrival home of about 6:30pm. The first thing that got in the way this time was a break in Sandpoint which we enjoyed so much that we stayed longer than planned. Next, was the discovery of a unique gift shop called UNDER THE SUN in Bonner’s Ferry. This place also has a nice bistro and serves gelato. Who would have thought….

Thereafter, a line up at the border crossing, a supper in Cranbrook, and the loss of an hour to the time zone change, resulted in our arrival home at about 11:30pm with about 850km on the trip odometer. What a day for the old folks.

OUR RATINGS FOR THE TRIP

Best hotel/motel (criteria - quiet, clean, friendly) :
1. Chateau Kimberley in Kimberley, BC
2. La Quinta Inn in Moscow, Idaho

Best espresso/macchiato:
1. The Olive in Walla Walla, Washington
2. Stumptown Coffee, Portland
(But the best is still at Phil and Sebastian in Calgary.)

Best Meals:
1. Hotel Oregon, McMinnville, Oregon
2. Jake’s, Portland, Oregon

Best/safest car drivers:
Generally, the drivers in Oregon were the best. Least number tailgating and a high percentage actually obeyed the speed limit. As a ‘speed limit driver’ I am usually the slowest vehicle on the road here in Alberta.

Most enjoyable country to see:
Pretty well all the places we went had their unique attributes; however, the drive along the coast and the roads in the Yamhill Valley deserve special mention.

Biggest Pleasant-surprise:
McMinnville, OR and the Yamhill Valley in which McMinnville sits.

Things we learned:
- The communities of Moscow, Walla Walla, Portland, and McMinnville have very nice people living there.
- The coastal drive from Lincoln to Oceanside is beautiful. Getting out and walking some of the trails adds to the experience.
- The Palouse area is visually fascinating in early fall, but not as nice as it is in the middle of the summer when the variations in colour can be seen on the hills.
- The proper way to experience Portland is probably to live there for a year. There are an incredible number of things to do and see in that city. It is thriving.
- We don’t like driving 850km in one day.
- Gasoline in the USA is about 15%!c(MISSING)heaper than in Canada.
- You get far better value for money in the US hotels and motels than in the Canadian equivalent.

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