Portland, OR
Tour #8 with Disney On Ice. Wow how the times flies. A few years ago I never would have told you I would still be travelling the world entertaining families through skating acting, but here we are. This tour has been fun so far, as we have played mostly cities that I have not been to before, we are going along the West coast of North America, and are currently in Portland for the week. Portland has been a city that I have always hear that I would love, and have wanted to visit for a long time, but had never made it up to the Pacific Northwest until now.
Everyone that told me I would love it was right. The three days I spend exploring the city and its surroundings, and I enjoyed thoroughly. Everything from the local coffee, to the waterfalls, to the rocky coastline, and everything in between.
Monday morning when my alarm went off, I was ready for a long day of walking and exploring. Taylor and I headed towards the Pearl District with our cameras and not much of a plan. We wandered from coffee shop to coffee shop, exploring all of the local spots and enjoying the beautiful weather.
Only my second day off, I picked up a rental car using the Turo app, which is like airbnb, but for peoples cars. This was a very pleasant experience, and something that I would go on to use more and more as tour goes on. This rental happened to be an Audi A4, which we filled up and headed East towards Multnomah falls. Along the drive, we stopped at the Vista House, at Crown point, which is an old building on the cliffs edge with a nice mountain road winding around it. It is used as a washroom and tourist stop point along the way to the waterfalls from Portland. The views from the Vista house are quite spectacular, as you can look down the valley to the East and West from the rooftop.
From the Vista house, we continued along the Historic Columbia River Highway until we came across Latourell falls. This is a small hike from the parking lot, along a well hiked trail with a nice bridge that gives beautiful views and a slim yet tall waterfall.
This was out last stop before heading the rest of the way to the famous Multnomah falls. Once parked, it is a short walk along a paved path to the lower viewing area for the spectacular waterfall. We arrived at a very desirable time of year. All of the leaves were changing colour and falling in the wind. Sadly, last year there was a fire in the area, and there was some restoration going on nearby, but to turn a bad situation positive, the restoration resulted in many of the trees being rustled around knocking off the colourful leaves. The restoration also meant that tourists had to move from one area to another, leaving the bridge empty for short times, allowing me to capture an clean looking image with no other tourists in it.
The next day, I still had the car, so in order to make the most of it, Taylor and I headed West, to Cannon Beach.
We wandered around the shops and took a quick look into a local photo gallery, which I always find interesting to see other photographers perspectives and spots that they love in the area. When I only get one, or sometimes two days in a location, I enjoy getting some local insight on where to be when the light is just right. Taylor and I then headed down to the waterfront and walked along the beach and admired some exquisite houses. The drive back to Portland was more than just getting from point A to point B. We timed it so that we were driving through the mountains as the sun was setting, and we were travelling on Sunset Highway through the hills. The orange glow would break through the trees on occasion and light up the forest. That night we made the most of having a car and stopped at Voodoo Doughnuts to grab a fancy local treat to end a couple of amazing days off in a city that I will surely visit again.
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