The Oregon Coast, Mt. Hood & Portland IPAs

I'm writing from Portland, Oregon right now. We flew out Wednesday afternoon to Seattle, then rented a car (a silver Chrysler Seabring convertible) to drive down here. We stayed with Chris & Rachele that night, then Thursday morning took off for the coast to a B & B near Depoe Bay:


After seeing all we could see in 1 day, we took off yesterday morning for Mt. Hood - taking the scenic route - and after ~6 hours in the car, we arrived in Sandy at the other B & B:

We couldn't actually SEE the mountain from there, but it was a very pretty, rustic spot. It was a relatively short drive before we started wending our way up the twisting road to Mt. Hood this morning & we saw some pretty incredible views (no worries - a more lengthy description with pictures is yet to come).

Now we're back at Chris & Rachele's (after putting at least 1,000 miles on the rental car) drinking some IPA (India Pale Ale, for those of you who don't know good beer) and relaxing. Tonight we'll be heading to downtown Portland to eat, drink - more pale ale beers, since microbreweries abound here - and in general sightsee and have a good time. Chris & Rachel are super-cool people as well as excellent hosts, so we're having a good time just hanging out here.

Speaking of beer, this is probably the best place for me beerwise...now that I'm so picky with my brews and prefer a good ale to anything. For IPAs to date here I've had Long Hammer, Bridgeport Brewing Co., Terminal Gravity, Mirror Pond & Multnomah Falls; also we had Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale at Old Chicago (the first night) and so far it's my favorite!

We're looking forward to a night out with Chris & Rachele and I'll definitely write more about the trip once I get back and upload all my photos...I've only taken 497 thus far, which is crazy considering all we've seen!

TTFN,