One of the things that has fascinated Jeff and me about Portland is its proximity to some crazy sights. One hour east is Mt. Hood, jutting nearly 12,000 feet above sea level. One hour west is the gorgeous coast of the Pacific Ocean. How cool is that? With Jeff’s brother Rob and his wife Amy in town this past weekend, we conquered them both.

Getting closer to the top of Mt. Hood

As an aside, there is a wicked cool relay race actually called, “Hood to Coast,” and a great documentary by the same name. I would highly recommend seeing the movie – we loved it. Jeff and I are now extremely tempted to recruit a team for next year’s race…we’ll see…

Back to our weekend adventures. We started with a building-wide Trivial Pursuit tournament (Jeff’s and my team won – yay!), visited the Nike employee store, chowed on some amazing food at Muu-Muu’s, hit Rogue and Bridgeport breweries, grabbed breakfast at Grand Central Bakery, and then officially started our Saturday. It was a cloudless, mild winter day, and we could actually see Mt. Hood from the city. Inspiration! We made the impulse decision to check it out up close.

Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood

In the hour drive, we quickly went from sunny 50’s to snowy 30’s. We wound our way up 6000 ft to Timberline Lodge, famous for being the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining.” It’s the coolest, applewood-smelling, cozy lodge you could imagine. The building was semi-snowed in, but that’s probably a norm since Mt. Hood gets approximately 35 feet of snow per year. (Brother Dave, Portland might be the perfect place for you.)

The following day, we set out on another road trip to the Pacific coast. (Not without some breakfast from the food cart, The Big Egg.) First up was Seaside, which was like a Jersey shore boardwalk. Games, carnival-type foods, surf shops, and tourists EVERYWHERE. You’d think it was mid-summer. The beach was amazing, but our next stop, Cannon Beach, took the cake. It’s the actual beach from the end of Goonies. Luckily we had brought Cooper along, so he had a field day playing frisbee and rocketing across the sand. (He didn’t dive into the ocean, thank heavens.) It was a great day – we bought a boatload of candy at Buzz, had a drink (and oyster shooters for the boys) at Bill’s Tavern and Brewhouse, and then a seafood dinner at Local Grill & Scoop.

Thanks to Rob and Amy for being perfect exploring partners! We had such a fun weekend with them.

Amy and Rob at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood

Sunset driving back from Mt. Hood

Welcome to Seaside!

Family pic at Seaside Beach