hikes | Our Oregon Trail

Hiking the Horsetail

April 20, 2014 by kristikrass

When Jeff and I asked Lindsay and Daniel to join us on a day trip to Hood River to use our soon-to-expire $50 Full Sail Brewing gift certificate, they had two great suggestions: start with a hike in the Columbia River Gorge, and grab a taco pie at Pietro’s Pizza. Done and done! We began the drizzly Saturday before Easter at the Horsetail Falls Loop Hike, which might be my new favorite Oregon hike. Park the car, and boom: already treated to the trail’s namesake falls. Don’t even […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: gorge, hikes, hood river, restaurants

Step and Smell the Roses

June 8, 2013 by kristikrass

Everything’s coming up roses! Portland’s nickname “City of Roses” rings especially true in June – the landscape is drenched in them right now. This area pumps out amazing specimens due to its location within the marine west coast climate region, its warm, dry summers and rainy, mild winters, and its heavy clay soils. Roses influence much of the local culture too: the Portland Trailblazers’ home court is in the Rose Garden Arena, there’s the Portland Thorns women’s pro soccer team, women duke it out […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: gardens, hikes

Webs Weave through Portland

April 7, 2013 by kristikrass

Our friend John Minagawa-Webster (aka Webby) and his wife Mai brought the sun (and a bottle of Four Roses single barrel bourbon) from Louisville to Portland last weekend. We were stoked to meet Mai for the first time, and of course she was awesome, but we were also overjoyed to have ridiculously perfect weather in the 60s and 70s with sun, sun, sun. Perfect weekend for a Portland immersion! John and Jeff met via Michigan State soccer, so there was […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: gorge, hikes, market, restaurants, visitors

Hello, 2013!

January 1, 2013 by kristikrass

Happy 2013! Jeff and I welcomed the new year with one of the most relaxing, enjoyable NYE nights in recent history. As much as I love celebrating in Chicago and sporting glitzy dresses, it felt so appropriate to stick around Portland, grab whiskey-glazed boneless BBQ wings at Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub with Lindsay and Daniel, catch “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” movie (which was good!) at McMenamins’ Mission Theater, and huddle around our apartment building’s back patio fire pit with […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: hikes, holidays

Krasses in the House

November 10, 2012 by kristikrass

Visitors make me so happy. Not only do we get to spend time with some of our favorite people in world, but we also get to pack in a boatload of exploring! Last weekend, Jeff’s parents came to town – their third trip to the Rose City after their Oct. 2011 visit, Chris’ April 2011 visit and Bob’s Jan. 2011 visit (our first visitor in our new city). With this crew, y’know we hit some bars and restaurants. We commenced […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: coast, gorge, hikes, Krasses, parks, restaurants, visitors

Eighth Wonder of the World

July 8, 2012 by kristikrass

Yesterday, we discovered the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. How we’ve gone a year and a half in Portland without hearing about it, I have no idea. Just off the Columbia River Gorge and near the tourist-packed Multnomah Falls – which we visited in May 2011 and September 2011– is Oneonta Gorge, a mossy chasm so narrow that the Oneonta Creek fills it wall to wall. Lindsay and Daniel introduced us to the one-mile in, one-mile out hike. It’s quite […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: breweries, gorge, hikes

California Dreamin’

April 28, 2012 by kristikrass

After 1 year and 3 months of promising our friends in Southern California a visit, we finally made it! It took a “free all-access tickets to Zac Brown Band concert” nudge from Jeff’s co-worker Peter, but it accomplished our goal: getting to see some of our best buds in a locale with 1,000x more sunlight than Portland. After work a few Fridays ago we jetted into Orange Country, where Jeff’s friend-since-kindergarten Joey (who just rocked the Cartathlon with us in […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: beach, california, concerts, hikes, restaurants, vacation

Walk in the Clouds

December 10, 2011 by kristikrass

Winter’s arrival, with gray days, 30- to 40-degree weather and 4:30 p.m. sunsets, is no match for most Portlanders. Cyclists, runners and hikers constantly swarm the streets and trails with little regard for the elements. Jeff and I – well, we’re not quite in that boat, but we do enjoy a brisk walk with Cooper. With the amazing hills right at the city’s edge, we figured we’d conquer a hike last Saturday morning. After poring through online lists of hikes […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: Cooper, hikes, holidays, parks

Bonus photo: Look at this sunset over the Willamette River!

Gorge-eous

May 29, 2011 by kristikrass

I made a bold proclamation today: Oregon is the prettiest state I’ve seen. I’m sure there are others in contention (including Michigan!) but Oregon has been a beautiful surprise to me. For the holiday weekend, we decided to do a bit of a “staycation,” especially since we’ll be heading back to Michigan in less than two weeks. We have a huge mental list of places we want to see around here, so it is easy to stay busy. On Sunday […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: breweries, Cooper, falls, hikes, vacation

Our Oregon Trail

Portland through the eyes of a festival-loving, dessert-feasting, travel-addicted Midwesterner.

Tag: hikes