Mt. Hood Tour Development

Lori and I head up to Mt. Hood to explore a tour route for my visit Portland site. I need to go back and check to see what was still there and what would still work for a self guide tour. We also came across some new places and Lori pointed out some details that I need to add. We had great weather and still some good fall color.

New Explorations

Finally my foot healed up enough to get back out for more exploring Portland. It is interesting that when you live in a place that you can walk by something for years and never take time to explore it. So it was for me with the Maritime Museum and the Grotto. Then there are places that you visited 20 years ago and you never go back some how thinking they never change. So it was with Oregon Historical Society Museum. Then there are those thinks you learned 28 years ago, when Portland crime rate was so high, you did not do because you would die, like take public transit. So I took the Streetcar in downtown. It was a bit confusing but I did not die. All of the new info I have on these places and experiences I have add to the this website.

Also, I had to stop in for doughnut and there are scooters everywhere.

 

Elk Point & Alpenrose Dairy

I set out early on Sunday morning to check out a couple of places. The first place was Elk Point Viewpoint. I am still trying to check out old viewpoint of the city and see if they are still good. Twenty years ago this was a good place to view the city. The Totem pole was also a selfie picture spot. Once again the trees have grown up and view is gone. There is also now a tree blocking what was the best selfie angle.

The second spot, Alpenrose Dairy,  I have heard about for years but I had never been there. I thought there Dairyville might be good place bring kids. This place once was a family owned dairy farm. Over time the cows went away, the dairy production was modernize, the land was turn into community use but it is still owned by the same family. Along with Dairyville they also have baseball diamonds, a go-cart track and the only Velodrome in the area. It turned out the day I visited they have a large cross country bike race going on. So this place is certainly used by the locals but not sure yet if it will work for visitors to Portland.

Vancouver Waterfront Park

I did a quick run over to the new Vancouver Waterfront Park that opened this last weekend. I wanted to get some photos of the new viewing platform for my Fort Vancouver walk. The park is still being worked on but should be complete and looking nice by Spring. For now you can make your way around the construction to get to the view platform and the two new restaurants. When completed this will make a nice extension of Vancouver water front trail.

The viewing platform maybe gives you a little better view of the Columbia River but more of just a nice addition to the park. There is also suppose to be fountain and other element coming. More eateries are to be opening soon and that will be nice.

With progress comes comes other changes. Vancouver is starting to have some of Portland parking problem. They have now added new street parking pay stations like Portland at a rate of $1.25 an hour. Formally one of the fun parts of going to Vancouver was it cost next to nothing to park there. The old coin meters gave you the first 20 minutes for free and I think it was only a quarter for a couple of hours of parking. Times do change and I guess some how they needed to pay for the new park. Right now there is plenty of street parking available but if this place gets popular parking will be a problem. I did not see any plans for parking garages.