To embark on the journey towards your goals and dreams requires bravery.
To remain on that path requires courage.
The bridge that merges the two is commitment.
I saw Raine again at the airport of Seattle on a Thursday night in February.
She left the sunny weather from California behind and exchanged it for a rainy weekend in Washington State and Oregon.
From the airport we picked up our rental car and drove into the night down the Interstate 5 until we reached Vancouver, Washington State, right on the border with Oregon State and Portland. There we checked in to some local low budget hotel right off the interstate with free parking. This way we avoided the high hotel prices from Portland and an additional parking fee. Portland is only a half hour drive from there.
On Friday morning we entered Oregon.
But we didn’t drive to Portland right away.
Instead we decided to drive on one of the most scenic routes of the USA, The Historic Columbia River Highway. The scenic route starts in Troutdale and goes all the way to The Dalles. We were really excited to discover this stretch of awesomeness.
As soon as we left the Highway 30 it started to get foggy.
It was a curse and a blessing. The fog prevented us to look far around us and some lookout points we stopped at were just like we were staring at a blank wall like at Vista House.
But the fog on the empty road and between the woods made the experience so much more fun.
Until we got a flat tire.
We pulled over and evaluated the damage. We had to replace the tire with the spare donut we had underneath the car. After a little investigation and some good help of that one car that passed by and pulled over we got back on the road with only half an hour delay.
We had places to go that day.
Not much later we arrived at Latourell Falls and the fog disappeared for a bit. Latourell Falls is a little less popular then Multnomah Falls but definitely worth a visit. We hiked up to the top of the falls and enjoyed the stunning views along the way.
Not much later we arrived at the famous and marvellous ‘Multnomah Falls‘. Most of the visitors make the little hike up to the Benson Bridge which is pretty close. If you have more time and a little bit of hiking experience you can also continue the trail until the top. The view up there is magnificent and worth the effort, even if it is a series of switchbacks you are about to conquer for the next mile.
We made Multnomah Falls our turnaround point on our scenic drive and drove off to Portland for more adventures where we switched our rental car at one of our rental car offices without any extra charges and a new full tank !
Winner !!
The World on a Wim 