Things to do: Pacific Northwest

My wife has decided that she (and by that I mean "we") should go to the Pacific NW for a vacation this year.

Thoughts and places to go from this learned group would be appreciated as I have NO clue about this area.

thanks, Stan

What are you in to? Most of the stuff up here is "outdoors".

Yep, that and give some time frames and what area(s) you'll be visiting and we can give some ideas based around that.

For example, Portland has the Rose Festival for the first few weeks of May, it typically has a bunch of parades, a waterfront carnival (w/Navy vessels), an air show, an auto race, etc.

Depending on where you go, there are a number of wineries that give tours and there are win tour runs by the local hotels that are pretty neat and since they do the driving, life is good. I enjoyed my tour in McMinnville hosted by the McMenamins Hotel. Of course our microbrew beer movement is still going strong, one shouldn't visit and leave without trying a few.

Timeframe: good idea. Probably anytime in June and July. If I could fit a car race in there somewhere, that's always cool, of course (we went to Mid-Ohio during our honeymoon). I like the outdoors more than she does, but as it's something completely different for either of us she'd probably be a bit more willing to take a few hikes. She does like festivals and the like.

thanks.

I had a day to waste a few years ago, so I hiked to a few waterfalls (there are many!), and drove to the lodge on Mt. Hood. It was early October; the lodge was empty, but open. It was very redrum-like.

Eat seafood. Ohio seafood sucks.

Ok, PNW is a large area. If you're in Seattle for a week, it's hard to get to Portland. If you're in Portland, doing something at Mt Ranier would be out, as would a San Juan Islands ferry cruise. So, not only timeframe but but general area.

Seattle Center/Space Needle, Jimi Hendrix Music Experience museum, Pikes Place Market, ferry rides, etc in the Puget Sound area. Ocean beaches from LaPush down to Long Beach, WA. Mt Ranier, and Mt St. Helens. or the rain forest of the Olympic mountains. Of course, there's Portland International Raceways, and Pacific Raceways (used to be Seattle International) for weekend road racing events.

I have the full PIR schedules including autocross if you want to catch a race. I'd be willing to give rides as well ;)

Let's see, if you're into airplanes at all the Spruce Goose (and about a zillion other planes) are in a very nice museum in McMinnville. Mt. St. Helens is pretty cool to visit and their are a ton of state parks. Ferrying the San Juan Islands is fun and so is Cannon Beach in Oregon.

Give us a time frame and we can let you know about festivals and what not.

I seriously doubt that you will be out on this side of the PNW however the Fossil beds and Painted Hills are amazing.

Oh well.... small rally there this coming weekend...

For more details - http://www.hachiroku.net/forums/showthread.php?t=16285

June/July is the timeframe. We probably won't do the airplane museum as we have the Air Force Museum here in Dayton and she'll want to see something different. The painted hills looks very interesting -at least to me- and can you hunt for fossils out there? And just where is "this side of the PNW"? I think she wants to see the Pacific, so something near the coast would be good.

I'll keep looking and thanks for these suggestions. After I get some ideas together we'll get together and see what happens...

Stan

Well, I know you said no plane museums, but:

http://www.tillamookair.com/

It is worth visiting just to see the wooden blimp hangar. Trust me on this. Very impressive building considering it is all wood and has no center support posts.

Something else that is interesting:

June 27 & 28, 2009 Lincoln City, named by Kitelines Magazine as one of the best places to fly kites in North America, celebrates with three kite festivals each year, two outdoors and one indoors. Situated on the 45th parallel, Lincoln City is positioned at the ideal point for mixing warm equatorial air and cold polar air, which creates ideal winds for outdoor flying. In addition, the clean air flowing directly off the ocean is preferred by kite flying experts, and novices will see a difference in their abilities as well. Demonstrations, competitions and other great fun in the Summer sun. FMI 800-452-2151. Click here for 2009 event details!

There is also the Oregon Coast Aquarium, pretty neat place. The Jelly fish tanks are my favorite for relieving stress. Newport Aquarium

Some other links:

http://visittheoregoncoast.com/

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregoncoast/otc/related.ssf?/oregoncoast/otc/events.html

If you rent a car (or drive your own) Highway 101 is a fun drive and if you grab a map to all of the lighthouses you'll have a good bit of fun and see a lot of the coast. Just don't be in a hurry.

If you're in the Portland area, drop me a line and we'll see if I can show you around town a little or at least take you out to a good local place to eat.

Would you like to take her someplace she will swoon, and love???

http://www.theclifftop.com/ - Oregon coastal town... small, quaint, picturesque.

stan wrote: The painted hills looks very interesting -at least to me- and can you hunt for fossils out there? And just where is "this side of the PNW"?

This side would be the East side of Oregon away from the coast so sounds like the opposite from where she wants to go.
If you guys wanted to see it a very nice drive would head up the Columbia River gorge (take the old highway nice and scenic) past all the waterfalls and the like. Cut through the plains and hit Fossil, they actually have a field that you can go hunt around for fossils and keep them (cost is like $3 a person). Then go through the John Day fossil beds, tons of hiking trails and the like (no sample collecting there). Head a bit south hit the Painted hills, work your way back up the other side of the fossil beds heading back to Portland cross over the to the Washington side at the Dalles and see the Gorge from another view (and much higher not to mention a nice driving road). Somewhere along the way stay the night (most likely out near the fossil beds.).

If you like beer, the PacNW has the highest concentration of breweries than any other region of the country, other than California. Tour some, get free samples!

If you're coming to Seattle, try to come later in July rather than June. A common joke is that summer starts on July 5th because that's when it stops raining for the summer. June can be beautiful, but you're more likely to have better weather a bit deeper into summer.

Chris_V has some good suggestions for a Seattle visit.

Great suggestions guys! Now I just need to lay them out for the boss-lady to see.

If / when we decide on something I'll let you know...

thanks, Stan