Deb and I left early on Thursday morning so that we'd get through customs in a reasonable time. Since Huntington got the Nexus lanes, it really has paid off by eliminating both the southbound and northbound delays. Heading southbound we stopped at the Mount Saint Helens Informmation center to get a sense of the destruction that this eruption caused to the landscape back in May of 1980. Traffic was good southbound so we made good time arriving into Portland area bout 12:30.

We thought it would make the best sense to do both sides of the Columbia River Gorge prior to our check-in so just before we rolled into Portland, we made the move to drive along the north side of the Washington coast to see the Gorge. Amazing country, with tree after tree and more waterfalls that you can count on both hands. From fish ladders, to dams to waterfalls we got a very good sense of the gorge as a recommended visit by anyone with a few hours.

My vote is still out on Portland. Seemed like a nice city with an apparent dedication to the preservation of historic buildings in the downtown core complete with tree-lined city streets, but where are the restaurants downtown?

We ended up having dinner at the Hilton bar, a somewhat decent French Onion soup and a horrible Mac&Cheese. Oh well.