Every year for as long as I can remember the last weekend of November has meant 50 of my closest family members converging on a location and having 3 days of good, clean chaos. A normal person may call this a family reunion, I just call it Thanksgiving. As we grew up, hosting responsibilities transferred from my parents, aunts, and uncles, to now including myself and the cousins (I mean there are plenty of us to share the load) and as we spread out, Thanksgiving didn’t go away, no, it just became more of an adventure. Because of this family tradition, I’ve had the opportunity to explore places like San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Cocoa Beach, Boston, Washington DC, West Virginia, unsuspecting Conneticut suburbs, and Rochester (it’s always fun to explore your hometown). And 2023 was no different, although the flight was a little longer. This November 40 Hannons shipped off to Portland, Oregon and I officially visited the Pacific Northwest for the first time.
The first half of my trip was filled with organized and un-organized family fun. We did a bike tour of Portland, visited the world’s smallest park & the world’s biggest book store (I’m assuming the second half of that sentence), completed our “turkey trot” in my cousin’s favorite local park, and even took to axe throwing (maybe a new found family hobby…or maybe not). We also spent a lot of time catching up with one another, enjoying good food, playing trivia, and of course, late night board and card games. As the family activities wrapped up, we were left with about 3 days to go full on Oregon tourists. Here’s what we did with those days.
Scenes Around Portland
The biggest lie of our whole trip was expecting the weather to be anything but sunny. Somehow for the 6 days we were there, there we blue skies daily and I didn’t need that rain jacket I packed. Because of this, each day we were met with stunning views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen, both visible on a clear day from downtown Portland. We went to a park (that also happens to be a dormant volcano) to catch views of Mt. Hood and enjoyed a brisk but beautiful morning in Portland.
We Chased Waterfalls
Remiss of TLC”s request that we don’t go chasing waterfalls, my family took a day trip to see the Columbia River Gorge. Our first stop was Wahkeena Falls which offers an introduction to the Pacific Northwest Flora and Fauna in a short hike from base to bridge. Afterwards, a very short drive brought us to Multnomah Falls, a true can’t miss of this area. I could have spent all day staring at this gorgeous landscape and gushing waterfall. After exploring the paved path as far as we were committed to (you can go all the way up to the top of the falls…we didn’t) we stopped into the on-site restaurant and bar to grab warm drinks and a great lunch (with a view of the falls). Y’all add this to your elopement options ASAP (and bring me with). On the way out, we had heard there was a scenic vista overlook the way we would leave if we didn’t mind staying off the highway. Spoilers, we never mind staying off the highway. The sweeping views were gorgeous at this observatory but we were ill-prepared for the hurricane strength wind that was whipping up there so it was a short, but very memorable adventure. To finish our day we meandered back to Portland visit the Oregon Zoo during their holiday light overlay. We enjoyed impressive displays and very active animals, as well as a train ride around the zoo. 10/10.
Crossing the Border
Portland is pretty close to Washington state. Like a river a part. So naturally, at some point we needed to visit Washington too. But while I may have settled for just a drive over a bridge, my mom had a much better plan and figured out a way to work an extra adventure into our trip to the Coast. I mean who wouldn’t want to miss a place called Cape Dissapointment that had homemade signs about aggressive coyotes and a beach called Dead Man’s Cove? Not me! But in all seriousness, this state park next to a Coast Guard base was really stunning. And Dead Man’s Cove? Home to a bald eagle that did circles around us (as long as I didn’t have my camera ready). And the lighthouse had wonderful views of the ocean. I could have spent a whole morning sitting up there watching for wildlife. The trail was fairly easy to navigate and there is a visitor center on site as well (as long as you don’t go off season like us).
To the Beach
From Cape Disappointment, we stopped in Astoria, visited a shipwreck, and made our way a little further south. No trip to Oregon seems complete without a visit to the coast, and more importantly Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach.We planned a sunset meetup to enjoy what ended up being a full blown show that nature put on. The colors were stunning and exploring around Haystack rock was so much fun. We saw sea stars, anemonae, and more, and as a photographer. Folks. The lighting was just perfection! I think we all had about 500 photos of the sunset by the time we left because every time you walked somewhere else it was even more impressive and beautiful. I cannot wait to visit again.
And a few more can’t miss moments
Portland has an amazing thrift and antique mall scene. We spent plenty of hours scouring the Goodwill stores and clearance center, as well as multiple other antique malls and thrift stores. I actually came home with an additional suitcase willed with treasures. We of course also tested out multiple donut locales (I’m still partial to voodoo) and even took the OHSU tram to grab our last looks of Portland, Mt.Hood, and Mt. St. Helen before heading back to the east coast.
See you again soon PNW!
Shelby Triglianos Photography 