oregon – The World of Hanbel

Except by me, I obviously mean Andrew. #glutenintolerance

Although for all the places we’ve travelled so far, Portland is definitely the most food intolerance/ preference friendly. This town is basically a giant hipster suburb.

There’s a brewery on every corner, a fixie flying past at any moment and the most perth-like coffee we’ve come across so far. Safe to say, I like this town.

We hit the ground running, heading to a “Big Lebowski” themed bar, a rooftop hangout, meeting locals, and playing ping pong against them for most of the night. I feel like I need to mention that among all the Americans we’ve met, these guys were the friendliest, most easy going and easy to talk to. It was such a pleasant surprise getting to hang out with them for a night.

With more sunshine heading our way, we got up early to sneak in a run, before heading out for some of the weird and wonderful things Portland has to offer.

Ugh, this coffeeeeeeee! I need another in my life ASAP.

Also, notice the glittery wall behind it? That bad boy is part of Voodoo Doughnuts, an institution among Portlandians. You queue up amongst tourists and locals alike, with the scent of sugary baked goods wafting through the door. You walk past the bright pink sign on the door, to be greeted by cashiers looking way to cool for school, and two giant rotating glass cabinets of doughnuts.

This is when the panic sets in; do you want a regular, cake or vegan doughnut? Maple or glazed? Covered in oreos? Topped with fruit loops? THERE ARE TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM.

Get the maple, it was THE BEST. Enjoy the hell out of it and try not to feel too guilty, because there’s always another form of exercise you can try. It’s called BrewCycle and it’s super fun.

Eight people hop onto this contraption for pedal power, three get to chill on the back seat, and one “tour guide” sits in the middle to steer. You get to a maximum speed of around 7km/hour and sing along to whoever’s manning the iPod.

This vehicle took us to one brewery and two dive bars, where we sampled Portland’s finest and ended up with a hasty shot (we’ve got 10 minutes left, let’s do a shot!). Which seemed like a good idea at the time, until we rolled back into headquarters for another beverage and the rest of our tour got white-girl wasted.

Ahhhh Portland. You have amazing gluten free burgers for maximum alcohol soak-up-age, the best coffee in the states (I’m calling it!), beautiful weather and our kind of people. I will be back to visit you in a heartbeat.

Hanbel.
x

Back when we started planning this trip, Andrew suggested getting off the beaten track and heading in land for a few days. He figured we would probably have had enough of big cities, and want to see some of the countryside and quieter towns.

I LOVE THIS BOY.

The last few days have been so cruisey and full of the most amazing sights, that these photos absolutely will not do justice.

We started off with a VERY long drive to Lake Tahoe (we got an hour or so in before realising the road was closed off, and had to turn around and go another way). It also pissed down with rain the afternoon and evening we were there.

Despite this, it was one of the most beautiful drives either one of us has done, we had no idea there would still be so much snow on top of the mountains!

Plus, the next morning, it looked like this:

We didn’t have enough time to properly explore, we would have loved a few days here but had to keep moving.

Another five hour drive (I’m getting way better on the roads by the way, just not in cities – may have almost hit a parked car yesterday…) brought us to Klamath Falls, in Oregon. The quickest route took us just over the border into Nevada, before crossing back into California, which meant that we did three states in one day!

We hit the hay, preparing to wake up early and get going. I’d read about a lake in South Oregon that was highly recommended and was dying to check it out. It added an extra hour to our drive, and the park cost US$15 to enter, but I would pay it again and again for this view:

Quick facts and then I’ll shut up, I promise. Crater Lake is actually a basin of an erupted volcano, the deepest lake in the US and is the cleanest and clearest large body of water in the world.

And it’s so pretty!