Oregon Trip - Drive back from Mount Shasta to Home

Got up in the morning, showered and started the drive back. Had a fantastic lunch at Redding, CA at Guadalajara Restaurant. We ordered pork with cactus strips and shared it, which was great, except that the pork was a little old. I also had an “Authentic Margarita”, which was made of fresh ingredients, and excellent.

Drove to Corning and charged up. Bought decaf iced lattes which were excellent. Drove to Vacaville and charged. Used the restroom. Reached home around 5:30 pm.

Oregon Trip - Drive back from Timberline Lodge to Mount Shasta

We had a restful night at Timberline Lodge. In the morning, we showered and started the drive back. Had the interesting experience of driving the Tesla for 32 miles without losing any charge on the way down. Drove to Sandy, OR and charged. Refilled our supply of crackers, gf cookies etc for the drive back.

Drove to G's place to say bye. Had tea and omelettes for brunch, chatted and started the drive back around 2:30 pm. Charged at Springfield - I bought a medium coke at a McDonald’s which cost exactly $1. I was pleased to see that you can actually buy something worth $1 these days. Drove on to Grants Pass and charged. Had a burger and a strawberry milk shake at Black Bear Diner near the charger. Decided to drive on to the town of Mount Shasta.  We spent the night there at the Best Western Plus Mount Shasta, which has a supercharger.

Oregon Trip - The Dalles and Timberline Lodge

We checked out of the hotel and drove to downtown. We walked around the downtown looking at interesting murals which depict various parts of the region's history.

We bought coffee to go and had a breakfast of coffee + leftover gluten free rolls from Kyra's bakery by the river.

Then we drove to Columbia Hills Historical State Park across the river. Beautiful views. And petroglyphs.

We drove back across the river and looked for The Dalles Dam visitor center. We knew it was closed (Monday) but we found it.

After that, we drove to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center which is a fantastic museum. Large mammals which are now extinct. Geology of the region. An interesting replica of a native cabin - not all Indians lived in Tepees. We hope to return when we have more time so that we can see all of the exhibits.  The building itself is also well done.

Then we drove on Highway 30, Columbia River Scenic Byway. We stopped at Rowena Crest which affords beautiful views of the Columbia River and the valley. It was a bright, cool and windy day, and we really enjoyed the relaxed drive and the gorgeous scenery.

We reached Timberline Lodge after another stop at Draper Girls for some more cherries. Made a booking for dinner at 6. Checked into the room. They first gave us a smaller room by mistake. And then we went for a hike. Throughout the trip, Alicia was having breathing problems due to allergies, but the absence of anything but pines at Timberline Lodge seemed to suit her. We climbed up for half an hour using “sherpa step” and even climbed through a small snow patch and then walked back just in time for our dinner.

Dinner was very very good. I had lamb t-bone steak, Alicia had a steelhead + clams dish and we both shared a steak tartare dish + salmon eggs and some sour pickled vegetables as a starter. It was delicious. I drank a pale ale and an amber ale brewed by their own brewery, both of which were excellent, especially the amber ale, and a good deal at $6 each. I had a port for dessert and Alicia and I shared a berry compote with ice cream.

After dinner we watched the movie that described the WPA and the building of the lodge which is quite an interesting story. After that we watched the sunset from Ram’s Head Bar (Ram’s head is a recurring motif throughout the decor of the lodge) and I ordered a Bee’s Knees cocktail - a base of honey with gin + lemon juice poured over it garnished with a sprig of rosemary. It was quite tasty. After this, we were quite tired and went and crashed in our room which was quite comfortable. One regret - we forgot to go out and see the stars which are supposed to be amazing.

Oregon Trip - Portland to The Dalles via Mount Hood

The room at Embassy Suites had included a hot breakfast and it did not disappoint. Both Alicia and I had the made to order omlettes which were very good. There was fruit, the coffee was good - all in all the breakfast was probably as good as any I have had in a hotel in the US (I was reminded of the excellent breakfast at Budapest I had had with T and V).

After breakfast, we headed out towards Columbia River Gorge Scenic Route. We stopped in Sandy OR, charged and bought a bunch of gluten free crackers, a cream cheese based dip, some salsa and some gluten free cookies. We ate as we drove and reached Government Camp. We saw the museum there and the nice lady there recommended a hike on Little Zigzag river that was about 4 miles back. We drove there and it was indeed a lovely little hike. The path ran parallel to the zigzag river up to the waterfall. It was quite something sitting by the waterfall and feel the breeze created by the waterfall in the steep gorge. I felt very refreshed.

On the way back, we stopped and put our feet into the ice cold water of the river, I had forgotten how refreshing that can be. Then we meandered on a trail near the car and walked through an old tunnel and then walked back to the car.

We drove back past Government Camp and then took the detour to go to Timberline Lodge at the base of Mount Hood. The views were fantastic and incredibly, they actually had a vacancy for the following day.

After some discussion we booked the room and then drove on to The Dalles OR. The drive was very scenic and we stopped on the way at Draper Girls Country Farm and bought some excellent ciders and bing cherries.

We had booked ourselves a room for that night at the Cousin’s Country Inn in The Dalles OR, where the supercharger is located. It had been a long day and we were hungry (and I was grouchy) by the time we reached there and checked in. But Alicia found out about the only Thai place in town and we had a fantastic hot Thai meal for dinner. We drove back, put the car to charge and slept.

Oregon Trip - Portland

After a good night's sleep, we woke up (there was no coffee at AirBnB), showered, and headed to Kyra’s Bake Shop which is a legendary gluten free bakery in Lake Oswego. Missed Ingrid. Had a relaxed breakfast of Scones + other gf baked goodies and coffee.

We then drove to downtown Portland on route 43 rather than 5. Stopped at Willamette Park which was a nice waterfront park. In general it was a very nice drive + area around McFarland st seemed interesting. Crossed the bridge and arrived at Embassy Suites. Decided to pay $35 for overnight parking. Parked the car and checked in. Nice large suite on the first floor overlooking the street. Rested for a while and then walked to Portland Art Museum.

The museum was fantastic. We started out with an exhibit on John Yeon who was a legendary architect. He designed and built many iconic buildings in Oregon and in the west.

I knew theoretically that sophisticated cultures inhabited the Americas but it was eye opening to see their artefacts and actually get an idea of how interesting they were. The art by contemporary native American artists was also very interesting. We particularly liked Lillian Pitt .

We spent a long time at the museum and walked through almost all sections.

We then walked back to the hotel. Portand has interesting food stalls on sidewalks, and they had started to look really appetizing by now :). We came back to the hotel and rested for a while.

G, A and P came at around 5:30 or so. We hung out in our suite for a while and then walked to a nice middle eastern place close by called Al-Ameer for dinner. G and A are regulars there and we were treated very well. We walked back to the hotel and hung out in our suite. Talked about planchet and supernatural things a bit :). Very nice evening all in all.

Oregon Trip - Portland

We tried to get a reservation for brunch at Tasty n Alder, but the wait was long. We walked around downtown and found Jake’s Famous Crawfish. What a find! I had Parmesan + Horseradish crusted Steelhead which was excellent.  Alicia had the blackened Steelhead.

Visited the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park, which was beautiful.  We took a look at the International Rose Garden, right across the street, then we bought shaved ice. The rose-flavored shaved ice - tasted exactly the same as it used to taste in summer in India in Pune.

Short hike around Hoyt Arboretum - pleasant early evening hike. Portlanders are lucky to have so much green space right in the city.

Drove to Lake Oswego where the AirBnB reservation was. We were about an hour early, and I knew that my friend from college, G, lived around there. We looked up her address and it was close by, so we decided to go to her place and knock on the door. It was _really_ nice seeing her. Hung out with her, drove to do some grocery shopping with her and got a good chance to catch up one on one. She asked me if “I was happy with my life” :), and I answered, pretty truthfully, “more or less, yes”. She said she was pretty happy too on the whole. She is a senior process engineer and likes her work. Her younger son P was home too and he is interested in programming. All in all a very nice evening. I was very happy that I decided to take a chance and show up unannounced at her place :).

Spent the night at AirBnB and it was meh.

Oregon Trip - Corning CA to Woodburn OR

Our first stop after leaving Corning was Mount Shasta supercharger.

We took the scenic route through Medford and Ashland - which are both charming little towns.

The next stop was Grants Pass supercharger. We walked across two one-way streets and had lunch at a nice Thai place. We also bought lemonade at grocery store called Ray’s. We stayed the night at Best Western Woodburn OR.

Oregon trip - Home to Corning, CA

Left home after 3:00 pm.

Encountered traffic.

Charged in Vacaville.

Dinner at Williams Chinese Restaurant, which was unexpectedly good. We ordered “Beef Satay” assuming that it was going to be meat on a stick but it was nice sauted beef and a bunch of vegetables.

Stayed the night at Best Western Plus Corning CA

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens were beautiful. They had an India-themed orchid exhibition which I quite enjoyed.

We had lunch at the cafe at the Kew Gardens, which was so so.
After lunch we each had a half pint of beer at Tap on the Line pub by the railway station which was nice.





After we got home and rested for a bit, we walked to a really nice Kerala restaurant called "Anjanaa's" and had a very good meal.

Here are the rest of the pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/GFqjQcVLmWQbukfUA

National Archives

Gits and I visited the National Archives and Kew gardens in Kew on Saturday. The National Archives hold "The Domesday Book" which was basically the first land registry compiled about a 1000 years ago.


They have all kinds of other government records such as the poster here:








They also had an exhibit by Ian Kirkpatrick on the First World War. He had created these amazing sculptures from cardboard that were quite evocative.

 Here are my other pictures from National Archives:


https://goo.gl/photos/2qjPCzYakXy2coVR9