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This past weekend I did a little exploring on the west coast. Oregon was one of the many states that I hadn’t been to yet so a few weeks ago I booked a flight, sent Erin an email and made plans to harass the crew at the Columbia HQ. I flew into Portland late on Thursday night and Erin was at the airport waiting for me…and that was only the beginning of a weekend of being spoiled by Erin and Brian!

We arrived at their new home and I was welcomed with the cutest list of things to do around Portland, snacks and car keys. We crashed as soon as we found our pillows then got up early to take on the day! Erin and Brian headed to work like responsible adults and I wandered off to explore Portland! Up first, Multnomah Falls!

Thanks to crazy ice on the roads as I ventured east it took me about 90 minutes to get to the falls. Holy ice! When you’re driving around a new state you learn all sorts of interesting things…like how Oregon doesn’t really do ice removal or provide legitimate pull off areas for truckers to put chains on! The last stretch of interstate was…interesting, to say the least. But once I got to Multnomah Falls…wow!

At first I was going to just take a few photos from the bridge but the sign said it was just a mile to the top…and who doesn’t want to see the top of a waterfall?! Turns out the top of waterfalls are kind of boring. However, the river leading up to the gigantic drop?! Absolutely gorgeous, especially when covered with inches of pristine white snow! Whip cream snow!

I made the trek up to the waterfall overlook, explored the river trail for a bit and then ran down the trail. It felt so good to just run. My Achilles was happy, the air was crisp and the snow was crunchy. I was a freaking pile of smiles when I got back to the car! Up next…lunch with Tori, a tour of the Columbia Headquarters and more Portland exploring with my very own Tori tour guide! We visited Pittock Mansion, nearly died on a black ice parking lot and took a few selfies with all of Portland behind us…then wandered around the trendy part of town and filled ourselves with lattes before parting ways for dinner.

Portland in the afternoon…Portland after dark!

Erin, Brian and I went for “eclectic” and had dinner at Le Bistro Montage, an interesting place “under the bridge” where we got to try alligator! After a stop at Deschutes Brewery we called it a night…far too early to say we experienced the Portland nightlife but we had big plans on Saturday. The “just in case” email I sent out to my mom said we were going to backpack the Three Fingered Jack Loop, a 20-ish mile trek in the Cascade Range between Portland and Bend. That’s not exactly what happened…but we still had an awesome, snowy week! More on that later…