Articles from July 2025

Train to San José, California, May 2025

Train to San José: all aboard the Amtrak overnight choo-choo; dinner in the diner; dissing Reese’s and devouring Frank & Louie’s; Rock Me (un)Gently; stunning San José station; Santana Row and shopping

It’s an overnight journey of 19.5 hours from Portland, OR to San José CA. With a couple of hours to spare before our 2.30pm departure, we enjoyed the comfort of Portland Union Station’s Metropolitan Lounge. (Here is our Amtrak eTicket.)

Lured by the help-yourself drinks and snacks bar, I succumbed not only to the Reese’s peanut butter cups but also to Miss Vickie’s Jalapeño Kettle Cooked Chips. (Purely in the interest of cultural research, of course. Fortunately, though our local supermarkets in Western Australia do stock Reese’s peanut butter cups, I’m now relieved to know that they’re fairly yuck; definitely not worth the calorie and chemical splurge.)

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Two Nights in Portland, Oregon – May 2025

Two nights in Portland: Bypassing Tillamook and taking the road less travelled to Oregon’s capital, Portland; desolation in downtown Portland; more trams than people, and a weird weather machine; hanging on grimly: hurrah for Zara; Oregon Maritime Museum, closed as usual; the kindness of cabbies; Elon doesn’t care, but Uber does; dinner at Huber’s; Washington Park and Nob Hill; fragile waiter at Andina restaurant, saving us a trip to Peru

Having spent two nights regrouping and doing laundry at Oceanside (click here), we drove the rental car up the road to Tillamook, home of a famous cheese factory. (Interestingly, or perhaps not, ice cream from the Tillamook Creamery, which is part of the factory, is available in Australia from Woolworths.) The factory only opens to visitors at 10am on a Monday, which was too late for us, sadly; Roy had planned to return the car by 11am.

There were two possible routes to Portland. We chose the northern one, Route 26 (Sunset Highway), which winds spectacularly through national parkland forests, to reach the capital of Oregon in just over an hour and a half.

Two Nights in Portland’s Harlow Hotel

As you can see from the pictures and the blurb in the poster below, Harlow Hotel (built in 1882) in Portland’s Pearl District has been sympathetically restored and redeveloped in our beloved Art Deco style. Taking into account the bare-bones room amenities, palpable under-staffing and minimalist service, I would give it a 3/5.

 

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Washington Coast, May 2025 Part 2: Ocean Shores to Oceanside

Washington Coast highlights: Close, but no seafood for us from Brady’s Oysters; coffee and donuts at Westport; an accidental lighthouse; oysters Southbend; fun and museums at Long Beach; sorrow, vituperation and f&$@-all of interest on the Long Beach peninsula; disappointment at Cape Disappointment; grim wenches at Hotel Shelburne (1906); Timberlands at Cannon Beach; rainy interlude with halibut cheeks at Oceanside

For my unmissable previous post on exploring the magnificent Washington Coast by car, click here.

First stop today on the way from Ocean Shores to Seaview was Brady’s Oysters at Bay City, near Westport. Beautifully signposted from Route 101, this would be a good spot to spend a lot of money on seafood, whether fresh, smoked or tinned. It is also a good spot just to use the restroom, and not to spend a lot of money on seafood.

Brady’s Oysters, Bay City Washington
Basking in sunshine at Brady’s Oysters

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