I'm planning a day trip to Portland, OR with some friends and need some info on:

• How long and far the drive is to there from Seattle / Renton... its South of Factoria... for those who came up for Toyota Fest.
• Good places to visit: sights to see, shopping malls, etc.
• Good and CHEAP places to eat, because we're all on a budget.

We're thinking of Portland since, its closest?

I could really use help on this...
I'm pretty much the one planning the trip and figuring everything out.

Its all together, 3-4 cars, and not sure about how many people are going exactly... but we're all 17... And the trip won't be until sometime in August. :D We all have been wanting to do a road trip for a long time.

PLEASE HELP!!!

 

It takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to get there. Its a boring drive. Ive done that drive over 50 times in the past 2 years. Doing it twice in one day SUCKS! haha

Shopping - hmmm ive been to some malls but all are like here. I liked Washington Square mall in Tigard

Food - umm they dont really have anything much different than here. I do like a mexican food place they have there. I dont remmeber the name its like a white guys name and a mexican guys name haha!


If youre going on a day trip why not go to the coast?? In august it will be still nice on the coast. If youre going to Portland its just another Seattle.

 

Thanks Natalie for the info. We wanna get out of Washington... ^_^ and none of us have been to Oregon.

The coast sounds like a good idea... we're really camera happy where ever we go. Haha

 

Jesse and Alejandro's?
Mike and Pedro's?
Spencer and Hector's?


I rarely go down to Portland just for fun. Usually if I am down there it's for a car show or something like that. But I always try to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. If you guys like seafood, go there. It's great. They have these BBQ crab legs that are amazing. It's right on the river, on the WA side.

 

PDX is a hoot but if you want to have a great time, do what my wife and I do when we go down to Oregon.

Got EARLY saturday morning to PDX and go to the Satyrday market, which is a GREAT time, then leave PDx and head down to Girabaldi. Stay at the Girabaldi in which is a killer hotel for like 60 bucks a night. from there, go to Cannon Beach, or Tillamook. The cheese factory is only about 10 minutes down the road and there are about 5 wineries in the area that are hoot to tour.

 

Those are good suggestions, but I think the 17 year olds will not enjoy the winery tour as much as us older folks.

Washington square and Pioneer place are in my opinion the best malls. Saturday market is totally cool.

There are many great sightseeing opportunities: Awsome rose garden/huge park. Columbia river gorge, Oregon city falls, the Grotto (kinda religious but beautifull), Mt. Tabor park (only volcano inside a city limits in the world), Sandy river parks, clackamas river parks.

Best Breakfast in the world: Original Pancake house on Barbur blvd

Best Lunch: Greek Deli on 20th and E. Burnside mmm.. Saganaki

Best Dinner: hmmm... Tough one. There are a lot of great places but on a budget I would suggest the old spaghetti factory down on the river, great atmosphere and view. Montage is great food and interesting place but hard to find down under the hawthorne bridge. Or you could come out to the west side and have a Helvatia Tavern hamburger!

Let me know when you are coming down and we can make more specific suggestions etc.

 

pffttt.. im of legal age.. and i dont think I'd have fun at the winery..... lol... dang wine drinkers any who...

just remember... NO SALES TAX in oregon.. so things are a bit cheaper ;)

 

EAT AT JOE'S!!!!

Crap. Now I want to go down to Portland too just to go eat some crab legs. :drool:

I'd have to agree about the winery thing. I'm not a big fan of them. Probably though because I don't really like to drink wine. Now...you take me to a brewery tour that gives samples of beer...I'll be there all night. hahaha.

 

Portland Zoo is fun also, Clackamas (?) town center is a nice shopping mall. I would agree that a cruise to Seaside may be the thing to do for a group of young people, heck I would be up for that, lol.

 

somebody set up the cruise... I'll go.. I'll even drink the wine, sweet dessert wine.. hmmmmmm.. bad hangover, but well worth it.. did I just hi-jack this thread?

singleshot

Hey, you wanna have fun in portland?... do what I do.. drive there without a map.. and figure out where the hell you are.. Hold it.. that's not fun.. I tell myself I'm having fun, but it's generally a lie to keep myself from going NUTS!!

 

The coast is GREAT this time of year!

The restaurant I like in Portland is "Who-Song and Larry's"

http://maps.google.com/maps?li=d&hl=...9&ie=UTF8&om=1

Great Mexi and right on the river to boot! They used to have a wakeboard competition every Wednesday (called wet Wednesdays) they also had a cool waterski jump set up in front of the restaurant.

Shopping.... uhh.... did I mention the coast is great this time of year?

You may consider a trip to Mt Raineer as well.... a little hiking... or.. Catch the ferry in Seattle over to Bremerton and to the coast that way!

 

Okay...since these are 17 year old girls...I say...

Go downtown and shop! There are some great chic and haute stores which one can't find in Washington. You might want to check out Crave for the coolest stores and boutiques. Here is a link to their upcoming shopping event: http://www.craveportland.com/current.htm. You can also see what they have in the Washington area at http://www.craveparty.com.

There's also an odd crafty area that covers a couple of blocks downtown near Powells (hey girls...if you want to hang out and if you like to read...this is a MUST SEE). Well the craft block has a high-end yarn shop, custom imported fabrics store, and even an all cross-stitch shop....okay...now I feel REALLY OLD.

 

hi-end yarn shop
now i understand there is quality differences in yarn... just like everything else.... but enough that a special shop for it only??? weird...

 

Not only is there a specialty shop (as there are a couple here in the Seattle area) but this one has packages of yarn that are in the $80/100 range for a simple "roll/ball" (or whatever they call it).

This shop was expensive and there were lots of women in there.

You see...retro crafts are the new "in" thing with late 20/early 30s young professional women and these stores make home crafts very chic but also very expensive.

So now that I'm in retirement I find myself loving canning jellies, quilting, and gardening...hehe...

Next up...trading my Scion for a cool Mobility Chair/Scooter!!!

 

its has to do with how and how tight its weaved--- and being a underaged kid my self -- go to clackamas town center and then go downtown theres realy good shoping down there and if you get board of shoping go to the waterfront and get some icecream walking distance away from shoping area in down town
theres also jet boat rides at omsi which right in the down town area. ummm theres a cool all ages club called rock and roll pizza that plays local bands.
yep you will find that portland is worlds smaller than seatle but there is still plenty of things to do
and you could check the rose bowl for events but that might push your buget

 

Also don't forget in Oregon, it's illegal to pump your own gas! You gotta wait for them to do it for you.

 

I hate that.

All it took was one kid to scratch my car and spill gas all over the place. Never again. I tell them right up front that they aren't pumping my gas. I've only had one guy give me any issues with it. He called his manager out and I told them that I will be supervising, and if they do anything wrong I will hold them responsible. hahaha. That kid was so nervous.

Now I just try to time it where I don't have to fill up there.

 

\


I wont let them pump my gas and never had an issue. They are usually happy to let me pump my own cuz they dont gotta do any work. I still tip them though when i pump my own

 

YAY!!! SO MUCH INFO!!!
Well, pretty much all of us are 17 except for one person who is 18, so far its pretty much all girls and a few guys, we haven't even figured out who's all going. We'll probably have 3 cars or 4,... with like 3-4 people in each car including the drivers.

I'm planning it all, making an agenda and everything... sorta hard, since I've never been there before but I'm going to try my best. :D I'll be printing everything up for each car, such as a map and directions to each location (just in case people end up getting separated), agenda, and information, etc. Each car will have bottles of water and snacks, blankets just in case passengers want to get some rest. AND EVERY CAR WILL HAVE A CELL PHONE. I'm even going to have a meeting set up with everyone a day or two before the trip so we all could go over the map, directions, stops, and MAKING SURE THAT EVERYONE KNOWS HOW TO READ A MAP. ^_^
If you haven't noticed, I'm very meticulous with my scheduling and I'm even going to figure out how much everyone has to chip in for gas per car pre-ahead of time, by figuring out how much a full tank is for each car and how many miles per gallon,... I'm not going to let the drivers get killed by having them pay for all of the gas,.. the cost will sorta be the fee for the trip.
THIS IS MY FIRST TIME SCHEDULING SOMETHING LIKE THIS SO IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS OR I FORGOT SOMETHING,... PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!

Hey Tu, how much gas did it take you, in your tC to go from up here to down there??? THEY CAN PUMP MY GAS ALL THEY WANT!!! HAHA. I DON'T MIND AT ALL!!!

Wine/Alcohol.... ugh... my tolerance level is like 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001

oOoh... Joe's Crab Shack sounds yummy!!!! And the spaghetti factory... :D
I'm not sure how many people will be up for shopping,.. it'll all count on who has money and what not. But I think that we'll mostly want to do some sight seeing and taking pictures at places...

Seaside sounds nice... is it like Ocean Shores?

Well, my plan is:

• Get to Oregon
• Breakfast
• Go to a place or two / sight seeing.
• Lunch
• Go to a place or two / sight seeing
• Dinner
• Head home.

I have to plan accordingly.

Plus, we have to get back by 11:00pm.

But I'll tell you a little more info on why and what...
Me and my friends have been wanting to do a road trip, ever since last year when we were in driver's ed and stuff. And now since we have our licenses and cars,.. trip time! :D All of us have never done a road trip like this,.. without family. And so, I can already tell that this trip is going to get interesting. Most of us are upcoming seniors and so we're doing this because we're not sure just how open our schedules will be next summer, considering people will be moving and getting ready for college or working. We're a good group of friends,... mainly all asian with the exception of a few people. But yeah, we all get along well, so I'm sure there'll be no drama. And its just a DAY TRIP,.. because most of our parents would not be okay with us going overnight and taking our cars out overnight... especially my parents -___-

Interesting huh? haha... not really. I'm sure you older people thought of this stuff when you all first got your licenses and cars, right?

Have fun reading,... its a doozy. [/list]

 

should look into getting a set of those walkie talkies or 2... one for each car... eaiser than cell phones and everyone can stay in the loop... just a thought