We were up at 7 am to get ready for the big drive ahead of us to Portland, Oregon. We were out the door by 7:45 and made 2 stops in San Fran before leaving. The first was the house used for Full House, which was disappointing because it didn’t look like the original house anymore. The second was Lombard Street, known as the most crooked street in the USA. It had beautiful gardens and was really fun to drive down – very picturesque. Our last moments of SF tourism wrapped up around 8:30, so we drove over the stunning Golden Gate Bridge to Larkspur, California to meet up with Lucy Arnell for brunch.

We arrived at Farmhouse Local a few minutes early, but Lucy was there shortly. Alex hadn’t seen Lucy in 8 years (?), and I hadn’t seen Lucy since she was last in NY before moving out west about 2 years ago. We caught up over breakfast and Lucy is definitely living the life as a musician in California. We got to go back to her place for a bit where she gifted us each a copy of her album she recorded on vinyl. We also talked music in her living room. Unfortunately we couldn’t spend a ton of time with Lucy, but of course it was beyond great to see her.

Our next stop was Pedro’s Brazil Cafe in Berkeley, California where we met up with Alex’s friend Sarah. They hadn’t seen each other since Sarah transferred from Wheaton after their sophomore year of college, so their reunion was awesome. We only had an hour because Sarah had a test, but we had a lot of fun hanging out and catching up.

After lunch we hit the road around 12:30 pm. The rest of the day was a 9 or so hour drive to Portland. Here are some highlights:

• We passed through Yolo County, CA
• A sign outside a casino read “bathrooms you can trust” – what does that mean?
• Alex had his first In-n-Out burger in Redding, California. I had it a few times, but it was my first time ordering both my burger and fries animal style. DELICIOUS.
• We stopped for a bathroom break at a Best Western Treehouse hotel somewhere, which was really cool.
• We entered Oregon around 6:45 pm, both of our first times in the state
• We passed the exit for the town where the tragic college shooting happened earlier that day
• There was a beautiful golden moon when it was night

After debating whether or not to camp out or not, and searching tons of places to stay, we landed on the Pepper Tree Inn in Beaverton, Oregon, about 15 minutes outside of Portland, for a reasonable rate. We checked in late, around 11:30 pm or so, got a quick bite at Wendy’s, and stayed up and watched some TV before going to bed around 1:30 am.

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