Catherine Creek Trail

Catherine Creek trail is located about 90 minutes East of Portland, on the North side of Columbia Gorge. It is just a bit further East than Dog Mountain. It is a relatively easy hike that offers 2 miles round trip trail. There isn't a parking lot at this place and the parking spaces are along the road. Thus it is recommended to come here early since the parking space runs out rather quickly. On this beautiful sunny day at the end of March, we decided to go for a hike at Catherine Creek and wanted to see if we are lucky enough to see wildflower blossom.


We left Portland around 8AM in the morning and got to Catherine Creek day use area just before 10AM. We took Highway 14 on the Washington side instead of taking I84 on the Oregon side because we did not want to pay for crossing the toll bridge. When we got there, there were only few parking spots left and we were lucky to grab one.

We started hiking at the trail head but 30 minutes later we realized that we were hiding towards West instead of going North. Then we checked the map and saw that we started on the wrong path right from the beginning. At the trail head, we should have took the path on right side towards East first. Then that trail would take us onto the right path. So we had to head back down to where we started, otherwise we would have ended up at Coyote Wall.

We got back on the right path and the hiking trail was quite easy. After about 15 minutes, we walked on a wooden plank to cross the creek. The water was running rather fast in the creek.

After 20 minutes, we got to the joint where the path diverges. The path on the right loops back down to trail head. The trail on the left takes us further up and do another 2 miles loop. We figured that 2 miles is nothing so we headed further up and it was totally worth it. There wasn't much tree up there and it was just a beautiful lush green of hills. We just loved it. We could also see various purple and yellow wildflowers on the grass field that have just started to blossom. The wildflowers will most likely in full blossom for the next 2 weeks or so.

As we loop back down the path actually took us onto the road instead of looping back to trail head. It was quite strange but we figured that we probably took the wrong turn. Some part of the trail was not very obvious but it was ok because we could see everything from the top. So we walked on the road for 1 minutes or 2 to head back to the trail head.

At the trail head, we just found out that there is a shoe brush to let people to clean their shoes before and after the hike. This is to prevent the seed of other weeds to get to this area.

Overall, we loved Catherine Creek on this beautiful sunny day. We could see Columbia Gorge from the top and we could imagine that the scene is even more beautiful when wildflowers are in full blossom.

Ruth's Chris Steak House

Ruth's Chris Steak House is a nation wide chain restaurant that specializes in steak. It's signature steak dish is ribeye and its menu offers a wide variety of ribeye steak dishes, even with the bone in ribeye. Ruth's Chris Steak House price range is on the high end side and each step is not cheap. However, since we were given this special opportunity to have dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House, we decided to try it out.


We went to Ruth's Chris Steak House at Portland downtown. Its location is right beside Pioneer Square, and across from Banana Republic on Broadway Street. As we walk in, we were welcomed by the staff and it also offered valet parking. The entrance of the restaurant is quite grande and seemed like a event hall. We waited just for about a minutes to get taken to our table. All the dining tables were on the second floor. The first floor was for happy hour menus.

We got a 2 people table by the balcony with great view on the first floor. The waitress greeted us with the party's name and waited for both of us to sit down before handing us the menu. She also asked about whether there was any special occasion for the dinner, so we were guessing that the restaurant could arrange a free dessert or something.

The menu here was a bit different from other steak house. The steak entree really just comes with a steak on the plate. There was no side or anything else other than the steak. The sides needed to be ordered separately. We first ordered spicy shrimp as the appetizer, then ordered harvest salad and lobster bisque soup as started. Ruth's Chris offered soup of the day as well, which is vegetable soup with pasta. For entree, we ordered a New York strip steak and a ribeye steak. The restaurant could also divided the steak for 2 if we wanted to since each steak was quite large. As for side, we ordered shoe string fries and a coke.

The bread was delivered to us with cream butter. The cream butter was scooped like a vanilla ice cream and it was really good.

About 5 minutes later, the spicy shrimp was delivered to the table. It smelled amazing. There were about 8 pieces of shrimp on the plate, which was more than what we expected. In the middle, there was a lemon wrapped in a sack. That was quite interesting and it prevented lemon seeds from falling out. The shrimps had butterfly cut and was fried perfectly with crispy texture.

Then our starters go here. We asked the salad dressing to be placed on the side, but it was already mixed in the salad. We did not ask the waitress about it, but the waitress was quick to realize this issue and apologized to us. We didn't really mind it but was satisfied with the service. The salad came with pecan, fried onion, bacon, and cheese. We really like it and the fried onion was really good. The lobster bisque was a creamy orange soup with few small pieces of lobster. The soup really had fresh lobster taste, but it was just ok.

After 10 minutes, our big entree was finally here. The plates were sizzling hot and we were told that it was 500 degree Fahrenheit and we were advised not to touch it. The streak smelled so good. We ordered both of them to be medium. As we cut it open, we could see the beautiful pink in the middle, just the way we wanted. The New York strip streak had more firm texture and more chewy. The ribeye was much softer. We liked the ribeye a lot more. The shoe string fries was very good too. It was warm and fresh cut. The only problem was that the fries was so thin and became hard to pick it up as we dig into it.

Through out the entire dinner, the waitress was on top of filling our water and coke. We did not even have to ask for and we were very satisfied with the overall service.

It was a good dining experience but the food was expensive. The entree itself was already about $50. We do recommend this place for special occasions as it did provide amazing atmosphere suited for any occasions for celebrations.