Wahclella Falls is located in Oregon by the Columbia Gorge. It is about an hour away from Portland and just 15 minutes from Hood River. The Wahclella Falls trail head is right off highway I-84 exit 40. When you get off the highway, just make a right turn right away and you will find the trail head parking lot. The parking space at the Wahclella Falls trail head is very limited, but you can park along the side of road. Just make sure not to park under the signs that say "No Parking". This is a fairly popular hike and very family friendly. The trail is only about 2 miles round trip, thus it is very suitable for kids to hike this trail.
When we got to the trail head, it was about 9:30AM and the parking lot at the trail head is already full. Thus we had to park on the side of the road. As we headed to the trail, we immediately spotted the sign that says there is a tree that has fallen down and blocking the trail. It warns the hikers to hike cautiously and do not try to do anything risky. This did not stop us from hiking on the trail and we went on anyway. The trail pretty much goes along the side of the stream and the head of the stream is the Wahclella Falls. For the first 0.25 mile of the trail, the trail is extremely wide for the cars to use. Then it starts to narrow down.
As we reached around the half way mark at 0.5 miles, we saw a huge tree fall down and blocked the entire trail. The trail is pretty much inaccessible. This did not stop us from going forward however. We decided to climb up and go around the fallen tree. It was quite muddy and slipper, thus we proceeded very slowly and with extra caution. Once we went pass the fallen tree, the trail went very smoothly and we reached Wahclella Falls.
I must say that Wahclella Falls is the best waterfalls I have seen. The water was flowing through that tiny little gap between the rocks and the sheer amount of water flowing through it is just amazing! The waterfalls really gave us this Zen feeling when we were just standing there and watching. It really felt like this is the kind of waterfalls that you would see in a fairytale. We spent a good 30 minutes there just to enjoy the view of this amazing waterfalls! Overall, we highly recommend taking this hike to see Wahclella Falls. This is the best waterfalls we have ever seen. The trail is short and easy, thus there is no reason for not visiting this amazing place!
Pok Pok is the most famous Thai restaurant is Portland. It is located at East Portland on Division Street. The restaurant usually opens around 11AM to 10PM at night. Pok Pok is not an usual Thai restaurant. It does not have any of the common Thai dish such as Pad Thai and Drunk Noodle. Instead, it offers an unique set of Thai food items on the menu.
The restaurant has an unique set up as well. Instead of having a big rooms where all the dining table is at, it has multiple rooms and bars for people to dine at. It also does not look like a regular restaurant. When we got there, we originally though it is a food truck. We got there around 12PM after having a short hike a Columbia Gorge. Parking is not bad in the neighborhood unlike 23rd Street. When we got to the restaurant, there were already a line up and we had to wait for around 30 minutes. We gave our phone number to the reception so that they could text us when our table is ready. In addition, while we were there, we over heard people chatting and said they travelled all the way from Seattle to Portland just to dine at Pok Pok! There was also a lot of Golden State Warrior fans on this day at Pok Pok because of game 3 playoff between Warriors and Blazers! After 30 minutes, we got the text and the server led us to our table. The tables were quite close to each other, but it is not a big deal. The restaurant provides metallic cups for the water and serve a small dish of peanuts with salt as appetizer. We have read a lot of review of this restaurant before coming here. We decided to try the signature dish and ordered Fish Sauce Wing, Kung Op Wun Sen, and a bowl of Coconut Rice.
When ordering the Fish Sauce Wing, it has the choice of picking spicy or mild. We were told spicy is really spicy, thus we went for mild. The dish comes with about 6 big wings. The wings taste a bit sweet and quite juicy, but I don't find it to be super amazing. The wing is good, but not extraordinary. The restaurant also provides wet napkin for customers to clean their hands, which is very considerate. Kung Opo Wun Sen is a clay pot with bean thread noodle, prawn, and pork belly. When we ordered this dish, the server actually said it is the right choice! I love bean thread noodle with the sauce caramelized at the bottom of the pork. (so stir a bit) The prawns were also big and tender. The dish comes with a dipping sauce for the shrimp. The other thing I really like was the pork belly. It was so soft and tender. Th Coconut Rice is a bowl of rice with coconut flavor. So it taste sweet. I think the rice used here is sticky rice instead of regular rice. Nevertheless, I like the taste of it due to its sweetness and stickiness. Overall, Pok Pok is a must try restaurant when traveling to Portland. The items on the menu might be a bit pricy, but it is definitely worth the experience! Lastly, be prepared to wait in line since there is always a line of people waiting for a table.
Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm is located in Woodbury Oregon and it is the place to experience 40 acres of beautiful tulip field in Spring of each year! The ticket price is $5 per person or $20 per car. So if there are more than 4 people in your party, it is better to go with just one car to save money. Other than just rows and rows of tulip at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, there are also gift shops, game facilities for the kids, and food vendors. The tulip farm usually opens from the end of March to the end of April. It is usually better to go there near the end of the season, around mid April when most of the tulips are blossom.
During the Easter weekend, we decided to head to Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm after having brunch at Reedville Cafe. Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm is about an hour away from Portland. Just drive down I5 and exit at Woodburn and follow the sign to Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. When we are just about 10 minutes away from the farm, we got stuck in traffic. Of course, this traffic is due to the amount of people heading to the tulip farm. The traffic was moving extremely slow. We were actually stuck in this traffic for 2 hours until we got into the tulip farm! The good thing is that finding parking is not a problem. There is a ton of parking spaces!
The tulip field at the farm is split into 2 major tulip field. We found this to be a little bit disappointing because a whole field of tulip would look a lot better. The tulips at the farm have a lot of variety of colors and are just beautiful. There are also tractor ride that take you around the farm. The ride is a great choice for senior and little babies. Several benches at the farm have been painted pink to look cute and match the tulip field. There is also a tractor being painted to pink color and attracted many girls to take pictures with! The farm also allow people to bring their pets into the tulip field. Other than just dogs, we also saw cats on leash! Just make sure the pets behave and don't damage the flowers! We saw several German Sheppard, Golden Retrievers and Labrador retrievers. Most dogs there were Labrador retrievers.
Note that there mobile washrooms at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, but they are quite smelly and usually has a very long line up. Thus make sure to prepare for the line up! Overall, Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm is a great place to go once a year! We were just hoping it has just one single tulip field instead of splitting it into many. In addition, it is recommended to go there as early as you can to avoid all the traffic. Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm does sell Photographer package that allow people to enter early to take photos to avoid the crowd. Moreover, be prepare to get your shoes dirty! If you can wear boots, then it would be the best idea to wear boots since the ground is quite muddy. Lastly, if you have an SUV, we would recommend to drive SUV there since some parking space is located in muddy grass field. Having an SUV is a better choice to avoid getting stuck in the field!
Reedville Cafe is located in Hillsboro and about 20 minutes of drive time from Portland. The restaurant opens early and closes late. It offers a wide variety of brunch menus to choose from. The restaurant itself also has bar tables for people to drink and offer happy hour menu during the weekdays for people to come for a drink and relax after a long day of work. The restaurant also has a few casino slot machines hidden in a room for people to play. Just make sure you are over 21 for that.
We have always wanted to try out the brunch menu offered at Reedville Cafe. On this Easter weekend, we decided to give it a try. We got to the restaurant around 10:30AM and we were worries that there could be a lot of people; however, we did not have to wait to be seated. The restaurant is quite large and has a lot of tables for customers. When we sat down, we were surprised to see a CRT TV in front of us! This TV is an antique! We have not seen this TV since our childhood days! This time we ordered a Crab Scramble Egg and Country Omelet. For both the scramble egg and omelet, you can choose to have 2 eggs or 4 eggs. It resembles small and large size of the plate.
The Crab Scramble Egg come with crab scrambled with scramble egg, of course. We could smell the freshness of the crab from afar. The taste of crab and egg together is also an unique experience. The plate also came with 2 pieces of bread per your choice. There are different flavors of jams on the table for people to use as well. The Country Omelet came with a bigger plate since we took the 4 egg option. The plate came with 2 pieces of bread, a hash brown, and the omelet. The has brown is fried just right. It has the crunchiness on the outside but still very juicy. We love the crunchiness of the hash brown. The omelet is covered with house made gravy on the top. The gravy is hot and sweet. Inside the omelet, there are bacon, sausage, and potato. It was an amazing omelet. Overall, Reedville offers a decent brunch menu and wide variety of selection to choose from. The restaurant also has a lot of tables for customers so people don't have to wait in line. It is a great place to go to during the weekend.
Upper McCord Creek Falls is located at Columbia Gorge in Oregon. The trail head to this waterfall is about an hour away from Portland. We took I84 and headed East and got off the highway at exit 35 and go onto Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. Then just keep going East to the end of the road and we reached the trail head. The trail to Upper McCord Creek Falls is only about 1.1 miles and it is quite easy. The trail is usually not very packed but make sure to have NW Forest Pass with you.
This trail head is also the trail head for 2 other trails including Elowah Falls and Nesmith Trail. Nesmith is a difficulty and challenging trail. Only people who are fit should take Nesmith trail. Nesmith trail has huge elevation gain. Elowah Falls is a short trial as well, but when we got to the trail today, we found that part of Elowah Falls trail have been washed off. Thus the trail to Elowah Falls is temporarily closed for hikers and we went for Upper MCCord Creek Falls instead.
While hiking along the trail to Upper McCord Creek Falls, we saw a lot of tree falling off and we had to go under the trees. There were at least 2 trees that fell off and blocking part of the trail. Some parts of the trail are also very slippery due to the rain. At around 80% of the trail, the trail goes around the rocky cliff side. The good thing is that there are metal bars on the side to prevent people from falling off. The ground is muddy and wet however, and the top of the cliff is constantly dripping water, so we walked a bit slow on this part of the trail. This is a very interesting experience and it gives an amazing view of Columbia Gorge. When we came down the trail, we also saw 2 lovely dogs! One is a Bernese Mountain Dog and the other one is a Labrador Retriever. These are the 2 of my favorite dog breeds! They seem very excited to go up and see the waterfall! Just remember to put leash on the dog since it is required for this trail. Although your dog may be friendly to people, some people are afraid of dogs and could lead to unintended injuries on this trail since some part of this trail is quite narrow. Upper McCord Creek Falls is however one of the best trail that we have been to. It is a short trail, takes you around the cliff side, goes under the tree, and leads you to an amazing waterfall. We highly recommend people to take this trail for the fun during the weekend.
Boxer Ramen is another ramen place in Portland. It has 3 locations in Portland. 1 on Alberta Street, 1 in downtown Portland, and 1 on 23rd Street in Portland Pearl District. The one we went to today is the one located on 23rd Street. Boxer Ramen on 23rd street is new and only opened recently. The location of the restaurant is across from Salt and Straw, just beside The Waiting Room. It is kind of hidden in a little corner and we would have found the restaurant if we were just taking a walk on the 23rd Street.
We got there around 1PM in the afternoon and there are many people. We were told that Boxer Ramen at other locations are usually pretty packed, thus we were surprised that there isn't any line up. It could be that this location is new so not many people know about it. This Boxer Ramen restaurant is a bit small. The restaurant can fit around 30 people. There aren't many items on the menu either, but we don't really mind since we are just here for the ramen. This time we ordered a Tonkatsu Shio Ramen and a Red Spicy Miso Ramen.
About 5 minutes later, our ramen is served! This is quite fast! It usually takes around 10 minutes at other ramen restaurants. The first thing I tried is the soup base. We like the Shio Ramen soup base. It is a little salty but still satisfies my taste buds. We don't quite like the Red Spicy Miso soup base. We were expecting it to be spicy; however, it is more like spicy and sweet taste. It just feels a bit odd when there is sweetness in the soup. We don't quite like the egg either. For people who have been to ramen restaurants, ramen is usually served with a less cooked boiled egg. This means that the egg is still quite soft and not quite hard. The egg yolk is usually not completely cooked. At Boxer Ramen, the egg is just a bit too raw. On a scale of 1 to 10, if 10 is completely cooked, then the egg at Boxer Ramen is like 3. We would like the egg to be at least cooked to medium. The pork served with ramen is a bit different from other ramen restaurant as well. We don't have a problem with this but some people might find the Portland to be a bit too thick and hard to bite. So this may turn down some people. Lastly and most importantly, the noodle is a bit too hard to chew. We would prefer the noodle to be cooked a bit longer and become a bit softer. Overall, Boxer Ramen is a good ramen place but we probably won't come here as often. We still prefer Ramen Ryoma.
