Stevenson, Washington 2021

Hello y’all! It has been a little bit since my last post here. Life has been quietly hectic. As the country is (slowly or way-too-rapidly depending on your stance - mine is the latter) opening up again I’ve been feeling rather unsettled about going back to general society. Sure, We have done small road-trips during the pandemic - mostly hiking trips - but we haven’t done anything as extended as this particular one which is 4 Days in a Lodge!

We decided to go to a Lodge right around the Columbia River Gorge between Washington and Oregon for some nature walks and hikes. This particular Lodge is dog friendly which is perfect for us because who wants to explore nature without their dog? The Lodge is a bit larger than we expected which made me a little nervous about running into other people too much but it turned out to be alright overall. At this point we have not dined in a restaurant inside or outside for about 1 year+ so it was lovely to find that there was an outdoor seating area quite separated from each other we can sit and enjoy our meals if we want to.

I did a mini shoot of Jasper on our first morning in the dog friendly room. We probably won’t be going back to this particular Lodge anytime soon because the room caused me to have a little bit of allergic reaction - sneezing and scratchy eyes - in the mornings. I suspect it is because of my mild allergy to cats and some dog fur left inside their AC unit or ventilation. But no matter, look at how much Jasper is enjoying the sunshine coming into the room!

This trip was also my first time ever bringing a dedicated travel journal with me!

I always bring a sketchbook or two when I go on trips but this particular one is specifically made for travel inspired by countless vlogs I’ve watched over the quarantine period. Since I’ve been consistently collaging in my daily morning journals, I decided to create collage travel journal as well. Just in time for this trip. This journaling format has helped me in my desire to document trips in close to real time. It is also a very manageable size and easy to carry places.

I purchased this leather journal cover from Traveler’s Company here. What I love about this journal cover is that the elastic band that makes it so versatile for me to switch books in and out. It even come with an extra elastic band. I’ve seen a lot of journal enthusiasts on youtube vlogs carry more than one notebook in this journal cover! Definitely something I will keep and cherish for a long time. Okay, back to the trip!

There are lots of trails inside and all around the Lodge property. We are both quite fond of walking so we decided to spend our first day taking a long leisurely walk to check out some trails, park and head to downtown area to see if we can grab some coffee and lunch. Lunch around the area is pretty limited to burgers and pizza which are good in small doses. But I ended up always on the hunt for other lighter things we can eat during this trip.

Nothing beats nature all around us though. Here are a few snaps from our walks that day.

Hamilton Mountain (Loop) Trail

This hike was quite easily the highlight of our trip, it is located inside of the Beacon Rock State Park. It is a bit of an uphill hike and can be quite steep at some parts. This is our first actually proper hike of the year so I was a bit out of hiking shape and had to stop a few times for water and break. Juan made this hike into a game so he added 1.5 miles to our 7.5 miles loop which was really fun! It was also so sweet to see Jasper being so excited to sniff out EVERYTHING along the trail. He’s such a little adventurous dog.

This trail has all the things we enjoyed, waterfalls, well maintained trail, cute little bridges, wild flowers and on top of that, look at them views! It was really rewarding to get up and see the cascade peaks among other things. I wish my pictures is doing it all justice honestly. See below for some wildflowers along the way.

So there they are. Almost all the pictures I took during this big momentous hike. It was really lovely to get away for a bit. We spent the rest of our time walking around small trails around the Lodge property and before we knew it, it was time to go home. But before I close out this post, I wanted to share some travel journal I did, see below!

Also, before I forgot, on our way back from the lodge, we stopped by Portland to go get some food from Wajan. Wajan is an Indonesian food place located in PDX area. We didn’t eat at the restaurant and opted to eat in our car so I didn’t really have a chance to take any pictures. It was a much needed meal as we had spent most of our days eating burgers, pizzas and some middle of the road salads - mostly because I can’t bear to eat another burger.

It was really good Indonesian food and we were glad we stopped by there. We might also sneak in another meal from there on our next scheduled road-trip to San Francisco in early June which I hope to blog about more promptly than this one.

Alrighty. Until next time!