Portlandia

We are currently in beautiful Portland, Oregon. Very green, lots of mountains, very New Zealandish. We've noticed that in most cities we've visited in the US, either the unhealthy fast food chains reign, or it's the indepedently owned, health conscious organic stores that dominate. There's not much middle ground. Thankfully, Portland is in the health camp. There's lots of cool organic shops, great bookstores, locally owned coffee shops and breweries and eccentric-looking locals. In fact, to fit in in Portland you need the following things:
1. Amazing arm tattoos
2. An assymetrical hairstyle
3. An American accent
4. To be a man in a skirt

We have currently hit 0/4 requirements, so have some work to do.

Truth!

Prior to reaching Portland we drove up from San Francisco, stopping at Redwood National Park. Redwood trees are amazing! They are the tallest trees in the world, which means that they are cooler than an iced Milo on a hot day. Yes, better than Milo...it sounds impossible I know, but you better believe it. 

This is Big Tree, standing at nearly 100m. We couldn't get back far enough to capture it all!

Driving through beautiful mist in the Redwood forest

Throughout our time in the country we have been having some particularly hilarious accent problems when we first meet people. For some reason, the name Jess does not compute well...but only if spoken in a Kiwi accent. Here's how the conversation goes almost every time Jess introduces herself:
American: Hi, what's your name?
Jess: Jess
American: What?
Jess: Jess
American: Jiss?
Jess: Jess
American: Jaz?
Jess: Jess. (sigh) As in Jessica.
American: (muttering to themself) ...Jissica? Ohhhhhh - JESS.

Thankfully the name Chris has been a bit more universally understood.

To balance out all the great coffees, incredible real hot chocolates and famous Voodoo doughnuts (check the photo out, below) that we've been having, we went on a 20km hike today to some powerful and impressive waterfalls. We saw a few mini black stripey snakes, but thankfully no bears. Although I'm pretty sure that was mainly due to Jess singing "Hello bears, we're coming round the corner, don't be surprised, kindly move now". Bears have, in our opinion, been incredibly responsive to all directions given in song. You should try it sometime.

Mini M&M's are always a valid topping.

Hiking the Eagle Creek trail.

Our hiking destination, Getting close to a waterfall is both fun and drenching!