We left Tuesday night and drove to Boise, ID which is exactly half way to Hood River. Our main objective of this trip was to check out a coffee shop we are looking to buy in Hood River and see if it is even somewhere we would like to live in the near future.
The drive was not too bad for this time of year. UT has still been too warm and absolutely no sign of snow, so the roads were pretty clear. Tuesday night we hit a small section of road that had some black ice near Twin Falls, ID but other than that it was smooth sailing. The Blue Mountains in Oregon had gotten some snow the day before we got there but the roads were fine. This is a shot I took with my phone while driving through the Blue Mtns:
We got to Hood River on Wed with a few hours of daylight left to check out the town. We loved it! It is alot like main st. Park City but a bit smaller. Hood River is world famous for its windsurfing on the Columbia River but it is a huge playground for anyone who loves the outdoors. There is mtn biking right from town, great road biking, Mt. Hood offers skiing, climbing, hiking, etc. - not to mention the sailing, water sports, and BREW PUBS!! It is less than an hour from Portland and about an hour and a half from Amy's parents.
Here is a link to the website for the coffee shop we are looking to buy: http://www.groundespressobarandcafe.com/We know it will most likely never be able to support us but it would be fun to have as a hobby that will hopefully generate some income for one of us. It was much bigger and nicer than either one of us imagined and I think we are going to take the next steps to see if we can actually get a loan for it.
I think we both fell in love with Hood River but I think Amy is still a bit concerned with the amount of rain it gets there. It sits just on the east side of the Cascade mtn range. I read that a lot of the rain that hits Portland gets hung up on the Cascades and it doesn't hit Hood River as much but it will still be quite a bit more than UT which is the second driest state in the country.
We stayed at a great hotel in Hood river Wed night and after Breakfast Thursday at the coffee shop, I headed out for a short ride. It was AWESOME!! At one point I was on a nice steady climb with my head down and pushing as hard as I could when I reminded myself to look up and check out the scenery (the main reason for this ride) and when I did - Mt. Hood stood right in 
front of me. I think that mountain has some sort of power over me that has been calling me to it for years and I am finally going to listen. It is an amazing sight. I was pedaling through lush green trees, then orchard after orchard of apple, pear, and cherry trees with the occasional vineyard woven in - all of this with this beautiful, snow capped mountain standing over it. It was breathtaking!
About mid-day Thursday we headed to Amy's parents for an AMAZING turkey dinner. Amy's mom cooks a huge meal every year and won't let anyone help cook or clean up afterward. I always feel sooo spoiled when we go there (its great!!!) Camden was so cute with his grandparents and his aunt "Rena" After watching Camden grab a book and climb up in his granddad's lap, I knew we had to move closer to them! 
We spent the rest of the week with Cam's grandparents and aunt. We had such a fun and relaxing time we didn't want to leave!! We went to the park and played a little 2-on-2 bball (guys vs. girls - guys won of course!) and went for a short hike. I even got out for a short ride up Mt. Brennion behind their house and just like in Hood River, I looked up the top of the hill I was cresting just in time to see snow-capped, Mt. St. Helens in front of me (Another great ride!!)
We headed out Sunday morning and made it back to Boise, ID again after a brief stop in Hood River for breakfast at the coffee shop. We ran into Greg (the owner now) again. He seems like a really nice guy and I really like how he put every detail in building the shop with recycled and natural building products. We seem a lot alike (he's even a biker and shows the Tour in the shop every July) We spent the night in Boise again to let Cam blow off some steam in the pool and then took off again early Mon morning as we both had some work to do today.It was a very relaxing trip and none of us wanted it to end. Sometimes flying can add too much stress when done with a 2 yr old so this was a nice and relaxing alternative.
Well, home again and back to the grindstone. (At least I have my Full Sail IPA from Hood River, OR as a reminder of what fun we had)
1 comment:
I found your blog because I get Google Alerts for "Hood River". We moved to Hood River from Scottsdale AZ 18 months ago, and we even love it more now than when we first visited and decided to move here. Since you've been here, I don't need to tell you why it's great. It was a bonus to discover how nice everyone is here. As far as the rain, we also were worried about too much rain. It gets 30 inches per year, but most of that is between Nov and Feb. For 8 months, there is not much sun, but that doesn't bother us. Good luck!
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