ashishahuja23

Hello Fellow Travellers,
I know this is kind of last minute but Me and my wife are travelling to Portland in the first week of July. We are both in our early 30s and active. Here is our trip itinerary. I am looking for things to do in between and may be restaurants, hiking or any activities ideas along the way.
29 June -Friday - Reach Sacremento & get Rental Car and drive to Red Bluff and stay in Red Bluff
30 June -Saturday- Visit Lassen volcanic National Park - Stay in Mineral - any recommended hikes ?
1 July - Lassen Volcanic National Park and Drive to Burney and stay in Mt Shasta
2nd July - Drive to Crater lake and stay near Klamath Falls - any recommended hikes ?
3rd july - Crater Lake and drive to Bend OR
4th July - Drive to Portland through Mt Hood - recommendation on things to do along the way - fruit loop ?
5th july - Staying in Portland Downtown - Restaurant Recommendation for Anniversary Dinner and other cool bars or restaurants to check out ?
6th July - Staying in Portland Downtown - Recommendation on things to do apart from Powell Bookstore or Japanese Garden ?
7th July - Fly back to MCO

gardendiva

Places that we enjoyed, not necessarily fancy for an anniversary.

The Spaghetti Factory - one dining room overlooks the river. The food is good and the building is beautiful. After dinner we took the Aerial Tram up for a beautiful view of the city.
Pastini - good italian
The Portland Wine Bar - near Pioneer Square. Wine tasting room. Fun staff. Great place to rest your feet,

Places to see

The Grotto - a beautiful outdoor altar. There is a beautiful garden above with great views of the mountains

sunbum1944

The Waterfront Blues Festival will be happening when you are in Portland. Multiple stages, great musicians. Jul 4 there will be a fireworks display. You would have to get there early in day to get a seat. Seating is just on the ground on blankets or low chairs. You can also watch fireworks from other side of the river if you don't want to do the whole event.
It will be packed with people which may affect you getting rooms down town.
I have gone several times and I think it's a fun event.

Fodorite018

I agree, the waterfront blues festival is a lot of fun!

For your drive from Bend to Portland, visit Multnomah Falls, Crown Point Vista house, Portland Woman's Forum (odd name, amazing views), and Bridal Veil Falls. There was a massive fire last summer, so most of the wonderful waterfalls/trails on the OR side in this area were devasted, and so closed until further notice. Hood River itself is a great town as well with some good breweries/restauraunts/shops, and you can watch the windsurfers from the waterfront park. Be sure to take a detour to Timberline Lodge before heading to Hood River though.

Higgins is a quintessential Portland restaurant that has been around for ages, but still very very good. It would be a good place to for a celebratory dinner as well.

As for other things to do in town, the Japanese Gardens are beautiful, and the rose garden is right next to it and in full bloom right now, so perfect timing. The Chinese Garden is very good as well, but takes up just one small city block so doesn't take long to visit. The area around NW 21st/23rd streets is chuck full of small shops/restaurants and is a nice area to walk around. Downtown of course has Tom McCall Waterfront Park. There is OMSI on the other side of the river, which is very good and has a decommissioned Submarine you can tour. Forest Park is a great place to do some inner city hiking, and the trail from near the zoo up to Pittock Mansion is really nice and on a clear day the views from PM are really nice. You can see Mt Hood from there.

5alive

Portland is a foodie town. I could give you 20 recommendations. It would help if you could nail it down. Do you want somewhere that has reservations or do you mind waiting and for how long-- 45 min, 1hour, 2 hours? Budget? Do you love Asian food and if so, which cuisines? We have some nationally known Italian. Pizza. Tapas.

tomfuller

The good news is that all roads in Crater Lake are open. The Pinnacles road opened on June 16. You may see some snow still in the shady spots.
Instead of Klamath Falls, you might want to continue up I-5 to Medford and either stay there or at the Prospect Hotel off Rt. 62. The boat trip on Crater Lake will be starting for the season soon. Getting to the boat involves hiking down (and back up) the Cleetwood trail which has been recently improved.
Leaving Crater Lake by the north entrance, Bend is 92 miles (less than 2 hours). There are many hiking opportunities in the Bend area. Be sure to see the High Desert Museum and the Lavalands Visitor Center south of Bend.
I've been to Lassen but I don't like it as much as the volcanic legacy that we have in Oregon.
Coming from Bend to the Portland area, turn off US 26 onto Rt. 35 north into Hood River. It goes down the east side of Mt. Hood. You might want to spend a night in Hood River before heading for Portland. Be sure to see at least Multnomah Falls and maybe one or two of the other waterfalls along the Old Columbia Gorge Highway.
My favorite Jewish Deli is Ken & Zukes about 2 blocks south of Powell's. I just found that they opened a new store at the PDX airport.
Are you dropping the car in Oregon or are you returning to Sacramento? The Coast Starlight will soon be back in operation between Sacramento and K-Falls and Portland. The Coast Starlight leaves SAC shortly after midnight every night.
If you stick around in Bend, there will be a good fireworks show off Pilot Butte on July 4 about 10 PM.

ashishahuja23

Hello 5alive,

We love all the cuisines but don't eat red meat ( beef or pork) but can eat chicken, fish etc.
We both love to try new cuisines and don't mind waiting as long as its worth it. I wouldn't want to dine at a restaurant where you need to wear a suit just to dine or need to spend $$$. I want to say more on $$ or $ would be great. We are both indian by birth so we love asian food, my wife is a big fan of italian food ( pastas or pizza )., i love icecream ( salt & straw ) , thai, moroccan, chicken sandwiches, fried chicken, indonesian, etc.
I do want to go to a nice restaurant for dinner for our anniversary, i tried to check menu for Portland Grill but unfortunately the menu doesn't have a lot of chicken or vegeterian options. Its more inclined towards red meat so if you could suggest a restaurant which is romantic but also caters to our needs that would be awesome

Thank you

5alive

Hi, that helps a lot actually. As to dressing up, there are very few places where you would need a suit in Portland. What I would call business casual would be appropriate for most high end restaurants at best. Even then, you could probably dress up a nice pair of jeans with a collared shirt and you would still blend in.

Departure, which I mentioned before, does also have a vegan menu, so there are a lot of options both with seafood, chicken and no meat. And skip the Portland Grill for dinner-- Locals go for cocktails to see the view. Higgins, mentioned by mms, would be a good choice.

I love Italian food--and there are many good places. Caffe Mingo and Bar Mingo. Both great... Bar Mingo might have more options for you, but check. Nostrana is one of our favorites. It definitely is a nice restaurant. Their pizza is great, with lots of good options for you. Main dishes also great, usually about 2-3 that would work for you.

Pok Pok-- Thai street food. Chef Andy Ricker has received multiple national awards, writeups in the New York Times etc. The Division Street branch is the original, which might mean the menu is longer but so are the wait times.

A lot of our best Asian food is not in downtown--look either out by 82nd Avenue in East Portland, or in Beaverton. Pho Van is particularly well known. Food carts are all over the city. Google food cart pods in Portland to see the ones closest to you.

Probably the best reviews for food are here...
https://www.pdxmonthly.com/restaurants#?page=1