Day 16-18: Portland, Oregon

I'm almost done here guys!  Ok, so in Portland we basically ate and shopped through the 2 full days we were there.  It was our first time in Portland and even though it rained the whole time I loved it (but man, that rain does not let up!).

First stop when we got in that night, a nice hot bowl of ramen.  We just picked a neighborhood close to our RV park and picked a restaurant through yelp.  It was awesome.  Good food and no wait.  A place like this in SF would require at least a half an hour wait.

Then we stopped by Salt and Straw for some local ice cream.  I remember it being good, but I can't remember what I ordered...

The next morning we had Pine State Biscuits.  So yummy and again, no wait!

Stopped by the local Whole Foods Market where they had a refrigerated beer room.  A whole room for just chilled beer!  Amazing!!!!!

Another lunch at Laurelhurst Market (I think...I can't seem to remember since there were so many good places to eat in Portland).

This is a good reminder of the calories before you start drinking!  Only in Portland?

And then DOOONNUUUTTS!!

At Blue Star Bakery-they're so good! (p.s. Voodoo donuts are over-rated)

Creme Brûlée donut

And then dinner at our last night in Portland.  Super cute outdoor market/eating area complete with airstreams!

We then ate at PokPok which is just down the street.  Again, no wait!  Portland was by far my favorite big city on the trip and I can't wait to go back.  Even with 2 days there I feel like we missed so much!

Day 9-10: Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park

When we got to Wyoming things got more interesting.  I discovered my most favorite small town: Jackson!  I love love loooooove this town.  We were initially only going to spend 2 hours here and move on to our next stop, but we didn't want to leave so we decided to stay overnight in the area.  Yay for spontaneous airstream adventures!

Lucky for us, Jackson had RV parking!  And since it was the off-season, we had the parking lot to ourselves.  Too bad we couldn't stay overnight there since it would have made our lives so much easier.  But more on that later.

How can you not love a town that has parking stalls for RVs only!

Our first stop: the Fjallraven store (there's only a handful of these in the US, and there needs to be one in SF--they would make a bundle off of the rich hipsters here).

Been spending most our lives, living in the hipsta paradise...

Too many to choose from, but of course I had to get a backpack here.  I ended up with the maroon one there.

My other 2 favorite stores were MADE and Mountain Dandy.  

Here are some of the things I wanted to buy, but just took a picture of instead.

And here's Mountain Dandy, started by the same person who started MADE.

After a bit of shopping, we took the dogs for a walk around the small town.

Their main park had these awesome arches made from antlers.

As the sun was setting, we were looking for a place to eat dinner.  Right next to the Cowboy Bar is a restaurant called Local.  It was AAAAAAMAAAAZING!!  The couple who runs Fjallraven recommended this place, and they're from NY originally so you know that they would recommend something good (ok, so maybe not all New Yorkers are foodies, but still they were right).  As the name suggests, most of the food here was locally sourced.

Buffalo tartar.  Not usually a fan of raw meat, but I had to try it since you're not going to get fresher buffalo anywhere else!  The meat was lean and the texture was bordering on fresh sashimi.  The best tartar I've ever had.

Beer sampler on obligatory reclaimed wood plank branded with a cow.

I had the steak with foie.  One of the best steaks of my life!  

Brian went with some Elk medallions.  Also very tasty.  So much food!  But the prices were super reasonable.  

By the time we finished dinner it was super dark out, and they had a special antler arch for Breast Cancer Month.

And desert was some ice cream.  I tried their huckleberry ice cream and it was delicious!

So here comes the adventure part.  Since we didn't plan on stopping over in Jackson, we made a last minute search for RV sites.  We ended up going with the RV campground in Grand Teton National park, which isn't that far away from Jackson.  However it was elk migration season, and there were signs all over the road telling us to be careful of the elk.  So we drove a bit more carefully (plus it was pitch black) so it took us about an hour to get to the campsite.  Along the way, sure enough we saw some elk right alongside the road.  It was cool, but also creepy at the same time.  Elk are huge!  Much bigger than deer, and when their eyes glow they don't look very friendly.  These aren't my pictures but they look pretty much like what we saw that night.  They just kind of glared at us as we passed by.

Once we got to the campsite, it  was super small and dark.  And it required some back-up maneuvering of the trailer.  It was the most difficult RV site to get into!  Our 27 foot RV barely fit, and our truck didn't fit at all so we had to then park it somewhere else.  It took us about an hour to finally get it right.  We were exhausted!

Yea, something like this.

The next morning we woke up in beautiful Grand Teton National Park.  Of course on the drive in we didn't see anything, so the next morning was a pleasant surprise.

Too bad it was so gloomy, but still breathtaking!

Trying to pose with some uncooperative dogs.

Bye Grand Teton, and back to Jackson.

So we went back into town to grab some coffee and breakfast.  We had some delicious sandwiches at Backcountry Delicatessen (if you're in Jackson go there after you go to Local).

Those are some odd movie times.

 I have been informed it's probably phone number, thanks Jen!

Fall was in full effect!

Thanks Jackson for a great time!  I'm definitely coming back!

Day 8: Salt Lake City

On day 8, we finally left the Zion RV River Resort and headed to Salt Lake City, which was about a 5 hour drive when towing and taking gas breaks.  We got into SLC late in the afternoon.

The dogs enjoying the ride.  Ellie's new favorite sleeping position, on Hachi's back.

First stop was the Wasatch Brewery in the Sugarhouse neighborhood for some craft beer.  It was interesting since Utah has some of the strictest alcohol laws, being a Mormon state and all.  Some of the things we learned about alcohol in Utah: 1) All beer sold in restaurants have to be lower than 4% ABV, 2) you can't have a sampler because you can't be served more than one beer at a time 3) if you purchase a growler, you can't have any other glasses of beer on the same tab. 

But the decor was nice.  We went in for a late lunch/early dinner at like 3pm so it was basically empty, except for some "hard core" Utahns drinking 4% ABV beer at the bar.

Then we went to City Creek Center, a brand new shopping mall next to the main Mormon campus and owned by the LDS church, to get my consumerist non-nature fix for the week (though the shops were not great--just boring chain stores that can be found everywhere).  But the mall was pretty cool in that it's an open air mall but has a retractable glass roof to enclose the mall during winter months.  

And that's it for day 8.  Next stop: Wyoming!