What to do in Vancouver Wa.?

[Todd_Lesher]

Posted an "Entertain Jeff·Þ·Bohrer" thread in the Pacific Northwest community:

https://decibel.ni.com/content/thread/18264

[Zwired1]

a bit south of Portland:

Mount Angel Octoberfest       http://www.oktoberfest.org/

Silver Falls State Park          http://www.oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=151

Crater Lake                         http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm

[Vrmithrax]

If you pop down to Portland on the weekends, the Waterfront always has interesting things going on.  Saturdays can be a madhouse, the Saturday Market runs rampant down there until sometime in the fall, but it can be a fun place for people watching and finding local artists, merchandise, etc.  And if you are a doughnut fan, Voodoo Doughnuts is just right around the corner from the market...  Long wait usually, but it's one of those Portland "icon" locations.

There is literally too much to do in the Vancouver/Portland Metro area to even attempt to list it all.  However, there's a few I haven't seen mentioned yet...  Since you mentioned natural parks, I've got a few suggestions that aren't too far away.  Multnomah Falls is just up the Columbia Gorge (not even an hour drive).  The historic Columbia River Drive can be a nice scenic cruise.  Skamania Lodge is just up the river on the Washington side (45 minutes from Vancouver) and has excellent dining and lots of excursion/events going on, plus a Sunday brunch that many in my company rave about (haven't caught the brunch yet personally).  Driving up Mount Hood can be a nice ride, and you can check out the Timberline Lodge (fun fact:  it was used in "The Shining" for exterior shots of the lodge in the movie).  Been a few wildfires in the general Mt. Hood area recently, might be good to double-check that nothing is closed down.

Other than that, there are some interesting "touristy" things in Portland proper...  The Underground Portland / Shangai Tunnels tours and other walking tours are pretty interesting and full of history.  Lots of people like to go check out the "Grimm" and "Portlandia" locations that have been featured in those shows.  If you are a beer fan, you can't throw a rock without hitting at least 2 microbreweries in this whole Portland Metro region...  Also, lots of art exhibitions and festivals going on in the time between now and Halloween, I'd suggest checking out http://calendar.travelportland.com/ to see some of what is happening down here.

Hope that helps, and you enjoy your visit to our neck of the woods!

[Zwired1]

jogged a memory:

http://japanesegarden.com/

[warren_scott]

Portland area fun (Vancouver really is just an extension of Portland) that kinda matches your list:

Mt St Helens -- easy day trip. see what happened 30 some years after a volcano explosion.  nice easy walks.

Mt Hood Loop  -- LONG day trip.  Drive up Columbia river gorge. Take Columbia River scenic highway through this if you don't get carsick.  Stop at Crown Point, Multnomah Falls, Bonneville Dam (fish hatchery with huge sturgeon, and you are there at the right time to watch migrating salmon).  At Hood River (great place to wander around) turn south on HW 35.  Lots of nice apple orchards in Hood River and you'll be there in apple season.  Hood river has a carousel horse museum, and a great car/airplane museum where second saturday of each month they actually go fly/drive the old planes/cars.    Follow Highway 35 down to HW 26, and then west to the pass on Mt Hood, and up to timberline lodge (mentioned earlier post).  Head back through portland.

Portland has Art museum, maritime museum (floating steam sternwheeler tugboat on the willamette), OMSI science museum with a submarine you can tour (was in hunt for red october), japanese gardens, rose garden, zoo.

Saturday market (saturday and sunday) in downtown portland is good people watching and experiencing "portland". Don't forget food carts here and other places.

Take a drive out to the Oregon coast.  (1.5 -2 hour drive; do this as a weekend or longer if you can).  Astoria / Ilwaco is at the mouth of the columbia river and has a few maritime museums, and some Lewis & Clark sites that are fun to visit.  Cannon Beach is a small vacation town for Portland.  Farther south you can get to Garibaldi for a working fishing town, or Tillamook where you can tour the cheese factory.  Newport is a lot of fun for the mix of nice town + working fishing + tourist stuff + great aquarium.  Every 30 miles or so there's another state park along the oregon coast and they're a lot of fun to visit.  Ecola st park (Cannon Beach) and Oswald West (another 20 minutes south) are some of the best in the northern half.

Head up to seattle area -- I can't speak much for it, but I do know that there are some good museums in the Tacoma area (glass museum -- not as boring as you would think, LeMay car museum, Boeing), and the drive up the West side of the puget sound is really pretty (hood canal area)

[JÞB]

I've actually booked the first week in portland.  I understand that that I5 Bridge is still standing though the traffic isn't "Ideal."

Portland's tunnel tour will make it to the top of my list.  The LMB will love the surprise pictures I send of that.  (I won't tell her about the doughnuts but think I could stand a few extra calories)

The gardens will make the list early as well.  Extended tours will need to take a back seat to actually delivering my client's solution but I'll try to time the drive in to make the most of daylight through the Cascades and Crater Lake will be done one weekend.  I might need to fly the LMB out for that trip-  Its one of the places on our "If we ever travel extensivly" list!

Thank you all so far for the great ideas about the local flavor.  Sounds a bit more livable than weeknights in Winona MN, (Though the Bass fishing is excellant early season!)

For what its worth, if your ever here: The Laura Ingles Wilder musuem and the SPAM musuem are both within an hour or so.

Kudos all.

[DianeS]

Sorry, missed this one, yes, I'm up in Seattle. 

If you want to take a weekend, I'd highly recommend visiting the temperate rain forests (there are very few of them in the world) on the Olympic peninsula.  It's a bit of a drive from Vancouver, WA but they're well worth seeing.

Seattle also has an underground tour that's fantastic, filled with great history and lots of humor.  The city burned down in 1889 and so they built the current city on top of the old one.  For some years, the citizens climbed ladders to go between street level and the sidewalks.  You'll also get to see one of the first gravity-assisted flush toilets, sitting proudly on its original dais.  🙂

If you're into soccer at all (I seem to recall you played for awhile, resulting in a very peculiar broken bone), I'd highly recommend taking in a Portland Timbers game (and, of course, a Seattle Sounders game).  I'm a rabid Sounders fan and season ticket holder who is very much looking forward to the game this Sunday!  (Sounders v Timbers, up here in Seattle, standing-room-only crowd in a 66,500-person stadium).  Both cities boast great teams and passionate, knowledgeable fans, which makes for a wonderful atmosphere at the games.

Also, if you do make it up to Seattle, PM me and let's have a beer!

Ride the Ducks is also great fun.  Again this is in Seattle.  It's a really fun way to see the city.

[LV_Pro]

Oh man! Didn't have easy way to get on the forums for the last two weeks, which I spent in (drum roll) Seattle, Walla Walla, Portland, Eureka and back to Seattle. Could have met another LabVIEWer, though that would probably not been as much fun for my sweetie, Kerry, as wine tasting, beer tasting, underground Seattle tour,  Pike Market, Fulton flea market, etc.! Oh, and seafood!

[JÞB]

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@LV_Pro wrote:

Oh man! Didn't have easy way to get on the forums for the last two weeks, which I spent in (drum roll) Seattle, Walla Walla, Portland, Eureka and back to Seattle. Could have met another LabVIEWer, though that would probably not been as much fun for my sweetie, Kerry, as wine tasting, beer tasting, underground Seattle tour,  Pike Market, Fulton flea market, etc.! Oh, and seafood!

---

Well, its "That time of year" fiscal year.  The time where investors evaluate their investments. 

In a nutshell, the position died as I was packing out of the old cube last Friday.  The LMB and I have been making the most of our unexpected time together!

So, Putnam, Jeff, Waren, Todd, Diane... et al... My trip has been delayed and may be cancelled.  I Greatly appreciate the warmth of your willingness to inform me of the local scene.  (Putnam, Kerry wouldn't have needed to drop a glass to come along.)  (Diane, Chalk this one up for you against our old debate)

But, Should I ever get out that way.  Kudos and cheers to you all!

[Jeffrey_Zola]

The Magnificent Pacific Northwest still awaits your arrival.......

The attractions here aren't going away. And they are just as enjoyable on a pleasure trip as on a business trip!  😉

Jeff