Portland Winter Get-Away

As much as we would like you to go rafting with us all the time, during the winter we understand if you stray away from the water. From Portland there are many weekend get-away opportunities in just about every direction. This last weekend I headed east in search of new scenery and created a fun winter-itinerary for those looking for an easy escape from Portland.

Dana researched various Bed and Breakfasts and found a great place called the Husum Highlands, (800) 808-9812. It's run by Jerry and Carol Stockwell and they built the 4,000 square foot Victorian house a few years ago. It sits at 1,800 feet and has spectacular views of White Salmon and Mt. Hood.

Friday, February 13th

We left Portland around 5:00 PM Friday evening and took I-84 to Hood River where we crossed the Columbia and headed towards Husum. We had a dinner at Hoobas (local favorite) and then headed up to the B&B. We were greeted by Jerry who showed us to our room. Slept like a rock in the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in (now if only we could figure out how to take a bed like that down the river...).

Saturday, February 14th

Breakfast consisted of Jerry's nutmeg waffles, an incredible omelet, fresh fruits, coffee and orange juice. After stuffing ourselves and chatting with Carole, we began the descent into Husum for some wine-tasting.

The first winery we went to was Wind River Cellars, where we met owner Joel Goodwillie. As we pulled up, I couldn't help but notice his van with an American Whitewater sticker on the back. Thus, I became excited to meet another boater and Dana remained excited for the wine. We tasted a bunch of his wines and ended up purchasing a bottle of the Pinot Noir.

Next, we headed to the Klickitat River for a short walk to scout-out the lower gorge. I'd heard there was some good whitewater down there, plus, there were two other wineries nearby to check out. After a brief stop, we headed to Cor Cellars and tasted three of their wines and then off to Syncline Wine Cellars. Syncline had quite the spread of cheeses, chocolates, and, of course, wine. We ended up walking away with their Syrah in hand.

For lunch we stopped at White Salmon's Everybody's Brewery. They are new in town and had not yet brewed their first batch of beer, but they did have "everybody's" beer, just not their own. This place is pretty cool: good food (like the French Onion Soup), plus they have a shuffle board!

By now we were pretty full and ready for a nap. We headed back to the Husum Highlands and took a well needed rest. Around 7:30 we began the drive to Hood River (roughly 25 minutes) for a dinner at the North Oak Brasserie. We brought our bottle of Syncline Merlot (only a $10 corking fee) and had one of the best meals I've ever had, topped off with a strawberry-champagne sorbet.

Sunday, February 15th

The next morning we had another excellent breakfast (yes, all we did this weekend was eat) and then hit the road with no definite plans. I wanted to show Dana the Wind River and "high bridge" (picture below) so we headed to Carson, WA.


From there, we drove to Stevenson to check out the Interpretive Center Museum. This place is definitely worth checking out! They have some really interesting collections and a few great videos about the gorge. We spent about two hours here and then went to Big River Grill for yet another good meal.

From Stevenson, it took about 45 minutes to get back to Portland; thus concluding our weekend escape.