I couldn't wait to get to Portland. It's been years since I'd been there last and wanted to take a bike ride for the afternoon, looking at potential neighborhoods I may want to live it. I'm not sure where I'll eventually live, but as far as cities go, I've always had Portland, Seattle, SoCal and NYC in the back of my mind. We rolled into town and it was 94 degrees already. Ugh. No dog ditching. We walked around the Hoyt Arboretum and International Rose Garden until 7pm.

After the sun went down, we walked around downtown and I grabbed a bite of Italian and went to bed. The van didn't cool off much that night, so rather than spend another day hot and frustrated, I'll come back to Portland another time. We headed off to Hwy 101. The next place we discovered was along the coast and was so magical, I won't even say where it is. I was able to pull my van right up to the coast and sleep with no worries of illegally camping. Beautiful view of the coast. These moments are so much more fleeting than I had imagined which makes them that much more important and appreciated. I must say Oregon's coast might be my favorite place in the whole US.