Visiting Oregon: Current plans

I am leaving for Oregon this Friday and as part of my preparation I have been researching places to visit, photograph, and eat at during my stay. The majority of my time will be spent working but I scheduled the trip so I will have three days to explore and enjoy the area.

I will be staying near The Dalles during the week and plan to take day trips to visit the places that have caught my attention. The majority of my points of interest are near Portland or an hour plus drive from where I'm staying. I would really like to find additional activities near The Dalles but I need to research and find the best local restaurants since I will be eating out every night.

I have received a few suggestions from co-workers that live in the area as well as those that have previously visited. I'm sure I will go out to dinner with co-workers at least once since it's tradition for the visitor to purchase the meal. I think I have a few good places to visit so far:

Food

• Voodoo Doughnut - I first learned about this doughnut shop from Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations." Each menu item has a great name and they even have a doughnut with bacon on it.
• Nora's Fish House - This was suggested by Simon and Gordon. A quick glance at their menu confirms their suggestion.
• Apizza Scholls - Also featured on No Reservations. Famed as the best place for pizza in Oregon which yelp seems to confirm.
• Baan-Thai - I was hoping to find some good Thai while traveling and this place was suggested by Gordon.
• Brazil Grill - I eat meat. This is Portland's best churrascaria so it seems like a great choice.
• Burgerville - A local chain which seems to be popular online. May be a good choice for a quick lunch or dinner.

Events / Attractions

• Pioneer Courthouse Square - Looks like a great area to walk around and possibly shop. The Holiday Ale Festival will be available the first weekend I arrive for $20.
• Powell's Books / City of Books - Noted as the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Suggested by Gordon.

Photography

• Portland Japanese Garden - Wonderful for photography. It is open during winter but the weather may hinder photography.
• Silver Falls State Park - A large park containing ten waterfalls and many walking trails. Should be great for photography.
• Multnomah Falls - Largest waterfall in Oregon and second largest year round waterfall in the US.
• Painted Hills State Park - Beautiful scenery for photography but may be too far due to 3 hour drive.

Please comment with any suggestions you may have or if you're interested in meeting up during my trip. I'd really like to know the best restaurants near The Dalles but I am willing to drive a little ways for good food and entertainment.

New home.

I have written numerous small articles and personal posts at penguinmeetpython.com over the past year. Jenna originally registered that domain for her use; however, I eventually hijacked it since it sat dormant for what I considered too long. The domain never really seemed to fit for my personal use and I was yearning for a more personalized space.

A few weeks ago I decided to consolidate my online presence - I had a collection of user names including schrierc, chrisix, chris.schrier and many others which was too cluttered in my mind. I forced myself to rename and move all of my utilized web accounts into a single username with great success. I lost a few twitter followers and will undoubtedly loose some RSS subscribers but I feel that the change will be worth the potential loss.

A part of this effort is moving away from penguinmeetpython to schrierc.org. This website will be more of an experimental playground for me. Since I was using DreamHost for penguinmeetpython I felt confined into a painfully limited box. Dknowles suggested that I investigate SliceHost a few weeks back and upon investigating their service I was excited to try them. I decided to wait for my DreamHost account to expire so I could utilize the service I had already paid for. Since my DreamHost account expires in December I decided today was finally the time to create my SliceHost account and transition to my new home.