RT Day 4: Ashland, Portland, & Powell's.

The drive from Phoenix to San Francisco and San Francisco to Portland are quite long. Well... perhaps that's understatement! Flying was not really an option for us this time around, but I don't think I'll ever make us drive it as a round trip again. We knew that in order to get the most out of our trip, we would need to do as much driving as possible at night. Since the kids are great car sleepers, they would be happy to snooze on the road and it also allowed us to save as much daylight as possible for the cities. For that reason, we didn't leave San Francisco until sundown. We made our way into the little town of Ashland, of Shakespeare Festival fame, in the wee hours of the morning for a sleep stop. We didn't make Ashland a big part of our trip, but we knew we wanted to drive into their "downtown" area before heading to Portland, enjoy the surroundings, and snag breakfast at a local joint. We immediately fell in love with its serene aura. My heart melted over the victorians that lined the streets. The people were extremely nice and the breakfast was delicious and wholesome! Ashland is full of small town charm. The film version of Coraline is also set in Ashland. Since we're big Coraline fans, it was an added perk. We ended up staying a little longer than we should had. If we hadn't needed to get on the road, we definitely wouldn't had.

By the time we got into PDX, it was nearly evening. We drove around awhile, getting the lay of the land and taking it all in with wide eyes. We headed to Powell's City of Books to spend the last bits of twilight. Powell's is bookworm paradise. I think we could had spent hours there. Each of the kids got to pick out a book. Emerson had a hard time choosing. I don't blame him! We searched the aisles for the kids' literary namesakes. They also had lots of impressive local goodies. We bought one of these to share our rapidly growing love for Oregon with the world by way of our car!



We snagged dinner at Whole Foods (their food bars are such an awesome alternative to fast food) and headed back to the hotel to settle in for the night.