My foolish, broken, blemished Muse so sings
For Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Marika and I took a road trip down to Portland. Before we left, I printed out a bunch of spots from Roadside America and we took the kind of “long way around” to see some of them. They didn’t all work out; some were too hard to stop for, others we couldn’t find, some we found but they were lame. However, it was a really nice drive, and we did see some interesting things.
First, we drove down past Tacoma and drove past the Metal Cows, but we didn’t bother to stop and take pictures. Then it was on the Raymond, WA and the Town of Metal People:
Next we hit Long Beach, WA, home of both the World's Largest Frying Pan and the Marsh Free Museum:
We had lunch at a little place on the main drag there. I had been generally apprehensive about the quality of food we’d be able to acquire on this road trip, but this place was really good. I had one of the best hamburgers I’ve eaten, which came with a wonderful cold pasta salad.
Next it was down to Portland, via the Astoria Bridge, which goes across the mouth of the Columbia River and is for sure the longest bridge I’ve ever driven on. It was really pretty scary. Once in Portland, we had dinner at a place called Calypso, a really wonderful pirate-themed Caribbean place. I would absolutely recommend it for anyone living in or visiting Portland.
The next morning, we began with a breakfast at Zell’s. This place is small but very popular; we had to wait outside for about 10 minutes, then inside for another 10 minutes after some space on the indoor waiting bench opened up. By the time we were seated, there were probably 20 people waiting around outside. Considering the temperature out there, I think this speaks volumes about the quality of the food there. I had a “Reuben Scramble”, which was corned beef and cheese scrambled with eggs and served on rye toast with a horseradish sauce, with coleslaw and country potatoes next to it. It was wonderful. Exemplary. Marika had a mushroom and gorgonzola omelet which was also quite tasty.
We then drove around Portland a little bit, finding some roadside attractions and not finding others. We did find the Strip Club Shaped Like a Jug, the World's Smallest Park and the Chocolate Waterfall. We did not find the Velvet Museum nor the Grave of the Wonder Dog. On the drive back to Seattle, we failed to find the Jefferson Davis Highway Marker, but we did find the Squirrel Bridge:
We then had a bite to eat in a diner near said bridge. The food at the diner was… American. Not bad, neither good, but very simple, very homey. Maybe it was a little bit bad. But not terrible. While we ate, we overheard the waitress talking tot he people at the table behind us, explaining that the nice crust on whatever they were eating was because the cook had just discovered the broiler in the oven. She went on to say how he’d been cooking with hat oven for years and had only now realized it had a broiler. He was, I guess, really happy with it.
On the drive back to Seattle, we passed the very strange Gospodor Monument Park. And that was all.
I don’t know why this took me more than a month to write.
Despite the roadside attractions, it was a really fun trip. I still feel as though I own Marsh’s Free Museum $7.00.