Be More Productive. Go on vacation!
We are now to part 3 of Destination Oregon! A week traveling and exploring the Portland area, hiking, running, waterfalls and more. We spent time exploring downtown Portland and then hiking several iconic waterfalls and now are running the city and taking a stroll through movie trivia!
It has been proven that taking a break from work, taking that vacation, can help with so many things, throughout your life. We covered several in each of the last 2 post. Here are the last 3 tip on what a vacation can to for you!
7. Vacations Make You More Productive At Work— contrary to what it may seem, studies show that more vacation time for workers actually increases company productivity, and has been found to decrease the number of sick days taken off. Liberal vacation policies create improved quality of life for employees, which translates into increased work quality. Workers also report feeling more creative after taking time off, and more than 70% of them reported feeling more satisfied with their jobs when they took regular vacations.
8. Vacations Improve Your Sleep Quality –studies have shown that people who take vacations and travel regularly reported an almost 20% improvement in their sleep. While on vacation, they averaged an hour more of quality sleep, which even carried over to when they returned home.
9. Vacations Help You Get Thinner—A majority of overweight individuals admit to mindless eating as a response to stress. Stress hormones such as cortisol are linked to increased belly fat and weight gain, which is linked to heart disease. Studies have shown that even when indulging a little more on vacation, people whoregularly vacation feel more energized and are often more active on vacation. They were also found to have improved glucose levels and even had some weight loss around their waists.
Have you planned your next vacation? Maybe today’s adventures can help you start planning!
Sunday – Race day!
After yesterday’s 100+ flights of stairs, Keith and I took on the streets of Portland for the Run Like Hell Half Marathon. This was his first half marathon and when he decided to run it, I promised him that I would get him to the finish line. We came, we ran, we kicked asphalt! It was an awesome morning with some amazing views! For the full story on the race, you can find it here. There was no better way to close out my half marathon races for the year that running with an old friend and getting him across that finish line!
Of course anyone who had run any distance events knows, the hours following and event take some special care, especially after the 1st one. After we did some refueling at the finish line (Clif Bars, Kettle chips, hard cider and more!) it was time to hop back on the train, head back to the van and go find showers and food… yes in that order. We grabbed bags before we left home in the morning with changes of clothing and shower stuff, so headed to the gym to get cleaned up. As I was heading out of the locker room, I got a text from Keith saying he headed straight out to the van. He was fearful that if he sat in one of the plush comfy chairs near the entrance to the gym, he’d never get up. Very true statement.
Yup, the post race muscle soreness of running his first half marathon was setting in. There was not going to be any hiking waterfalls today. But the trick was going to be to keep moving. After 5 years of running, I often forget what those post race hours were like when I first started on this adventure! Oops. For Keith, getting in and out of the van was also getting interesting… or as some might say, entertaining. Thankfully he was a good sport about it all and took it all in stride. Maybe all those climbs up and down hills yesterday was not the best idea… oh well, we did it, we survived. Now we eat!
Post Race Lunch – Cafe Yumm!
I guess you can say that once again on this trip, I broke one of my rules for dining out when I travel. For the second time, we were hitting a chain restaurant… and technically, this one can be considered casual, fast food. BUT, Cafe Yumm is a chain founded in the Seattle WA area, and now has several locations in WA and OR only. So technically, it was someplace new. And it’s healthy! Certified organic whenever possible!
In some ways, the Yumm! Bowls here remind me of the burrito bowls at a few other chains that I have visited. Each bowl is created by layering tasty ingredients like rice, beans, a variety of fresh veggies and sauce. The thing that makes the Yumm bowl different is the sauce! I really don’t know what all is in the sauce, but it’s Gluten Free, Non GMO and completely amazing! So amazing, that you can actually buy jars of the sauce to take home and create your own bowls! If I could only figure out how to keep it chilled to get it all the way home…
We spent the rest of the day relaxing a bit, running a few errands and doing laundry… yeah I know. Laundry on vacation. But sometimes you just gotta do it! Besides, taking some time to do laundry while on vacation means that you don’t have to bring as much with you. Another plus? When you get home, some of your laundry is already clean, so you have less to do then! There was a 3rd advantage to laundry night – the burger place across the parking lot from the laundry mat! We all sat around, eating burgers, chatting and just relaxing after a busy day.
Goonies Day!
How to do you make an awesome trip to Portland even better? You hop in the car and head to the coast. Astoria Oregon to be exact. On the day that I arrived, Keith asked me if there was anything (aside from waterfalls and the race) that I wanted to do or see when I was here. At first I had nothing. But then I saw a sign for Astoria and knew where I wanted to go. Ever since the movie came out, I have loved the Goonies! Of course I would want to go to Astoria, have a chance to see the house, visit the museum and play on the beach where the movie was filmed!
We decided that Monday was going to be Movie Adventure day… AKA Goonies day! We grabbed Yoshi (because he will not allow you to go to the coast without him!) and jumped in the car. Once again, it started out as a gloomy, rainy, foggy day. But in actuality, this was perfect weather for Goonies day!
As we headed out, we stopped at one of the small park overlooks, and once again, I was provided with “terrible” views and scenery 🙂 Even though it was raining, the overlook provided some spectacular views of the river below.
I actually posted this picture on Facebook, with no other description than asking if anyone could figure out where we were headed today. Not sure how, but just from this photo, my friend Heidi replied back in less than 30 seconds, “the Goonies House, Goonies beach or anywhere Goonies related!” Not sure how she figured it out from this photo… maybe because she knew I was in the area, and the fact that she is a bigger Goonies junkie than me!
The Oregon Film Museum
AKA, the Goonies Musuem. Located inside the County Jail that was featured at the beginning of the movie, The Oregon Film Museum is not only home to Goonies memorabilia, but celebrates all movies filmed around Oregon and Washington. Until today, I never realized just how many movies were filmed in this area. Some of the most popular, aside from The Goonies? That is part of the fun at the museum! 
They had a special game set up when you first walked into the museum. Plastered all over the walls and ceiling in the entryway, were quotes from moves filmed in the area. If you could match up 10 quotes with the movie, you would win a prize! It was game on!
Some of the quotes we found were from movies such as Maverick, Kindergarten Cop, Animal House, Free Willy, Short Circuit, Homeward Bound, Mr Holland’s Opus and more! It took a team effort, but between the two of us, we figured out enough to get our prize!
The it was off to explore the rest of the building! We spent the next hour reading about the making of the Goonies, how they selected this area for so many other movies and why, set props and more
Oh yeah, what tour through a jail would be complete without mug shots! They actually have an interactive experience where you can record yourself on different movie sets, in front of green screens and more. Once you are done filming, you have the chance to edit your creation! We opted not to do the interactive experience, but did have fun playing on the movie sets that were there!
When we were at the museum, the woman who was working told us where the best place to get a view of the house was. You can’t actually go up to the house anymore, as the current owners will not allow it. When we finally found the house, from the Safeway grocery store parking lot, I was a little bummed. Because of how much the trees had grown along the hillside, you could hardly see anything. I knew there had to be a way to at least get A LITTLE closer! Hence our next mission!
Exploring Astoria
After making a few wrong turns, we finally figure out which streets would take us close to the house! Since we knew we couldn’t just drive up the house, we had to go into “stealth mode” When we were a few blocks away, Keith parked the car at the bottom of the hill. I jumped out and headed up the hill another few blocks to get a more acceptable photo. No, not the same as being able to get a picture in front of it, but I’ll take what I can get!
After we found the Goonies house, it was time for the next phase of the mission. After Heidi figured out the answer to the trivia question so quickly we decided to make it Movie trivia day! There were several other locations that we were heading to…
Just a few blocks from the Goonies house is the school that was the central point in the movie Kindergarten Cop! We didn’t stay long, just stopped long enough to take a photo and post it on Facebook as the next question in today’s “What Movie is this from” challenge! This one didn’t take long either for someone to figure out. We did receive some interesting responses though before Kim posted the right answer!
Next stop, Circa 1986. This one stumped people a little more when I posted it on Facebook. Most of the time when you see a photo of this house, it also includes a view of the bridge in the background. But since I didn’t have time to jump out of the car and run across the street (narrow street and other cars behind us!), this was the best I could do. Also, in the movie, the house was painted blue and had chickens running around the yard! I don’t even know how many times I watched Short Circuit over the years, as this was one of those movies that Darrin wanted to watch all the time when he was little. This one really had people stumped and we had all kinds of interesting guesses. The Psycho house? not even close! LOL After I while, I had to start giving clues. The clue that finally prompted a winner? Quote from Johnny 5, “Hey laser lips, your mama was a snowblower!” Within minutes of posting that clue, someone figured it out! It’s always fun to get your friends back home engaged into your vacation! Have fun with it!
Cannon Beach (aka Goonies Beach)
Finally, we made it to the next and final big stop on the days adventure. Cannon Beach has been rated as one of the worlds most beautiful places, by National Geographic. This is also the beach featured in The Goonies. Part of me was really hoping to see a pirate ship coming out from behind the rocks!
This was the first time in about 20 years that I can say I actually was able to visit the west coast and put my feet in the ocean! The last time was in 1996 when we made a trip to Southern California.
We spend the next half hour or so exploring the beach, and letting Yoshi run… and run… and run… I got tired just watching him chase his tennis ball into the waves and run back out before the next wave came through. Finally after we all had wet feet, it was time to drag Yoshi back to the car and head over for lunch!
Lunch: Mo’s Chowder!
Conveniently enough, right at Cannon Beach you can find one of the best bowls of Clam Chowder in the world! Apparently, if you ask anyone in the state about Chowder, it’s always Mo’s! Since we were right there, I was told that we had no choice, it was Mo’s Chowder for lunch! The original Mo’s is down in Newport OR, but when you are at the beach, enjoying lunch with the sand on your feet and the ocean at your back, you don’t complain!
I really had a hard time deciding what to order, everything on the menu sounding amazing! The hardest part for me… the long list of seafood items that are on my “do not eat” list! I finally decided on the fish taco’s and a cup of the Chowder (you don’t go to Mo’s and NOT try the chowder!). Yes, if you have been following my dietary restrictions, clam chowder is going to be a no no because it is cream based (no cows milk for this girl) and contains a few other ingredients that I shouldn’t have, but I had to have it! Thankfully, there were no ill effects on the stomach and we were able to continue on with the days adventures! Keith and I actually joke that maybe it didn’t bother my stomach, because of the nice coating in my stomach from the several cups of steaming hot coffee that I was also enjoying (that breeze out of the beach was chilly… and I had wet feet!) Regardless, it was well worth the splurge!
And for those of you that have been enjoying the food pictures on this adventure, I completely forgot to take a pic of my chowder AND my tacos! So, you will have to settle for a pic that I grabbed off their website! Best Chowder ever! I will definitely have to go back and get more!
After lunch, we started heading back towards Portland. We thought about stopping at the casino on the way, but since we were both in wet shoes (because it would have been logical to actually bring dry shoes with us, knowing we were going to the coast) we opted to just head back.
We did make one last stop on the way…
On the first night I was in Oregon, when we went for a run on the trail, Keith was telling me about one the wooden trestles further down the trail. So we decided to stop and check it out!
This massive structure was as amazing to look at, as it was to walk across! We happened to hit the perfect time to stop as it was just before sunset, the fall colors were in their prime and it was completely quiet! I would definitely add this park back on to my itinerary for the next Oregon Adventure!
When we finally made it home, we were beat! We stopped and picked up some taco’s from the place down the road and inhaled food way to quickly! Yet again, I dropped the ball on the pic of the amazing, and extremely inexpensive tacos that disappeared faster than Yoshi could fall asleep… which didn’t take long…
I will have one last post of the final full day in Portland and the trip home, trying to sum up this unforgettable vacation! Come back next week for the final chapter!