Experiencing the Four Seasons in One Week - Conclusion

It has taken me almost a month to publish four posts detailing my in-law's visit in October. Much has been going on in our lives lately which has impacted my spare time and has caused me to lose focus on writing. Still, I want to summarize their trip here, by documenting their impressions of our adopted hometown and the multitude of sights they took in.

Shortly after their visit, I emailed Dave & Linda and asked them to reply with a list of things they liked and/or would recommend for any visitor. I also requested that they include the things that they would do differently next time. What follows is an edited version of their feedback.

Dave enjoyed:

• Mount St. Helens (in spite of the snow & clouds) and the two movies at Johnston Ridge Observatory
• Portland Japanese Gardens (minus the hike up from the parking lot)
• PSU Farmers Market (minus the parking ticket); he also rightfully suggested that we should have bought lunch from one of the vendors there
• the dinner I cooked at home (awww, how sweet is that?!); the monster calzone we shared at Hopworks Urban Brewery comes in 2nd
• OHSU tram and views
• Columbia River Gorge (minus the gravel road)

The LaRowe's at Bridal Veil Falls

Dave was not so keen on:

• wineries (he said they're "just not my cup of tea")
• some of the pub food
• the rain, snow, rain, snow...

bundled up at Johnston Ridge Observatory

Linda loved:

• our self-guided tour of Portland (Day 2)
• Mount St. Helens
• Columbia River Gorge
• the snow on Mount Hood

Linda enjoys the view from Marquam Hill

Linda would have preferred:

• less rain, especially when we visited the coast
• padded chairs at the brewpubs (seriously, I had never noticed how many places have hard wooden chairs until she said something!)

crappy weather on the Pacific Coast

Both agreed that next time they would prefer to stay closer to downtown Portland (and thus also closer to us) and they would like to visit during the summer months when there is less chance of rain.

As the title of these posts indicates, we truly did experience weather conditions covering all four seasons during the week they were here (with the exception of the hottest days of summer). As any native Northwesterner knows, having good rain gear and wearing layers is the key to being prepared for a day here. Still, as Linda wrote at the end of her email, "Portland is a beautiful area and I can see why you decided to move there."

Here are the links to the previous four posts:
Days 1 & 2
Days 3 & 4
Days 5 & 6
Days 7 & 8

The link to all of my photos from their visit is embedded in this post's title.