Whiskey-friendly hiking/beach spots around Bay Area

Once or twice a month, we like to take Whiskey out hiking or to the beach. Luckily for us, there are a lot of places in Bay Area that allow dogs. These are Whiskey's favorite places to hang out:

• Villa Montalvo(15400 Montalvo Rd, Saratoga, CA 95071)
• Light, short hike with shaded trees and gorgeous views at the top.

Whiskey @ Villa Montalvo 

• Fremont Older Open Space Preserve(22898 Prospect Rd Saratoga, CA 95070)
• Light, short hike, use sunscreen, almost all of the area is not shaded, great views at the top.
• Monterey's Lovers Point Park(630 Ocean View Blvd, Pacific Grove, CA 93950)
• Light walk right beside the beach, gorgeous during spring time!

Views from Lovers Point Park

• Fort Funston(Skyline Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94132)
• Moderate hike and walk by the beach, dogs are allowed off-leash.

Views from Fort Funston and the stairs to go up or down from parking lot

• Santa Cruz Lighthouse Park
• Dog friendly park and beach, dogs are allowed off-leash, much smaller than Fort Funston(which is perfect for Whiskey and us)!

Look how happy Whiskey is!

I will try to update this page once we found more fun places for Whiskey!

Portland, Oregon p1

Disclaimer: This is our 2nd trip to Portland, so we skipped several must-visit places that we've been to before. Stay tune for next week's post for itinerary of our first visit!

Trip Duration: 4 days/3 nights

Hotel:

River's Edge Hotel & Spa Portland

455 SW Hamilton Ct

Portland, OR 97239 

The best thing about this hotel is breakfast! We got a great deal from Travelzoo that includes both parking($25/night), $20 spa credit/night and $9/person/night for breakfast. Unlike other hotels where breakfast is served in the lobby and you get either continental or hot breakfast, here, you actually have breakfast in their restaurant and you can choose from their brunch menu. If your total is more than the allowed voucher, you simply charge the rest to your room! The 3 nights we stayed there, we have different breakfast everyday in a nice restaurant with a great view of the river!

Things to do:

• The Grotto

Lower level of The Grotto

• Came to know this place from TripAdvisor. It's a Catholic shrine with a beautiful botanical garden on the upper level. You need to pay $5 to take the elevator to the upper level, but it's so worth it! It's very peaceful and serene. 
• Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls view from the bottom(without hiking)

• Breathtaking waterfall views without having to hike! In most places, you need to hike at least a mile in order to see the beautiful waterfall. Multnomah Falls is one of the gorgeous falls where you don't need to hike at all. You have the option to hike to the top of the falls if you prefer. The hike to the bridge is a short 0.2mi and to the top is about 1mi. 
• Crown Point Vista House

View of Columbia Gorge River

• When it's not foggy, you can have an amazing view of Columbia Gorge River from up here. This is the first stop that you see before going through a series of waterfalls. 
• Lan Su Chinese Garden
• It's a tiny park in the middle of Chinatown. If you are cramp on time, you can skip this place. 
• Portland Aerial Tram

View from the top of OHSU after the tram ride

• This tram is built to connect 2 of OHSU buildings. There's plenty of street parking, but in case you don't find one, you can park in the garage for $3/hour. The trip to the top is a short 4 minutes. Once you are at the top, you'll have a magnificent view of Portland from the top.  

There are also places that were on our list, but we didn't get a chance to go since we want to relax a bit, instead of rushing here and there:

• International Rose Garden
• OMSI
• Portland Art Museum
• McMenamins Movie Theater
• McMenamins Soaking Pools
• Wilamette Valley(wineries)

Foods:

• Pok Pok
• This place is the most reviewed in Yelp, so of course we have to try this! The line is long even at 2 in the afternoon. After waiting for 45 minutes, we are finally seated. The food portions are small. They recommended 3-4 dishes for the 2 of us. We ordered the famous fish sauce wings and Khao Soi. The foods are good, but not as good as I thought it would be given all the rave reviews.
• Screen Door
• Our favorite restaurant for the entire trip! Food portions are huge! Everything that we tried are really good. We ordered foods for to go, since the line is very long and we don't feel like waiting. Plus, parking is a hassle in this area. We got the crispy fried oyster, beef brisket, screen door plate(mac and cheese, pork chops and catfish) and pecan pie. I don't usually like oyster, but Screen Door's oysters are delicious!
• Luc Lac

Luc Lac

• Luc Lac is a great eating spot when you are in downtown area and need to get lunch(or dinner). We came in for lunch on a weekday after lunch rush hour(~1.30pm) and we didn't have to wait for tables. We ordered crispy rolls, pho and luc lac. Their pho soup is really tasty! Crispy rolls is pretty good, but the luc lac is a bit salty for our taste. 
• Andina

Grilled scallops with crispy onions

Semifreddo

• Street parking is pretty easy to find for a weekday dinner. We had a reservation, so we don't have to wait for our table. The party in front of us did not have a reservation and they were told that the wait is about an hour. We tried the grilled scallops with crispy onion(highly recommended), east west oyster(it was okay) and sashimi-style fish with corn salsa(nothing to rave about) from the tapas menu. We also ordered the lamb shank(it's good and tasty) and duck served 2 ways(the leg is very salty and the breast is hard to chew). The desserts are the star of the meal! We ordered the semifreddo and the alfajores. Both are amazing. Overall experience are just okay, I don't think we'll come back next time we're in Portland. 
• Bamboo Sushi -- Not recommended
• If you are craving for sushi, this is not the place for you. This seems like an American Japanese restaurant. We ordered chasing the dragon rolls(not good), albacore carpaccio(it's okay), wild alaskan salmon and wild alaskan king salmon(both are okay, just like any other nigiri we've had) and our favorite the black cod. Out of all of the foods, we only love the black cod.
• Blue Star Donuts
• We bought this home all the way to California and it still tastes good! Way better than Voodoo donuts without the line! They also have tiny doggy donuts and Whiskey loves it too!
• Samurai Blue
• After not getting a nice sushi meal @ Bamboo, we wanted to go to Saburo sushi, but they were close for lunch and it was our last day in Portland. We found this restaurant with a pretty good reviews on Yelp and decided to try it out. Their sushi is much better than Bamboo's. We ordered the sashimi and sushi lunch plate(good portion and price), deep fried calamari(good), fire in the hole rolls(good) and salmon nigiri(good). 

Photos

Itinerary:
Day 1

Landed @ PDX at noon
The Grotto
Lunch @ Pok Pok
Lan Su Garden
Check in hotel
Dinner @ Screen Door

Day 2

Breakfast @ hotel

Crown Point Vista House

Multnomah Falls

Dinner @ Bamboo Sushi

Day 3

Breakfast @ hotel

Portland aerial tram

Downtown Portland

Lunch @ Luc Lac

Woodburn Outlet

Dinner @ Andina

Day 4

Breakfast @ hotel

Last minute tax free shopping

Lunch @ Samurai Blue

Grab Donuts to take home @ Blue Star

Head back to airport