Portland Bill? (No, Oregon)

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a work related conference in Portland, Oregon. Portland is located in the Pacific North West of America within about 50 miles of Mount Hood & Mount St Helens (yes, the Mount St Helens that erupted quite violently a few years ago & continues to be active). It was founded on the banks of the Willamette River in a location known as "The Clearing" which was about half-way between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver.

A few people in the office mentioned that the Northwest of the US has some fantastic scenery & that I should try to have a look around the surrounding areas. One of the people I work with used to live in Portland (as her husband is from there), so I got some really good guidance as to where to go & how long it would take to see the best sights.

There are no direct flights from St Louis to Portland, so I had to lay-over at Salt Lake City. This was pretty cool as I remembered from my childhood that this was the destination of the aircraft in one of the 'Airplane' disaster movies! The flight was early on a Saturday morning so I used to opportunity to get a quick snooze. When I awoke, the scenery had changed from the flat Midwestern terrain that I was used to into snow covered mountains - cool!