Walking and Drinking Beer on New York’s High Line

With hip new beer gardens on either end and two of the city’s best outdoor bars in-between, the High Line is one of the best places to walk and drink beer in New York City.

This new, one-of-a-kind park, offers a zen-like paradise of trees and flowers, high above the noise and chaos of the city. It’s great people-watching, great beer, and a rare New York opportunity to stretch your legs without stoplights.

For 30 years, the High Line was an ugly, rusting, eyesore -- an abandoned elevated railway that ran along Manhattan’s West Side from 34th Street south to the Meatpacking District. It had been built in the 1930s to take dangerous freight trains off the streets.





The elevated railway made it possible to carry trainloads of milk, meat and produce to warehouse loading docks that were built 30 feet above the busy streets below. But over the years, trucking became the main way of bringing in goods and use of the elevated railway declined. The last train to rumble down the overhead tracks was three carloads of frozen turkeys in 1980.

Abandoned, the rails were soon covered with wild weeds and flowers and urban renewal called for the whole crumbling line to be demolished.

Enter the Friends of the High Line. Formed in 1999 by community residents, the group had the vision to imagine the High Line as a unique park. That dream was finally realized when the first section from 20th Street to Gansevoort Street opened in June 2009, followed by a second section that extended north to West 30th Street and opened in June 2011. Total cost: $153 million.

Today, the High Line is a thin, narrow ribbon of a park, 40 to 50 feet wide, with more than 200 species of grasses, flowers and trees that meanders for 1.5 miles through New York, 30-feet in the air.

Walking the High Line offers a unique view of the city. Unlike New York’s other elevated railways that ran directly above a street, the High Line was designed to run down the center of the block, going right smack through the middle of buildings.

Along the way there are views of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, as well of the trendy Meatpacking District, where you now look down on old warehouses are today filled with chic clubs and outdoor restaurants. But it’s the strange feeling of floating in a garden high above the city that makes the High Line such a trip. A few beers doesn’t hurt.



Meatpacking Distrist

Grab your first one at the Lot at 30th, an outdoor beer garden built under the railway at 10th Ave. and West 30th. There’s a food truck roundup with a half dozen trucks selling tapas and tacos, while Colicchio & Sons has an outdoor bar with local NY beers and wines. Try the High Line Elevated Wheat from Brooklyn Brewery.

There are big long tables to share your food and drink with local New Yorkers.Then climb three stories and get on the High Line as it makes a long slow curve heading south.

A walk on the High Line is meant to be a slow stroll, taking time to enjoy nature. Bikes and rollerblades are forbidden. There are plenty of sleek wooden benches along the way for sitting and sunning and there’s even a section of lawns. At night (the park stays open until 11 p.m.) the walkways are illuminated, creating eerie scenes as they cut through, under and between modern buildings.

The northern section is the prettiest. Called the Chelsea Grasslands, it’s a meandering path through small fields of colorful flowers and grasses. Here and there, the outline of the original tracks have been left, or worked into the pattern of the pathway.


The Diller- von Furstenberg Sundeck between 14th and 15th Streets has comfortable wood deckchairs and benches surrounded by wildflowers, fountains and sumac trees. It’s a perfect place to relax and people-watch, as a steady stream of New Yorkers stroll by.

The 10th Avenue Square has a small amphitheatre providing a unique view of busy Tenth Avenue below, while the Washington Grasslands between 12th and 13th preserves the native grasses and flowers that grew up between the abandoned rail lines and gives some idea of what it looked like before being turned into a park.



At the southern end is the Gansevoort Woodland, a thicket of birch and serviceberry trees with vines that hang over the railing creating a green balcony for those below.

The Porch

There’s plenty of food and drink on and below the High Line. The Porch at 15th is a hanging elevated outdoor bar with tables and umbrellas, just below the High Line, but still above the streets. They offer changing New York wines and beers, the current offerings written on a chalkboard. Try the Empire IPA from Syracuse if they have it.



There are stands selling gelato and coffee, ice cream sandwiches, and plaetas (ice pops) in flavors ranging from mango-chili to hibiscus to coconut.

You can hop down from the Highline at 16th and visit Chelsea Market, a two square block food market in an old 1890s bakery that once made Oreo cookies. Everything you could possibly imagine to eat is here, each with its own specialty shop. There are nuts and chocolates, bakeries, sandwiches, fresh fruit and even a lobster bar. It’s worth a visit.

The southern end of the High Line has natural vegetation.

At the far southern end at Gansevoort Street, again built under the Highline, is The Standard Biergarten, an authentic German biergarten with long outdoor wooden tables, pretzels, currywurst and German and Austrian beers such as Ayinger Weisse and Kostritzer Dark Bier. The location under the elevated railway gives it a cozy feel.

Hogs and Heifers

A block across the street is the legendary Hogs & Heifers. This is the classic rock ‘n roll dive bar that in 1992 started the tradition of scantily clad bartenders and patrons dancing on the bar, a routine now copied by Coyote Ugly and others. Decorating the walls are 11,000 bras donated by patrons, including one from Julia Roberts.

The Standard Hotel

A better peep show is back up on the High Line looking towards The Standard Hotel, a trendy highrise glass building that straddles the walkway. The hotel features floor to ceiling glass walls in all its rooms and even in the restrooms of the restaurant on the top floor. The hotel warns guests that the windows are very transparent and “activity in your room, when the curtains are open, may be visible from the outside.” I’ll say.

You can see right into every room in a bizarre scene that resembles a set from the Alfred Hitchcock movie, “Rear Window.” The people in the rooms either don’t know, or don’t care. One guy, who looked like he’d been lingering on the High Line for days, told me, “there’s something happening in one of the windows every minute.” From the minute I spent there looking, I can believe him.



The Half King

One final bar worth a stop is the Half King, located just under the High Line at the 23rd Street stairway. This classic pub has more than 50 literary readings a year and is owned in part by writer Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm.

Whether you stay inside by the candlelit tables in a maze of rooms, or sit on their streetside patio, one of the nicest outdoor bars in the city, this is a great pub with more than a dozen beers. Try a local Greenport Harbor Ale.

If you go:

There are numerous events along the High Line, from guided walks on Saturdays to stargazing with the Amateur Astronomy Association, every Tuesday. http://www.thehighline.org/

The High Line can only be accessed at Gansevoort Street, 14th Street (elevator access), 16th Street (elevator access), 18th Street and 20th Street, 23rd Street, 26th Street, 28th Street and 30th Street. Gansevoort is a only a few minutes walk from the all the pleasures of the West Village.

Walking and Drinking Beer in Disney’s World



The Rose & Crown

 I was standing at the bar of the Rose & Crown pub in Epcot, a third of the way through a pint of Guinness, when my friends decided it was time to move on. No worries. I was about to chug the rest when the bar maid said, “would you like that to go, Love?” What a pleasant idea! She poured the remaining beer into a plastic cup and I was soon out the front door, sipping stout as I strolled around a lake, into the gardens of Paris on my way to the back alleys of Tangiers.

Welcome to Epcot, where Disney has a surprisingly liberal, and enlightened drinking policy. Three of the four Disney theme parks (Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios) allow you to walk and drink beer – or wine, tequila, sake, whiskey, or frozen Margaritas. Even better, they make all these drinks readily available with infinite choices. The nearby Cava del Tequila bar has 70 tequilas. No wonder it’s the happiest place on earth.



The Magic Kingdom is the only place you can't drink.

And great fun too. Make no mistake, Disney is for adults, as well as for kids. Families with children will best enjoy the Magic Kingdom (the one park with a strict no drinking policy), but adults taking a break from an Orlando convention …or from winter… can spend a couple of crazy days with Disney at Epcot, eating, drinking and shopping your way around the world. There’s great food and drink, thrill rides and wild architecture, manicured gardens and celebrity chefs, music acts and at night, the skies light up with amazing fireworks displays that blow away any Las Vegas spectacle. All this with no cigarette smoke and no clanging slot machines….although you may hear piped music playing “It’s a Small World After All.” Try forgetting that song.

It might not be the place for a bachelor party, but it’s certainly as hip and drink friendly as the average resort, and a lot more fun.

Epcot’s World Showcase



A replica of Beijing"s Temple of Heaven



Of all the parks, the best places for adults are Epcot and the free commercial center called Downtown Disney.  Epcot is Disney’s version of a permanent world’s fair. Shaped like an hour glass, one bulge is devoted to science and the world we inhabit, with exhibitions on land, the ocean and space mixed with thrill rides that take you hang gliding over California (Soarin) or blasting off and landing a space capsule on Mars (Mission: SPACE). Those two rides, and Test Track (the longest and fastest ride in Disney history) are definitely worth the long lines. Soarin’ is particularly wonderful, a ride that takes you hang gliding with wind blowing in your face and the smell of orange blossoms, in the air as you bank and curve, legs dangling over orchards, mountains and seacoasts.



There are gardens everywhere in Epcot, and monorail or boats to the hotels.



The bottom bulge of Epcot’s hourglass is the World Showcase, a circular, mile-long pathway around a lake surrounded with pavilions glorifying the shopping, drinks, culture, architecture and history of 11 nations. It’s a blast.

The “Imagineers,” as the Disney people call themselves, have used an architectural device known as forced perspective to make the park seem much larger than it is. The bottom floors of buildings are done at 100 percent size, the second floor at 75 percent and the top floors at 30 percent and less. This can create the illusion that you are seeing an entire German village built around a town fountain, topped by a gigantic castle miles in the distance. In reality, the whole German site might occupy just two acres.



The German town square has pretzels and beer.



In this same way, you can see the Eiffel Tower looming behind a Paris street, a Mayan temple that looks many times its actual size, the famous St. Mark’s Square of Venice with a 100-foot high campanile, a wooden stave church of Norway sitting beneath a 14th Century fortress, and even the Canadian Rocky Mountains.



This replica of Piazza San Marco in Venice has a 100-foot Campanile.



It’s the Disney attention to detail that keeps the showcase from being corny or just another bad Irish pub or Vegas casino imitation. The British street has eight different architectural styles, from Tudor to Victorian. Although the “thatch” roof is made out of plastic, it looks real. The local pub appears to be airlifted from the U.K., from the shabby carpet to the “bulls eyes” in the hand blown window glass to the standing room only policy at the bar.



Every tile has a crack, a nod to Islamic belielf that only Allah is perfect.



The Morocco pavilion used nine tons of handmade, hand-cut tiles and had 19 native craftsmen put them together into a replica of the Koutoubia Minaret, a prayer tower in Marrakesh.

There are Mediterranean citrus and olive trees in Italy, and native Japanese sago and monkey-puzzle trees decorating nearby Japan. The American pavilion has an Independence Hall-like building made of 110,000 bricks, while China re-creates Beijing’s Temple of Heaven with flute and zither music playing on the speakers while acrobats perform in the courtyard.



The American Pavilion has a show narrated by Mark Twain.



All of the countries have daily shows consistent with their theme. A pretty good Beatles tribute band rocks out their early songs in a garden, while a very sexy belly dancer does a very un-Disney like performance in Tangiers. There’s a not-bad Canadian Celtic rock group, German oompah bands, Mariachis, and Japanese Taiko drummers.

France, China and Canada have films that are worth a look, especially Canada’s 360- degree screen that lets you pass through an attraction like the Mounties on parade, seeing them from front, rear and on the sides.

Most of the countries are set up with back alleys or plazas to explore, leading to shops, restaurants, bars and bakeries. You can munch a pear tart in Norway or a chocolate éclair in Paris. Germany has pretzels and beer, including a full liter of delicious Radenberger pilsner for $12. You can do a tequila tasting in Mexico or buy a wine flight that gives you two, two-ounce samples of regional wines in Italy, Germany and France.




The Mayan pyramid houses a water ride, restaurant, market and tequila bar.

 

And then there’s shopping. From Italian silk scarves to Norwegian wool sweaters, Japanese kimonos to French perfumes, the Disney touch extends to the stores, giving each of them an authentic feel. At Mexico, you can shop for silver and pottery in an indoor market in Taxco at twilight. There’s probably not much of a market for Norwegian wool sweaters in Orlando, but at $8, the beer stein sunglasses in Germany are a steal.



Better than the Chunnel, there's an easy bridge between England and France



Of course, on the one hand, Disney is charging you to come into a theme park for the privilege of spending more money shopping, eating and drinking…but you won’t mind. It’s all done so well, whether you’re looking at rugs and brass in Morocco, or tea sets in China, have another drink and it all looks real enough. Disney employs people from the native countries (part of 60,000 “cast members” who run the empire) and they’re mostly young and pretty and love to chat about their native lands…and how glad they are to be out of them and living the dream in Florida.



Based on torri gate in Hiroshima Bay.



A wood stave church in Norway.

Dinner is another experience not to miss. Reservations are messy.
You’ll need them in advance, or at least first thing in the morning at the best – and more expensive --restaurants like Bistro de Paris, Marrakesh, Mitsukoshi and Tutto Italia. Easiest is the huge Biergarten, Epcot’s nightly Oktoberfest with a Bavarian band, long tables that you share with strangers, plenty of beer and a buffet of bratwurst, rotisserie chicken, spaetzle, and a couple dozen other German specialties. Also easy is the Rose & Crown for fish and chips; get an outdoor, lakeside table at dusk – it’s one of the best places to watch the fireworks. You can easily do a meal of tapas, getting snacks from outdoor carts and cafes all day and evening like cheese empanadas and tacos at La Cantina, a Mongolian barbecue beef sandwich and pot stickers at the Lotus Blossom Café, sushi and sake at the Yakitori House, or make a meal of a fresh baguette and brie at the Boulangerie Patisserie while you sit in a garden by their version of the Seine, watching boats come and go from nearby hotels.


One of many beautiful gardens, this one in Paris.



Epcot’s hours vary by day with the park generally closing at 9 p.m., but on Tuesdays it often stays open until midnight. Try to go then – the world showcase looks even better by night, and there are no crowds.

Downtown Disney



Downtown Disney is attractive at night with lights, islands and bridges.



Another adult area is Downtown Disney, a series of islands in a lakeside setting, with bridges connecting shops, bars and restaurants. At night (the only time to go) there’s a Vegas feel with bright lights and huge theme restaurants like Planet Hollywood (stop in to see big name props like the dress Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz or the axe Jack Nicholson used in The Shining). There’s a House of Blues with an outdoor concert area, a Wolfgang Puck with pizza to go, and the gigantic Raglan Road Irish Pub with scallops on a stick, step dancing, and a good beer selection, including changing local Orlando brews. Fulton’s Crab House has a good seafood menu in a romantic setting aboard a three-deck river boat, the Empress Lilly, and Bongos Cuban Café is owned by Gloria Estefan and has the overhead fans, shutters and palms of a film-version Cuba, with music and patios, all wrapped around a three-story high pineapple.

Be warned, in addition to catering to adults, Downtown Disney also attracts lots of families, and the endless shopping opportunities for Mickey souvenirs, princess parafeneilla, toys and dinosaurs seems to whip the kids into a frenzy. One harried dad on line in front of me at Capt’n Jack’s outdoor bar asked for a straight 120 proof rum, and with a pleading voice, said, “can you make it double?” There’s beer, frozen margaritas, and rum galore, at stands and bars and restaurants, and you’re free to carry and drink it anywhere you like – even, amazingly, in the shops.

It’s quite pretty along the lake, with the lights and crazy architecture, but no mistake, this is big time tourism and crowded. The fact that it’s free (at least to get in) with free parking appeals to families tugging kids, hundreds of them done up like princesses, complete with tiaras. It is amazing to see. The princess beauty parlor has a waiting list six months long.



Planet Hollywood



The more adult bars are to the left as you face the lake, with Cirque du Soleil anchoring that side, while the kid-oriented shopping and theme restaurants are to the right. But don’t miss the kid’s side for a look. The sheer scale of the place, the amount and variety of souvenirs stacked to the ceiling, the frantic kids from every country of the world (I saw one young English girl stamp her foot and say, “But mummy, I simply must have it!), the insanity of the family theme restaurants (life-size 30-foot high dinosaurs move around waterfalls in the T-Rex café, while the Rainforest Café has a thunderstorm, tropical fish and animated animals), it’s all designed to overwhelm….and it does. But no worries…have another frozen margarita and always know it’s a quick and easy retreat to Paradiso 37 and their South American menu and 37 tequilas.

IF YOU GO:



Magic Kingdom



Orlando had 50 million visitors in 2010, the first destination in the world to do so. The travel guides to Walt Disney World are thicker than guides to France. There are hundreds of tips on how to save time and money. You’ll have to study the guides, but here’s just a few tips.







Where to stay: If you can afford it, stay on a Disney property. There are hotels in most price ranges, and all are connected by free shuttles, or in the case of the Grand Floridian, Contemporary and Polynesian, by monorail and boat. There’s always a free bus going to where you want to go…the challenge is you can wait 30 minutes for the bus and some of the trips are 40 minutes or more, so it takes longer than you think to get around. The key is, don’t try to do Disney World in one or two days. Ticket prices drop drastically the longer you stay (they know they’re getting their money on lodging and food, so park admissions drop the longer you stay).  Some of the Disney hotel properties are worth visiting just for fun, and many are connected by free boat rides. The Boardwalk area is particularly good, with a Disney brewpub, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, and a honky-tonk, Atlantic City seashore atmosphere on the lake.



The Boardwalk is fun, has a brew pub and boats to Epcot.

 




Go to Animal Kingdom in the morning, dinner at Epcot.



 The Wilderness Lodge is an incredible thing to see (note the electronic crickets chirping as you walk around the grounds, and the 55-foot high totem pole in the center of a lobby based on the Yellowstone Lodge). The Grand Floridian is a Disneyfied version of a grand hotel where high society would have wintered in Florida at the turn of the century and has one of the great restaurants of central Florida, the Victoria & Albert (no children, jackets for men, and reservations six months in advance, please). You’ll probably never stay there on your own dime, but one of the great “scores” of the corporate world is a meeting at the Swan & Dolphin. If you can’t stay here, stop by for a drink.



A great dinner option is the nightly Oktoberfest in Germany. 



The Grand Floridian

  If you go 100% Disney and stay there, you don’t need a car. You can take the complimentary Magical Express from the airport and get anywhere in Disney by free bus, monorail or ferry boat. If you want to see Harry Potter and Universal too…well, you’ll need to rent a car. Distances are far and cabs expensive.

Another tip, if you’re staying awhile, is get the multi-park pass for a day or two and hop around the parks. The best fireworks are in the Magic Kingdom, which turns the castle into a light show with bombs bursting overhead; Animal Kingdom is fun for a morning when the animals are active and Hollywood Studios has some of the best thrill rides. It’ll take an hour or more to travel between parks, but sometimes after a day on your feet, an hour air conditioned bus ride can be the best ride of all.

Keep Portland Weird

As the billboards and bumper stickers around town proclaim, there is an underground campaign alive to “Keep Portland Weird.” Well, they needn’t worry. This gorgeous city of natural beauty has plenty of quirks…but it also has everything else a city should have: a walkable, hip urban downtown with big department stores; a wide river lined with parks and paths; a slew of trendy restaurants and brewpubs in old brick and stone buildings; a lively street musician scene that ranges from classical duos on corners to zydeco bands in the plaza; an amazing light rail network that’s free downtown; parks and gardens with grand views of distant snowcapped peaks and volcanoes; thousands of young people filling the downtown bars and streets; and perhaps the nation’s best fleet of food trucks with dozens of them dishing up everything from Scottish bangers to sushi.

But the soul of Portland are the three B’s, which this “city of roses” can claim above any other American urban center: beer, bicycles and bookstores. The bikes are everywhere, giving Portland a real European feel. On the river path, it’s actually dangerous to be a pedestrian, there are so many bikes zipping past. But these are serious bikers – people who commute to work and do their part to keep Portland green.

Good beer is plentiful too. Portland claims the most brewpubs per capita, and they certainly have lovely ones downtown. The Oregon Brewpub Guide (available for free at airport) lists 156 brewpubs in the state, and that’s just where they make the beer. Every restaurant has a sophisticated beer selection. You’ll find microbrew taps all around, even in strange places. I saw a small bar with three taps and three stools in a hardware store in Canon Beach. Who doesn’t occasionally need a beer when buying tools?

And for books, there’s Powell’s – the biggest new and used bookstore in the world covering an entire city block with more than one million volumes in 3,500 different departments. www.powells.com It’s even bigger than it sounds, with 6,000 buyers and browsers in the store every day. Powell’s is almost never closed. It’s open 365 days a year, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. And if you want to combine books and beer, some of the best pubs are just a few minutes walk, especially the Deschutes Brewery & Public House, Bridgeport Brewpub + Bakery, and Henry’s 12th Street Tavern.

Want some substance? A block from Powell’s is Jake’s, a Portland seafood institution for 119 years. Sit at the bar for a bowl of New England or Manhattan clam chowder for $6, served with a half pound of warm sourdough bread, in a Victorian setting of carved wood, glass and mirrors.

Downtown Portland is best enjoyed at night – only because there are so many better things to do in the day. Within an easy drive of an hour or two you can walk along a stunning beach past tidal pools and giant rock formations; visit a reconstruction of a fort where Lewis & Clark spent a winter; hike to a dozen waterfalls (some of them 600 feet high); take in sweeping views of the Columbia River Gorge; drive through some of the most gorgeous farmlands in the world filled with stands selling (in season) fresh pears, peaches, apples and berries; and hike on the ridge of snowcapped Mount Hood, above the famous Timberline Lodge.

Portland by Rail
Before heading out on day trips, it’s worth spending an afternoon exploring Portland’s Washington Park – easily accessible by light rail from Pioneer Courthouse Square (the center of downtown) on the Blue or Red line. Buy the one-day pass for $4.75. The Washington Park station, about 15 minutes away, is the only underground station in Portland, but at 260 feet deep, it’s really underground. This is the deepest train station in North America and third deepest in the world. The elevator takes 25 seconds to reach the surface and the temperature at the bottom is always 50 degrees. There are exhibits at the station on the 16 million years of geologic history above you.

Strangely, the elevator comes up in the middle of the park, across the street from the highly popular Zoo. If you don’t have time for a zoo and want to tour the park, take the free bus (show your rail pass) and ride to the International Rose Test Garden (free) and the Japanese Garden ($8). There are miles of trails here, thousands of roses, and beautiful views of Mount Hood and downtown. The Japanese Garden is incredibly tranquil with bridges and splashing waterfalls connected by gravel trails. Portland is called the “City of Roses,” and the amazing rose garden here is one reason why.

Daytripping on the Coast

You could spend a month touring the spectacular Oregon coast, but if you just want a taste on a Portland weekend, head west 1.5 hours on Hwy. 26 to Canon Beach, the most attractive and upscale resort town in the area. The village is filled with overflowing flower baskets, nice shops on brick plazas and courtyards, and weathered shingle cottages. The main street is lined with outdoor cafes, all with their own gardens and flower boxes. Flowers do very well in the ocean air and they are everywhere.
For lunch, try the local guest beer and an “Oyster Burger” at Bill’s Tavern Brew House.

The highlight of the beach, just a ten minute walk from town, is Haystack Rock, a black mountain of a boulder just offshore that juts up 235 feet into the air. At low tide, you can walk to the base of the towering rock, see a rare colony of Tufted Puffins and wander around tidepools filled with crabs, colorful sea stars, snails and coral. Docents are on hand on weekends to explain the creatures above and below the surface.

Nearby, Ecola State Park has a twisting road through an old growth rainforest, that winds through ferns and trees covered with deep green moss to one of the most famous coastal views in Oregon. The park has been used in many films including Kindergarten Cop, and appears in most Oregon calendars. There are hiking trails to vantage points where you can look out on a wild scene of pounding surf and coastal rocks, many forming small islands that are now home to barking sea lions.

Explorer William Clark and his Indian guide Sacagawea hiked here in January 1806 to investigate reports of a beached whale, which Indians had told them about. Clark was wintering with Meriwether Lewis and their men at the log Fort Clatsop they had built, several miles away.

Today, the National Park Service has erected a replica of the small fort. It’s a short drive to the park to see and hear living history programs about how difficult it was to survive in the wilderness. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark and 31 explorers to follow rivers across the great American West to the Pacific Ocean. It took them a year and a half and they traveled 4,000 miles before they finally reached their goal. Before heading back, the explorers spent 112 days at Fort Clatsop. It rained on all but 12 of them, rotting their clothes and making life miserable for the flea-infested men. Today at the national park, it’s pleasant enough out in the woods, but it does seem a far cry from the flowers baskets and shingle cottage cafes of Canon Beach.

Into the Gorge and Around Mount Hood

The big day trip from Portland is traveling the Mount Hood National Scenic Byway, a 150-mile loop that takes you up the Columbia River Gorge and to the base of the 11,239-foot, snowcapped Mount Hood. Leave early – there are lots of stops and short hikes along the way.

For the best light on the waterfalls, start by heading east on I-84 to the pretty little village of Troutdale (Exit 17). Here you pick up the what’s left of the Historic Columbia River Highway. When it opened in 1916, this was the first major paved road in the Northwest, and one of the great engineering marvels of the world. The original Columbia River Highway had 18 bridges spanning rivers and canyons, and was built as a scenic road for Model T’s to allow access to the incredible natural beauty of the area.

Much of this 1916 road was destroyed or abandoned in the 1940s when Interstate 84 was built, but there is still a 22-mile section of the original highway open and it is an amazing drive, coming so close to waterfalls that their spray will land on your windshield. There are pull-offs, vistas and plenty of short hikes. The first two “must” stops are the strangely named Women’s Forum State Park, and Vista House at Crown Point. Both have views up the gorge. The Vista House was opened in 1917 as a “comfort station” and, at 733 feet high, it is one of the grand views of the road.

From here, the highway spirals down to the river and begins a stretch lined with seven huge waterfalls. First up is Latourell Falls, definitely worth the short hike. Bridal Veil Falls is a steep hike through woods, pretty, but there are better falls ahead.

The showpiece, and the most visited natural attraction in Oregon, is Multnomah Falls. There are two falls here, the big one drops 542-feet into a pool crossed by a foot-bridge, with a second drop of 69-feet under it. If you combine them, the 620-foot drop makes this the third highest year-round falls in the nation. And certainly the most crowded. On a Saturday in July, I had to wait to cross the bridge – it was packed solid with literally hundreds of people. You can escape the crowds by hiking the steep 1.2 mile, paved trail to the top of the falls, but in truth, the view is limited compared to the effort, especially with so many other viewpoints available.

But even with the crowds, this is an incredible sight. There’s an attractive old 1925 lodge, and the visitor center has free maps to the many hiking trails and hidden waterfalls to be found along the gorge.

Back on I-84, it’s 33 miles to Hood River, a very pleasant town with a main street lined with cafes, shops and antique stores, and home of the Full Sail Brewing Company (the name comes from the windsurfing that takes place on the river here, where it is always windy). If you can get in the small pub at the brewery, it’s the perfect place for lunch, but also crowded. No worries. There are many pubs and restaurants in town for lunch.

From here, head south on Hwy. 35, making a stop in a few miles at Panorama Point, a small hill that looks across the farm country to towering Mount Hood. This fertile Hood River Valley produces 225,000 tons of cherries, pears and apples a year, prized fruit that is shipped around the world. There are 30 farms, wineries and specialty stores selling their products along the way, on a route that is amusingly called “The Fruit Loop.”

The highway twists, climbs and circles 44 miles into the Mount Hood massive, gaining elevation through forests of pine. Take a turn west at Government Camp on to Hwy. 26 and then follow the turnoff and continue climbing to 6,000 feet and the Timberline Lodge. Opened in 1937, this wood and stone structure, built of local products with a central stone fireplace in-the-round, was used as the location for the movie The Shining. Trails lined with wildflowers, or across snowy glaciers lead up to even more stunning views of Mount Hood, or there’s a chair lift up to 8,000 feet if you don’t care to walk. The late afternoon light is gorgeous on the year-round glaciers that curl down the mountain and the lodge with its big fireplaces and snow just outside is fun to poke around.

But as the sun starts to set, remember, it’s 63 miles back to the pleasures of Portland…and all those waiting food trucks, brewpubs and music. With any luck at all in traffic, you’ll be back in Powell’s, long before they close, for a final browse in the stacks of books and a late evening of IPA’s, pale ales, bitters, stouts and porters in Portlands incredible selection of brewpubs.

The Nines hip lobby bar.

Where to stay:  Everything downtown is within walking distance. Don’t be put off looking at maps. Portland’s blocks are half the distance of normal city blocks (an early attempt to create more corner lots) so everything is closer than it appears. The town is divided into cute names for its various areas (Chinatown – there are no Chinese here, Old Town, Historic Waterfront District, etc.) and even more confusing, it is broken up into four quadrants that make sense to locals but are mystifying to visitors: NW, SW, NE and SE. They have to do with the 

crossing of Burnside Street and the Willamette River dividing the town into fourths. Ignore it. The heart of the city is between 12th Ave. and the river, with I-405 closing off the north and south, and no matter where you are in that area, you can’t go but a block or two without finding something interesting. But do check out the area northwest of Burnside…a little sketchy here and there, but lots of great pubs and young people. The Nines is an incredibly hip and wonderful hotel right on Pioneer Courthouse Square; if you can afford it, stay here.