Going to Portland on the weekend, I have some questions
 

I'm gonna be heading over to Portland by car on the weekend.
I was planning on filling up just enough gas to get through the border and then filling my tank full in the States. I'm gonna be heading out early in the morning though, like 3am or something, so are the gas stations along the highway 24 hours?

And I don't go over the borders much, (2nd time) so is there new law where they will check your CDs now? Like burnt CDs, ipod, laptops, etc?

There was a thread about this awhile back, but I don't know did that law ever pass.

Well I'm mainly just worried about burnt CDs, because I'm not bringing anything else besides thats.

lol, I thought you are going to Poland this week..nvm.

how long is the drive from vancouver to portland?

4-7 hours...depends on how fast you drive
416km on the map...

I drove to Portland a few weeks ago. If you go by the speed limit(I would if I were you) It would take around 5 and a half hours or so. There are plenty of gas stations along the way, so no worries there. If you have a GPS, use it. I found many attractions and routes with it. By the way, there's a pretty decent/fantastic Korean restaurant called BeWon Korean restaurant (google it for address or GPS it) and a decent chinese restaurant called Wong's king Chinese restaurant.

Another note, the scenery is fantastic in Portland especially the bridges! Take plenty of pictures and don't forget to go to Mount St. Helens (it's on the way).

Edit: The US border guards are asking for Passports, bring them as well. I didn't bring mine (since it's not really required yet), I got questioned by the officer, at the end he let me enter. This was at the Pacific HWY Border crossing.

Second the rec. for a visit to St. Helens, although it's not exactly "on the way" - it's an hour-plus drive in from the I-5, on pretty much a dead-end highway (meaning the only way out is to retrace your route to the freeway). Well worth the detour though, if you have the time - be sure to include a couple hours for numerous sight-seeing stops along the way.

Hit up the sand dunes and rent some ATV's!

Today I was just watching the Pacific Northwest episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. In Portland, he checked out Voodoo Doughnuts and Apizza Scholls. The doughnuts looked amazingly good and very unique (offerings like maple long john with strips of bacon, and round doughnut with chocolate topping and captain crunch cereal). Apizza Scholls got the stamp of approval from Bourdain, and he's sampled many New York style pizzas in his life. Apparently they're one of the few pizza joints anywhere that hand mixes their dough.

Takes about 3-5 hours once you get past the border. I got there in about 4, hauling pretty good ass.

I only used a bit past half a tank in my Civic, so I would fill up in Blaine.

My total Portland trip only took 12 hours, and that included :
- Bank
- Waiting at the border
- Fill up in Blaine
- New tires mounted/Balanced in Bellingham (took about an hour)
- Stop for mcdicks at the Outlet Mall
- Straight for PIR just into Portland. Watched a drift event for 2 hours while waiting for the guy to finish so I could buy his parts.
- Got lost in Tacoma for an hour. Found the guy eventually and bought parts
- Fill up in Blaine/Pay for duty.
- Hauled ass home.

I left at 12, got home at 12.
They didn't check a single thing.

But.. I sold some tires to a guy 2 weeks ago in Blaine and got searched on the way there. Searched on the way back too.. and I was only there for 5 minutes.

My advice:
- Watch your speed around Snohomish
- Theres always traffic outside Seattle
- There's a whole lotta NOTHING, and I mean NOT A SINGLE FUCKING THING once you pass Olympia. There's about 100 miles of nothing, so crank up the Backstreet Boys and start singing, cause you're gonna go nuts otherwise.

By nothing, I mean.. No cars, no cops to be scared of.. nothing. Just trees, and trees, and more trees. I went through it around rush hour, and there was NOTHING. There's nice chunks to top out at though.

If you are in Portland, you MUST eat here.

http://www.kennyandzukes.com/

Their pastrami rueben is unbelievably good.

im thinking of going to portland as well

what other attractions should i go to?
downtown..mall
any good places to eat?
cheap shopping
great view?

Thanks for all the advice so far. The drive I've been told will be around 6hrs.
I'm going in the middle of the night so I'm not sure will traffic be lower than.

so should I bring my burnt CDs ?? I need music. Is that a problem at the borders?

Astoria Oregon, it's where they filmed Goonies :)

Is a passport absolutely necessary to cross the border right now?
I've been hearing mixed answers.

1.) I always use my passport, it's just easier if you have it, and takes practically no time at all to get if you do most of it online

2.) burnt cd's,.. I have a crapload of them in my dash, no one cares....just don't be bumping music going across

3.) Be curteous and just overall nice and you'll get through fine.

is birth cerficate and driver license sufficent enough?

thanks

^Yes mam.
Charmander

Going to Portland in a couple weeks , and decided to search instead of start a new thread < now give me a fuken cookie >. Anyways i have a few questions that wasn't answered ...

1) what is worth while to see besides mt. st. helens?
2) shopping - is there any potential?
3) I'm gonna be gone for 24hrs ... how can i maximize most of my time ....
4) food - any MUST GO TO restaurants?

Bring your burnt CD's and your iPod. They're border agents, not the RIAA. They couldn't give a rats ass about the copied tunes in your car. I've had the iPod in the glovebox and a bunch of burned CD's in the CD compartment in my car and they didn't say a word when they searched it. They're not there to enforce copyright laws - they're there to protect the border. I've been over the border probably 5-6 times via the airport and land borders since the article about them checking iPods and CD's and no one has checked me yet.

With that said, I would suggest turning off your stereo as you approach the border agent booth, and if you're wearing sunglasses, take them off. If you have dark tint on your windows, roll them down so they can see inside. That way, they can do their job quickly and efficiently and they can send you on your way without getting pulled over.

1) I go down during every start/end of summer and I don't really stop to check out any attractions... seems like a waste of time since all i'm doing is going for the cheap clothing and no tax:haha:

2) A normal route for me is to go to the Seattle premium's on the way down, for about an hour or so and head down to Portland... If your a shoe fanatic, you can hit up the Nike Outlet Store on Martin Luther King blvd/drive/I forgot (GPS it). I usually go past Portland to Woodburn where they have the Woodburn outlet stores (you can google it and see the directions and stuff) its about 30-45 min past Portland but they have some good brands for CHEAP prices (I got 15$ Adidas superstars lol). But so far, I only go down to Woodburn and the Premium outlets on the way down and back up.

3) Maximize time? wake up early during opening hours so you can get better parking spots and no one is lining up for the cashier, it will make a quick fast express shop. Uhh, if your hotel includes it, eat the free breakfast, it will save your brunch meal / money.

4) BUFFETS! USA Buffets are abnormally awsome and filling and cheap :thumbsup:

Hope this helps!

Blitzzzzzz

If you have time, drive out to the coast (1 1/2 hr drive one-way) to a place called Cannon Beach. You can google-image it and think 100x better.

Shopping, to be honest, anywhere. No tax, so most of the stuff is fairly cheap already. Head to the Premium Outlet if you're looking for crazy deals.

Maximize time = drive at night, no traffic. I did the drive in 4 hours leaving the border at 8:30PM doing avg. 140km/h. I didn't stop for gas or food though. The road gets boring after Tacoma so make sure you have a few fresh CDs ready.

Food, try a place called Andina's in the Pearl District. Really good Peruvian food and classy service. Other than that, just remember that portions are really big nearly everywhere you go. Yay, Americans!

any museums , or interesting portlandy stuff to see. i read a bit and noticed they have alot of breweries - so i'm gonna check out few of those , as well as mt. st. helens , also the the couzins that i'm going with like to see some sort of grotto?

so besides > mt. st. helens, breweries , w.e grotto ... what else is there?

Mt Rainer? I felt there was more to see there than Mt St Helens. Probably want to spend at least a 1/2 day there.

I went to the Portland area last month. Spent most of it shopping at the malls as there's actually stuff you want to buy vs the stuff at the outlets. Drove out to see the Multnomah falls.

If you hit up the coast, you can check out the Tilamock cheese factory, sand dunes, New Port Aquarium, Sea Lion Caves, etc.

i just came back from portland a week ago. it was a GREAT shopping spree.

total 3 days, 2 nights.

here's my plan

day 1
left at 9am, crossed at Aldergrove which took only 30 mins! (compared to 2 hours bullshit at peace arch)
Seattle premium outlet (exit 202)
Downtown seattle
Dinner at Olive Garden at Tacoma or Olympia at around 730
drove another 2-2.5 hours and arrived at Portland Radission, arrived at about.. 1030pm?

day 2
Downtown Portland (stayed for 6 hours - 10am - 5pm, remember to park at easypark, across from nordstrom rack. get your parking stamped at EVERY STORE in downtown portland, that's 2 hours free parking. also, remember, the train is FREE within the proximity of downtown)
Woodburn Outlet (got there at 530pm, ohly shit the stuff was CHEAP)
Washington Sq (very nice mall, i would recommend it. it closes LATE everyday.. like at 9 or 930.. i only got to shop there for 1 hour)
Washington Sq is NOT on I-5, look in your GPS

Dinner at Cheesecake factory

day 3

Clackamas Mall (again, not on I-5, look at GPS)
Walmart, Bestbuy run on 82nd Avenue (look at GPS)... along the way, i found this Joe's sporting goods next to BB.. i picked up Megaeuirs (sp?) kit for only 16.99!! (includes 2x claybar, microfibre towel, quick detailer, small bottle of wax. what a deal!!!)
-remember to check out random sporting goods store.. they are INSANELY CHEAP

started driving back at 4pm.. non stop all the way to Premium at 730pm

dinner at Eagle's Buffet - Spectacular Seafood Tuesdays for 23.95! oh man.. i ate so much i felt like barfing (my frd drove, he ate too much.. he needed me to drive back till near the border so that he could digest all the food)

got home at around 12am...

shopping spree = perfect.. 5 of us came back with the trunk loaded full of shit
5min wait coming back to Canada because it was the first school day.

portland = no scenery searching, all shopping please... keep that in your beautiful home - vancouver

until next year!

actually,
i would recommend to skip all of Seattle in Day 1. it was a waste of time since you KNOW that you don't need to pay taxes in Portland..

so.. make Day 1 to Washington Square and Woodburn (if you can stand driving for 6 hours)

Sounds like a blast, did you stay at any hotels down there?