Portland

Bonnie Walker
Apr 9, 2017
4 min read

Portland was the second part of our Spring Break trip a couple weeks back. If you missed my Seattle re-cap you can find it here. After spending 3 nights in Seattle, we rented a car and drove through the wonderfully rainy and verdant countryside and coast that stretches out between the two cities. We even ventured out to Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock - admittedly more impressive in person than I could have imagined!

I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised with Portland as a city. The metro area was much more spread out than in Seattle which gave it more of a hometown feel. We stayed downtown in both cities, but in Seattle that meant we were surrounded by skyscrapers and seagulls, just blocks from the bay, which I'll admit was positively charming. I loved the ease of going from uptown metro to slow-paced sleepy coast in just a few minutes.

But Portland possessed a more unique character in it's downtown. The skyscrapers were replaced with beautiful historical architecture and street murals. The seagulls were substituted with vibrant street culture. And as for the lack of coastline - the city makes up for that in spades.

First and foremost, can I just say that Portland people are so friendly. Like if Mr. Rodgers decided to wear flannel, ironic glasses, and drink small batch coffee - he would be Portland's mascot. But in all seriousness, people were genuinely kind and delightfully colorful! The city just has a quirky, modern-day charm about it, which explains why so many people would willingly live in a place with so much rain. (And I'm a girl who looooooves rain, but boy it got old quick!)

The food in the city stood up to all of our expectations. After taking many recommendations and reading our fair share of reviews, we hit up a long list of highly lauded eateries during our 3-night stay including Tasty 'n Alder, Blue Star Doughnuts, Mother's Bistro, Maurice's, Salt & Straw, Cheryl's on 12th, Park Kitchen, and of course the illustrious Voodoo Doughnuts (accomplished by a late-night sweet tooth.) And earnestly earnestly, none of them disappointed our expectations. My non-negotiable, can't miss if you ever get the chance to go - Tasty 'n Alder, Park Kitchen, and Salt & Straw. All three are simply a must.

Of course, that's not to mention the food trucks - did you know that Portland has more than 600 (no that is not a typo) food trucks or food carts in the city. Again, with the local focus! They collect around the city in not-so-little pods so you can stroll through them and pick and choose to piece together your meal. We opted for a lunch of artisan grilled cheeses, homemade Ethiopian food, and authentic tamales and none of them disappointed. That seems to be the trend with this city!

And did you know that just outside of Portland is a plethora of vineyards? I never knew that Oregon was one of the countries top producers of wine, but luckily my roommate did and she booked us on a wine tour our second day in the city. What was meant to be a group tour with up to 15 other people, ended up being just the three of us in a massive passenger van, hopping from winery to winery with our guide on a Wednesday afternoon! Not only was the wine phenomenal and the company exceedingly enjoyable, but it gave us the opportunity to get out of the city and the see the sloping green hills and natural landscape of Oregon.

The shopping in Portland stayed true to the trend of showing the true colors of a city, as the majority of what we shopped were local goods and local designers. It's a very locally focused city, which makes the most sense, doesn't it? If there's one thing that Portland is good at, it's being Portland. And it seems like everybody has figured that out because they all capitalize on everything that is local and it just ads a rich depth to the immersive Portland experience.

But the crowning moment of our time in Portland was what we came to call our Nature Barbie Hike. After shopping in Nob Hill (rather successfully I might add - mostly thanks to Sloan Boutique) we decided to head towards the Rose Test Garden, which is exactly as it sounds, a garden where they experiment with new types of roses. Long story short, it resulted in us hiking up rough-hewn outdoor stairs for about 15 minutes, with all of our shopping bags in tow. Only to get to the top and discover a garden of sticks. That's right - none of the roses were in bloom. I, being the least outdoorsy of the bunch, milked the escapade for all that it was worth, but it is now my favorite memory from the trip. (Yes, that's right!)