Last fall, Chase and I were invited to do a couples trip with one of Chase's college buddies. They told us they were considering Portland and we were instantly in!If you've been following along with us for at least the last month, you are probably aware that we just got back from a vacation to Australia. Because of all the planning, we slacked a little on the blog. Sorry about that, guys! It was a lot more planning than usual! But we are back and finally talking about our previous trip to Portland! Last September, we headed off to spend 5 days up in Oregon. Neither of us had ever visited the west coast so when Chase's college bestie suggested a couples trip, we were really excited to finally explore the west side of the country. We rented an AirBnB about three blocks from Mississippi St. and couldn't have been happier with our neighborhood. It was close to a lot of great breweries and restaurants but quiet at night. We spent a good chunk of time down the street enjoying coffee and pancakes for breakfast as well as pizza and Wednesday night trivia. If you're considering Portland, I'm sure I won't be the only person to recommend Mississippi St. and if you don't stay on that side of town, make sure you visit! The first couple of days were spent wandering around the neighborhoods, soaking in the downtown area, and hiking to the north hills. One morning, after breakfast at the Screen Door, the group split up and our friends took off for the coast while Chase and I headed for the rose garden up on the hills overlooking the city. Above are a couple coastal photos our friends sent us while we were hiking to the gardens. We decided to walk and burn off some waffle calories. It was just over 4 miles to the park entry and another half mile to the rose garden. Needless to say we were tired (PS people, Portland is not flat) but after we came through the clearing and saw thousands of roses, we geared back up and sniffed until our hearts were content. So many roses so little time! While we were there, it started raining so we headed to the Japanese Gardens to seek some cover. After roaming around for a bit, the rain let up and we headed back to the roses. We quickly discovered it was the perfect light to snap some close up pictures with our Macro lens. After a few more photos and sniffs, we grabbed an Über and headed back into the city for some dinner. Speaking of dinner, Portland's food scene is rather impressive. A Foodie Edition is in the works but for right now, some food highlights in Portland were found on Alberta Street, Hawthorne Street, and the Alphabet district's 23rd Street. We indulged in some amazing ice cream at Salt & Straw, sipped up some killer espresso at Case Study, munched on some happy hour specials at Tasty n Alder, and drank probably my favorite stout to date at Base Camp Brewery. And as every good tourist does, we waited in a ridiculous line for some VooDoo Doughnuts (although we favored Blue Star in the Donut category). Another highlight from this trip was our bike tour through the Columbia River Gorge. Around 8am, we met up with the company at their downtown location. They fitted us for bikes and then we loaded up in a van and headed for the Gorge which was about 30 miles outside of Portland. Our tour guide was really informative and told us some history of the area as well as the story behind the Vista House and it's million dollar bathroom that we took a pitstop at before hitting the trails. The ride was 9 miles and basically downhill the whole time so it was quite relaxing. We stopped at several waterfalls along the way and ended at the big one, Multnomah Falls. Our last full day in Portland landed on a Saturday so we hit up the very crowded Saturday Market and then took a 10 mile drive up to see the St. John's Bridge. We were able to grab lunch and explore the bridge for a bit before it started raining. We then headed back into Portland and grabbed dinner together. Portland was full of amazing food, great coffee and beer, and between the rain storms, some awesome site-seeing. Their city feels bigger than one that is home to only 600,000 people. We were in awe of the giant evergreen trees and how much the city had to offer. Before visiting, we heard Portland is Austin's sister city and if we loved it in ATX, we'd love PDX. Many people said it wouldn't disappoint... Let me tell you, it did not!
Until Next Time, C + D
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