Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Portland for a weekend

May seemed like a good time to head to Portland for a few days.  Being only 5 hours drive down the I5 leaving on a Friday afternoon doesn't seem like a bad idea - until you hit Seattle traffic!!!  Why oh why do we think this time it won't be bad- it's always bad.  Adding an additional few hours onto the drive we pulled into Portland at 6ish on Friday Eve.  Checked in at the Hilton Tower (nice and central- my only complaint would be that they only had double bed rooms, who can sleep in a double bed comfortably pleaese?!)
Now that we were in the city of food and beer- where to first.  Deschutes Brewery here we come.  We arrived minutes ahead of the crowds and got a table for 7 in no time at all.  We soon discovered that the big restaurants downtown have so much real estate that the waits for table are really short.  Beer and dinner were amazing (yeah chicken and waffles I love you!)
Saturday, rain was all around us- boohoo.  But we headed to Mother's Bistro for the most ridiculous breakfast I've had in a long time.  The wait was insane though- over an hour and of course by then we were starving.  But the pour over coffee was worth the wait.  Stuffed we spilled out onto the sidewalk and up to the Saturday market a few blocks away.  The rain was holding off, so we got to explore the market.  This is always so much fun.  I found me some gorgeous jewellery, an awesome Portland poster, to name a few of my treasures.  We spent a good few hours here and then off for some shopping!



The boys thought is appropriate to hit a brewery for some beer as it was well into the afternoon, the girls not he other hand felt the need to shop.  Nordstrom rack here we come!  After some serious damage we headed back to the hotel for a little relaxing.  We headed back via Pioneer Square - keeping the Portland weird part of our trip.  We had some fin with all the statues along the way- even find a beaver or 2.


After some downtime it was back out for some more shopping before dinner.  You can't visit Portland without stopping in at Powell's Books.  This is truly the biggest book store I have ever seen.  Every genre, size, colour and shape of book you could possibly want.  
A few blocks up we headed to Tilt for dinner- arrived we found it too cafeteria like and so carried on to Bridgeport Brewpub.  Once again a huge place so the wait was minimal.  The food was not minimal- my pulled pork sandwich with a side of mac and cheese- was crazy good!
After that meal we were glad for the 20 or so block walk back to the hotel.  The streets are super quiet and friendly- a very safe city.

Sunday morning the rain was coming down- but after our breakfast at Kure Juice Bar (maybe the best oatmeal I have ever had!)  we caught the city tram.  This took us all the way up to Washington Park. We were headed for the International Rose Test Garden.  When we got there the kids decide that would deb too boring and so half of us headed to the Rose garden and the rest took a quick jaunt to the zoo.  The rain came down at this point- so much rain that I had to buy an umbrella!  The roses were gorgeous - too many colour and scents to even take in.  After an hour or so we had to head back via the free park shuttle to the tram station as we had a soccer game to get to.



After the gorgeous roses we were headed to Providence Park to support the Vancouver Whitecaps. The stadium is much more open than we are used to but luckily for us the seats were covered as the rain was relentless.  But the game was great, even though we lost.  But beer and hotdogs can make anything feel better. The Portland fans are fierce, but the Vancouver contingent held our own.  After the game the sun came out to play- which worked out perfectly for our walk back to the hotel.
We had not to this point had donuts- this is Portland one has to have donuts- Blue Star donuts- and they were closed- sold out!  We settled for the next best- Ice Cream at Ruby Jewel Scoops.



After some chill time the kids decided they wanted pizza and netflix!  So we humoured them and headed out to a newer place for dinner- Pine Street Market.  A collection of restaurants serving everything from tapas, to pizza to ice cream.  A big food hall type place- but pretty cool and the food was very good. Nothing follows a good dinner better than some beer.  we tried a to pop by Voodoo donuts first- but still at 9 at night the line up was over and hour long (no donuts this trip!)
Up to Fat Heads Brewery, ending our night with some beer and fun.  All in all a pretty amazing trip to this great city.  Lots to see and do- we will have to return soon.