Lovin' Portland

Wow, its only been a month since we went to Portland and I am finally posting about it. We flew from Long Beach (where we live) directly there. (Confession: I love airports. For some reason they just make me feel cool when I am walking through the terminal with my bag slung over my shoulder and coffee in hand. I don't know what it is, the excitement of going somewhere...the hustle and bustle...the free pretzels?...who knows). On this particular occasion, my friend Andi who is an amazing photographer just happened to be on the same flight as us, so she took a bunch of awesome pics with her giant camera. I love her...she shares the same affinity for airports. Check out her blog post about it here.

Carys & Nathan

People probably thought we were celebrities, haha

Love this shot...

We actually first went to the Sandy/Estacada area which is about 45 minutes outside of the city to visit family. We stayed with Nathan's cousin's family...they have 5 kids, homeschool, and if they drink milk, its directly after being milked out of a cow...or a maybe a goat. So, anyway they are pretty much awesome! They have 2 girls who Carys had never even met before and she immediately disappeared with them, even sleeping in their room the night we got there!

Caroline, Nora, & Carys

Not too shabby of a view for a bath....

Then we stayed in the city for 2 nights. I just love the vibe of this place, and it didn't hurt that all the food we tried was amazing. Their motto should just be Portland: Come hungry. I also love how they had easy mass transit so that renting a car wasn't needed at all.

Food truck heaven

Here's Nathan and Charlie walking. We walked everywhere.

We stayed at the Hotel Vintage Plaza, that red building up ahead. It was a good central location and was really nice...plus they had these moose heads below in their lobby....

They have a pretty awesome Nike store where I wish I could've bought out the whole womens section. 

It featured this interactive wall that was kind of rad.

We had one breakfast at Le Petit Provence (above)  where they serve freshly made croissants instead of toast, and on top of that everything else was divine. They serve butternut squash mixed in where their home fries...genius!

The other breakfast we had was at Mother's Bistro, which everyone said was the spot to eat breakfast, aaand yes it didn't disappoint. They had fresh squeezed apple juice that was wonderful.

Then we had our anniversary dinner at Noble Rot, a restaurant/wine bar that has an amazing view of the city from across the river. Again, the food was fresh and delicious.

Oh, and here's a travel with kids tip......bring glow sticks for the hotel room and they will be entertained for quite a while!

Portland is famous for Powell's Books, the biggest bookstore pretty much anywhere I think. We escaped from the cold to read some books.

 One lunch we ate at a joint called Lardo, described as a modern sandwich shop, where we had an amazing burger (below) of grass fed beef with pork belly on top, and some perfect fries topped with parmesan and thyme.

Across the street is ice cream shop Ruby Jewel, where they serve fresh, hand crafted ice cream, waffle cones and ice cream sandwiches. By the way, Charlie was fighting a pretty bad cold the whole time, but she was such a good sport being lugged around everywhere.

Ice cream fixes everything.

The only bummer is that it was such a short trip, we only scratched the surface. 

So we are happy to be going back in September for a friends wedding. Until we meet again PDX!

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