Portland, Oregon, what can I say? I think I left a huge chunk of my heart there when I got on the plane this morning to come back to LA. I loved it! I can't imagine living anywhere else now! People are so nice but so elegant at the same time. I love love love it! Lets take a look at my journey from Saturday-Early Monday morning.
Saturday- arrive early (9:30 a.m. ) and rent a car, drive to the hotel and check in and decide to head down to the famous Saturday market. This was the first view as your heading down the stairs under the tunnel to the market.
This is the market ( not my picture but a great one for the feel of it!)
I thought it was a farmers market but its really an art fair/food fair. Lots of good local grub, artists and locals..
Our first bite of local...spring roll from this cart where the whole family works and makes the rolls hot and fresh...sooooooo good!
An adorable hippie child walking around the market. So cute!
Local artist..sir pug le suitcase(jk...just a cute pup sitting inside his musician parents suitcase..maybe he sits on the money!)
Then we had a delish elephant ear that was made for us hot then dipped in brown sugar and butter. Yummmmmm...Everything at the market was homeade, local, and yummy.
Cute old man looking at the tied dyed stuff.. Maybe he could use a little color in his safari wardrobe....
We walked to the harbor and this was the amazing view of the water and city! What a sight to see.
I've seen these bikes before in So Cal but never had an opportunity to photograph someone on it. I'm very intrigued on how to get up and down on it!
Old Church. Love the contrast of the buildings in downtown. From very modern and chic to so country and old to even very industrial. Love it!
Old Industrial
This part of the journey where we forgot to take pictures. We drove further inland and went wine tasting at three wineries. I loved the second one. Maybe it was the barrels so full of wine that the edges were stained purple, or it was the ferns that lined the outside of the building. It was breathtaking and refreshing! The third winery also owned a bistro about 40 mins away. So we headed out to Dundee Bistro for some delicious late lunch/early dinner.
I had this wonderful blue cheese dressing blueberry salad. It was so good and fresh tasting. For dessert had an amazing olive oil cake. I kinda drool thinking about it. yum! We headed back to Portland after lunch. This is the part that I tell you we got all dressed up and went out to eat but ....unfourtnately, we fell asleep at the hotel and slept for 14 hours! eeek! Fear not, we made up for it on Sunday. It was gorgeous and we decided to spend the day in the country. On our way out we saw this city. It is an odd name but to us it is home. We are from right below Milwaukee, Wi.
About 15 miles outside of Portland it was this beautiful countryside. We got off the hwy a few times and drove on some small local roads. The landscape was amazing..
Local flavors again. Berries are huge up there. Especially Marion Berry. We just stopped and bought a pint of blueberries.
Yum
This placed has so many types of different jerkys, fruit, etc...
Sign from the hwy.
Watermelon
Plums
Sheep from the blueberry farm
Finally what I had been hoping for! Rain and lots of it!!!
Farm on the side of the road. I loved the high contrast of the blue in the sky and the gold in the field
Berry Haven (this place was kinda a lie....when we stopped she only had blueberries and strawberries!! there were no other berries like the sign claims..sigh...)
The Tillamook Bridge
Pretty Forest on the drive
Us in the forest. I happen to love this picture of us!
Finally we make it to Cannon Beach and we stop to get some java from this famed coffee shop
It was delicious but maybe I was partial since he made a heart in my latte foam
This is what make Cannon Beach famous. These giant rock formations. They were gorgeous. I would have loved to gone out in the ocean and gotten up close to them, but they are protected from climbing and etc.. but still amazing to look at none the less
So many dogs on the beach. I love it. I wish we had that here!
Are you my twin?
Awesome driftwood that to me looked like a big seal staring at you!
While we were at Cannon Beach. We did run into a a little bit of the thug life. This little guy thought he was so street
After the beach excursion, we had to another famous beach spot. Mo's Chowder. Apparently, its been around since the 70's. It was tasty but not amazing. The views were gorgeous and the staff seemed to have been there since the 70's. So it was quaint.
Crab melt, crab stuffed avocado, coleslaw with mini shrimp on it and some type of local amber beer.
So its still Sunday afternoon and we had back to Portland to go check out the Pearl District. We first headed straight to a famous donut shop where not only can you buy donuts...you can also get married!
Ok folks, just to clear the air. I am not married but did have a delicious donut.
We walked down by the Whole Foods, Sur La Table, theater (see below)
and other places. This happens to be one of my favorite times in Portland. We crossed the street and there was this man giving away bunches of lavender. He gave us some and like a nerd. I asked to take his picture. He was so interesting to look at and of course the thought of someone giving away something is so odd to a person from LA. It really brightened my day! Too bad I had to leave the lavender at the hotel room!
Now, we have Noodles and Co back where we are from, but the building was so unique! The shutter happened to be on the wrong speed but I love how just the sign is illuminated in this picture
We headed back to the hotel room at this point and decided to get dressed for a fancy night out but almost all the places we wanted to go were either closed or only serving bar food. So we headed back Downtown and we drove to several places. I had bought a pair of shoes at Buffalo Exchange ( new ones!) and worn them and they were cutting of my toes circulation and squeaking really badly. So by the time we tried our third restaurant. I was pissed and sad that we weren't going to go somewhere really unique and we'd end up eating wings at the bar. So I took of my shoes and threw them to the corner. Now, that is kinda embarrassing that I got this mad but I swear these shoes were bad luck! I put on the flipflops I had kept in the car and we drove to one more place and it was still closed, but the people outside suggested Blue Hour. We previously thought that they were closed but we called and they were open! Apparently it had been so crazy busy they decided to stay open 3 hours later then normal! Yay for us! Amazing photos on there website. http://www.bluehouronline.com/
We went there and sat at the bar where we had the friendliest bartendar on earth. I was surprised because in LA. If you go somewhere posh, you must realize you probably wont get the best service if any! So we ordered a bunch of appetizers ( some recommendations from the bartender and some our own) and drinks. We had an amazing wine and relaxed and talked about our trip to Portland and how much we really loved this place. Even when we had our problem(finding a restaurant) Portland gave us some amazing locals to redirect us to BlueHour. It was as if Portland couldn't let us dislike it!
I love Portland and would move there in a heartbeat! There is this pure energy from the people that live there. So who knows maybe when LA has worn me down enough I'll pack my bags but for now I know I will be back!!
http://www.bluehouronline.com/
If you want to see pictures from last years trip click here! Our favorite location to stay is in the Moonridge area. Our cabin this year had an amazing view of the Big Dipper. We unfortunately, didnt' capture the big dipper but if you click on these pictures you will get a bigger size photo of some slow shutter speed night shots.
It is breath taking to see the stars like this. We viewed them from the decks of our cabin.
Got to have a cheesy picture of us to look back in 20 years!
We had to make sure we had enough libations for the weekend!
Beautiful yellow flowers that cover the mountain side
