Portland: 2022
I got home on Sunday from my first ever trip to Portland, and my first sister's trip. My older sister, younger sister, and three oldest nieces packed up to do three amazing days in Portland. I'll be honest, three days is not enough to do the city justice, but here is what I packed in.
Day One
We landed a little after 9:30am on the first day, leaving us with a whole day ahead to have fun. We started by grabbing breakfast at Blend Coffee which had amazing food and a nice quiet vibe. After we ate, we went to our Air BnB to get settled in.
We stayed in the Overlook neighborhood in a lovely three bedroom home, which worked perfectly for the six of us. All of the kids were excited to pick out their rooms and sleeping buddies while the adults were excited about the upcoming day and lovely home decor. My little sister even pointed out that they had the same bear spoon our mom used to have that we loved as kids.
After we were all settled in, my older sister and I headed to the most mandatory stop, The New Amsterdam. They had great workers and even better prices on all their goodies, we even found the cutest lighters ever.
Our next stop was an adorable pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island. They had everything you could want in a pumpkin patch, a small store, food, a corn maze, an animal barn, kid's games, hay rides and more. We ate lunch here before moving on with the rest of our days itinerary.
Next we had an important mission, visiting Bella Swan's house. My oldest niece is a huge Twilight fan, so there was no way we were going to miss this. Personally, I'm not that into Twilight but it was cool to see the house and see how happy my nieces were to be there.
Our last activity for the day was going to Halloweentown. I honestly wasn't aware of how many movie sites there were to visit around here. The place was incredibly fun and had so many picture-worthy moments.
After we had crossed off every to-do for the day, we stopped by Safeway to grab some food and watched Halloweentown together.
Day Two
On the second day we woke up early to grab breakfast at Voodoo Doughnut. They had a cute space, a photo booth, and the coolest donut selection. My personal favorite was the Old Dirty Bastard, followed by Cock N' Balls. I ended up ordering the Caramel Macchiato donut which was delicious.
Next we went to the Portland Food Hall to eat lunch with my older sister's friend Morgan and her adorable baby. They had quite a few food vendors to pick from and a nice chill vibe.
After we ate we went to Powell's Books. This bookstore was surprisingly big and had a ton of used and new books to choose from. I really enjoyed their 'banned books' section and how they support local authors.
We left the bookstore and got ready to go to the Japanese Garden. There was a short walk up to the garden which was very scenic and refreshing. Inside the garden were tons of gorgeous plants, a tea room, a gift shop and an art gallery.
After the garden, we went back to our Air BnB, ordered the kids a pizza and got ready to go out with Morgan and her sister. We went somewhere delicious to get dinner (I forgot where, sorry) and to the Radio Room which had a great halloween menu.
Day Three
Our last day was the day to pack in everything else we wanted to do while we were here. We woke up early and stopped by the Plaid Pantry for some quick breakfast food and drove to Forest park to see the Witch's Castle and the Cullen house.
The Witch's Castle had a lovely half-mile hike leading up to it which was a lot of fun and insanely gorgeous. The castle itself was beautiful, however has a lot of graffiti on it (adds to the character in my opinion.) The castle was a previous home to some park bathrooms and murders.
After we left Forest Park, we went to grab brunch with Morgan, her baby, her sister and her husband. We had planned to go to Jam but their wait time was pretty long, so we ended up at The Eastburn. I ordered the bread pudding french toast, and if you know about my dad's obsession with bread pudding it makes it more funny.
Next, we were out to do some more shopping at a few thrift stores and some other cute shops. I was surprised by how cheap the thrift stores here were and found so many little treasures. We also stopped into Psychic Sister and Wild Cactus which were some of the best stores I've ever been to.
After our shopping was all done, we got the kids some Indian food and the adults went to Spitz. They had amazing food and a hilarious name. Then we went to get a drink at the Advice Booth which kind of sounds like a lame bar for old men, but I promise it wasn't. There was a hilarious vending machine that I got a tarot reading out of and the drinks were 10/10.
Things We Missed
Three days and six people does not leave a lot of time to tackle everything in Portland we wanted to see, so here are some things we thought sounded cool that I'll probably be back to check out.