Travel Diary: Portland, Oregon

Hello everyone,

During the last week of March, I was able to leave for a pretty exciting trip over spring break. Over finals, I was talking to my mom and telling her how bummed I was about not being able to plan a fun trip over break. A couple days later she came to me with a plan: road tripping it down to Portland and exploring the city. Of course I thought that was a pretty solid idea, thus we set out on March 27th and spent four days exhausting our feet and feasting our eyes while exploring the beautiful city of Portland.

So you can't really go to Portland and not eat lots of food, right? Thanks to a friend of mine, we were reccomenned an adorable local breakfast place called Gravy. It was very popular, as the wait time was quite long, but the food was pretty good and the place itself was adorable. My mom and I filled up on coffee and breakfast, then we explored the town around the diner we ate it. Sadly I didn't think to take any pictures, but it was the cutest little community, I would definitely revisit. 

Quite a lot of our time was spent exploring downtown Portland and checking out the different shops. One of the highlights was visiting Powell's, a three-story bookstore that takes up an entire block. it was probably the mostly beautiful place I've ever been, but I was an idiot and didn't take one decent picture (yes so much shame). 

But Portland overall is just a really lovely city. There were so many interesting looking buildings all over, just randomly in the middle of the city. It was really cool to see all the contrast from street to street, and of course attempting to take some pictures of them. I was also really struck by how clean the city was. I've been to a few well known, large cities and more often than not they smell a bit funky and have quite the amount of garbage along the streets. Portland was quite nice and felt very safe to walk wherever, which is always a plus. 

Another really cool place we got to visit was the Portland Art Museum. I really enjoy art, even though I'm a terrible artist myself, so it was really cool to see all different paintings and artists under one roof. There are so many different expressions of art, some I find quite breathtaking and some I am completely confused by, but all in all I had a good time. Plus, I got to see a Monet and Van Gogh painting! I was pretty excited about that, not going to lie. 

Again, I just really really adore the variety of buildings here in Portland, they're all so beautiful in their own way. I especially loved this pink skyscraper, isn't it just adorable? I have no idea what goes on in there, but I would love to work/live in a pink-tinted skyscraper.

After exploring the art museum for a bit, mom and I continued to explore downtown some more. We may or may not have done a bit (or a lot) of shopping. I don't know what it is, but there's something about being on vacation that makes spending money on yourself a lot easier than it is at home. I'm proud to say I didn't go too crazy, but I did buy a few things I probably didn't need. Even so, it was a lot of fun shopping with my mom and walking around the city.

Another really beautiful thing about Portland is its park along the water. As it was spring, it was the time of year when the cherry blossoms are blooming, making it even prettier than normal. It made quite the beautiful spot, and we were able to get some cool pictures. I thought it was a pretty cool spot, if I lived in Portland, it would definitely be a place I would go to often.

One of the last things we did before heading out the next morning was stop at Voodoo Doughnuts. It's likely you've heard of this place, as it is quite popular and actually part of the reason I wanted to visit the city as a whole (hey no judgment, people do crazy things for what they're passionate about). And I'm happy to report that these doughnuts are so worth the hype and trip down. No joke, they are without a doubt the yummiest doughnuts I've ever tasted. They were so fluffy and like eating something an angel made and dropped from heaven. Okay so I might be exaggerating, but gosh they were good.

All in all, I may have completely fallen in love with this city. I mean, how could you not? Beautiful buildings, a giant bookstore, super duper clean, and heavenly doughnuts, what's not to like? Aesthetically, it's quite the beautiful spot and totally worth the trip to visit. I may or may not be considering going again sometime this summer...we'll see. ;)

Have you visited Portland yet? If not, why?? Because you totally should and then let me know so I can meet you and we can go book shopping and eat doughnuts. Speaking of doughnuts, what are your favorite flavors? Are you a traditional person, or do you put weird things on your doughnuts, like cereal or bacon?

Hope you had a lovely Easter,

Elizabeth

Hey There April

Hello,

Wow, it's April, April!! I'm not quite sure where all the time has gone, seriously it feels like March went by in a flash. The first half of March was spent stressing over finals and the SATs, and then the second half was spent working and enjoying spring break. Now it's April and I'm back at it with school. But March, although as fast as it went by, it was quite an enjoyable month. Even with stressful finals, it was nice to check off a lot of stuff off my to-do list. I'm quite looking forward to April as well, along with the upcoming months. A lot of exciting things are happening (awesome classes, weddings, new jobs) and I'm pretty pumped to share a few of my life happenings with all you lovely people this spring.

Currently// housesitting for Elissa's family and chilling with her adorable dog, taking some awesome new classes at my community college, face timing Julia just because she's awesome, low key in love with my new blog design, attempting to create a pretty note-taking system for art history, trying to catch up on school so I can graduate, taking senior pictures, and writing a mini novel in verse (maybe).

Reading// A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and let me tell you, I'm really not a fan. The writing, although not bad, is not the type of style I enjoy, the main character is very distant and the narrative is just super odd. The story itself is also just not my favorite. I then started Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and wow I'm in love and only 40 pages in. I adore Anne's style of writing and Agnes herself is such a real character. So far so good.

Listening// I've been listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack nonstop lately. I went and saw the movie a couple weeks ago with a friend, and then my mom and I went and saw it again while on our trip in Portland, and I fell in love with it even more. Classic music, plus the 2017 version has Obi Wan singing so obviously it's fantastic. 

Enjoying// Julia's post, where is the beauty (because whoa she is so talented and gives me all the feels). Elissa's post, hey there tired soul (because everyone needs to hear these words). Addy's post, two months (because everything about this was breathtaking). Raquel's post, The Righteous In This City (because God is good and it was so thought provoking). Cally's post, hope (because everything she writes makes me cry and I love her). And Clara's post, fragile (because so much scary truth).

Loving// spontaneous facetimes with awesome people, sunny days giving me excuses to wear sandals, road-trips with my lovely mother, bookstores that take up an entire block, buying new sweaters because discounts, Carl's Jr.'s waffle fries, starting new art journals, and spring break allowing me to sleep in and relax a little bit.

Disliking// rush hour traffic, yummy french fries making me fat, starting school again and forcing myself to wake up early, scaring myself by watching criminal minds before I go to bed, forgetting to pack food and my stomach making scary noises during class, headaches, and excessive ammounts of rainy days. 

Blogging// Hey There March, where I talk about my February happenings and March goals. Blessed is the One Whom God Corrects // Job 3-5, where I talk about Job and how God uses trials to shape us. And Top Five Winter Reads + Reading Stats, where I talk about my favorite reads of the past few months and how my reading year is going.

Hoping// to figure out how each of my classes work, get my SAT scores back, find out if I get accepted to my top college, force myself to work out more, eat out less, join a small group and dig deeper into God's word, and laugh more than I roll my eyes. 

How was your March? Any exciting spring break trips coming up (or ones that already happened?) And seriously can you believe it's April already? Guys where is the time going, this year is going by crazy fast.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Elizabeth