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