This past weekend was my birthday so Andrew and I celebrated by leaving Teddy with my parents and having our first ever baby-free weekend. We had talked about going out of town for a quick getaway but decided to stay home instead. Well on Saturday morning after we dropped off the squish, got back in the car and Andrew turns to me and says “let’s just go to Portland.”
So off we went.
Why We Went
As I said, it was my birthday weekend and we were kid-free so it was VERY spur of the moment. It had been a couple of years since I’ve been to Portland so it was fun to wander around the city with Andrew. The weather was perfect, crisp and sunny without being overly cold, we didn’t get stuck in any traffic either direction, and just overall had a really nice relaxing time.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at the Hyatt House Downtown Portland. It wasn’t right in the heart of downtown but off to one side and down by the river. It was pretty nice overall. There is a lovely riverside walk that will take you from the hotel right to the downtown area and it’s a 20-minute walk on flat terrain.
On past trips when we don’t have hotel reservations in advance, we always turn to TripAdvisor and Hotels.com. Using that combo always gets us a clean hotel for a decent price. It’s how we found the Hyatt House.
What We Did
Long story short, mainly a lot of wandering around.
We started a little later in the day than we normally would have started a trip like this so we only arrived around 5pm on Saturday. We started our trip by stopping in to visit Andrew’s younger brothers who also live in the area. After that, we made our way to our hotel, checked-in then scouted out the location. It’s so pretty down by the river that we just wandered on the river walk for a while before heading back to the car to head for dinner.
After dinner, we had three objectives. One, get some basic supplies like toothbrushes and contact lens solution for the overnight (like I said, it was VERY spur of the moment and we were totally unprepared). Two, get some birthday cake. Three, get back to the hotel in time for SNL. Luckily Portland has a city Target just a couple of blocks away from a vegan bakery that had some amazing treats so we managed all three.
On Sunday, we got an early start (thank you Daylight Savings) and headed into downtown to check out Powell’s Bookstore. If you’re ever in Portland, it’s a must-see location. Rooms and rooms filled with books on any and every topic you can imagine. After spending a couple of hours in Powell’s, we got brunch a couple of blocks away then started heading back towards our car. We meandered through Nordstrom thinking that I might see something for myself (happy birthday to me) and get it tax-free (no sales tax in Oregon, woot woot!) but neither of us was really in a shopping mood.
That was about it. Sunday ended up being a mostly phone-free day as neither of us brought chargers so our phones were dead. We stopped in at Andrew’s brothers’ place again on our way out of town but then we headed back to Seattle.
A quick note about parking in Portland. We learned the hard way that they are very persnickety about their parking rules in Portland. We ended up with a parking ticket because we put the sticker indicating that we paid to park in the incorrect window. SO INFURIATING! We also learned that, on Sundays, you only have to start paying for parking at 1pm BUT they start enforcing the two-hour parking rule at 10am. At the hotel, they mentioned that rule to us ahead of time luckily. Just a little FYI in case you’re driving and parking during your next trip to PDX.
What We Ate
We follow a whole food plant-based (vegan) diet so that filters a lot of our eating out options. Portland, however, has a bunch of great vegan restaurants so we didn’t lack food on this trip. I didn’t get many pictures of our food since I was too busy stuffing my face most places.
Virtuous Pie – Vegan pizza, which is one thing that I really miss about our whole foods plant-based diet – cheese. It was pretty good. I had the Ultraviolet and Andrew had the Margarita. WAY better than any vegan pizzas I attempt to make at home (they aren’t afraid to layer on the oil…) Everything is made in-house including the cashew-based cheeses. The only thing is that it was kind of expensive for what you get.
Petunia’s Pies & Pastries – Vegan and gluten-free heaven! All the cakes, pies, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and cookies that you’d expect to see at your local sweet shop except absolutely everything was vegan AND gluten-free. We got a slice of the dulce de leche cake and you’d never know that it was dairy-free. It was delish! 100% recommend making it a stop on your tour of Portland (it’s right downtown) plus their shop is very Instagramable.
Hyatt House Breakfast Bar – Our hotel included a very large breakfast selection. From an omelet bar to waffles and everything in between. We even had a pretty good selection of plant-based options for us including fruit, breakfast potatoes, oatmeal, bagels with all the fixings, and a wide range of cereals with almond milk.
NW Taco Time – It’s our go-to (and only) road trip/fast food option. Classic veggie burrito with extra pico, no cheese, and no ranch. Not much else to say about that.
Prasad – This was a nice brunch find. It’s inside a yoga studio which surprised us but the food was really good. Sadly they were out of waffles but we both thought that the scrambles we ended up eating were pretty good. They also have a full juice and smoothie bar along with the full menu.
What I Wore
I wasn’t planning on going for an overnight but my outfit worked out regardless. We took family photos earlier that morning so we looked nice if casual. These are basically the only jeans that I wear these days. High waisted, skinny, ankle-length, and about $40. I found this coat secondhand earlier this week and haven’t stopped wearing it since. I actually saw it on someone on Instagram a while back but realized that it was an old style. Low and behold a couple of weeks later, I see it in my size at my favorite consignment store while I was there picking up a check and dropping off more clothes. The universe works out so well sometimes.
Next time…
There are a bunch more vegan restaurants that I’d like to try. Prasad wasn’t our first choice but it ended up just being conveniently close to where we were at the time.
VooDoo Donuts is a Portland staple. I’ve seen people wait in lines around the block for those donuts before. Andrew however absolutely HATES donuts so that didn’t happen this time around.
Our hotel was right across the river from the OMSI Museum. They had a submarine docked outside, which looked interesting but that will probably be a stop for when Teddy is older. The same goes for the Portland Zoo, which my dad used to take me to visit when I was a kid.
Have you ever been to Portland, OR? Are there any really great spots that we should plan on seeing next time we visit our neighbors to the south?
Until next time,
Ana Luiza
