Portland, Oregon

I came here to one of my favorite cities to visit Brentwood before he went up to Alaska for the summer. He was finishing up his coding bootcamp and internship here. We stayed at his small apartment on Burnside, which is just blocks from downtown. It took awhile to adjust to the small and smelly apartment and communal bathrooms but the convenience of being so close to so much going on was worth it. So while he was working I took his bike to explore the city. My first stop was Powell's Books, of course. I hunted for cheap books and wrote two of my blogs from their cafe. My second stop was Voodoo Doughnuts, of course. I love this funky doughnut shop and my favorite doughnut there is the Portland cream. This place represents the quintessential Portland to me and that's why I keep going back.

The official doughnut of Portland, the Portland Cream

Voodoo Doughnuts

I also rode his bike to the Willamette River and spent many days reading at the waterfront park or running along the river and across one of the many bridges.

Hawthorne Bridge raising to let a boat pass

Waiting on the Hawthorne Bridge

The Willamette River

I had access to great vegetarian food via food trucks, which is something I usually don't have access to so it was always a fun experience to try something new.

Food trucks

 

Fabulous Falafel

Eating lunch downtown

I was also on a mission to check out local breweries. Rogue, Deschutes, McMenamins to name a few.

Rogue Brewery

Deschutes Brewery

Portland is known as the City of Roses and May/June is the perfect time to go and smell the roses so that's exactly what we did.

One of the many rose gardens in the city

Beautiful color

Best smelling

Brentwood took me to Live Wire, which is a live radio show. We heard comedians, musical groups and had an all around great time. Then we got ice cream at Salt & Straw on Alberta St. They had some crazy flavors such as pear w/bleu cheese but I got something more my style and it is probably the best ice cream I have ever had - and I've had a lot of ice cream to the point that I consider myself an ice cream connoisseur. Later I saw that it was ranked in the top ten best ice cream shops in the country.

At the Alberta Rose Theater

Sea salt & caramel

Then one day we took a trip up the Columbia Gorge to Hood River and Mt Hood, to my old stomping grounds. We stopped to explore a couple waterfalls and play disc golf along the way. We also scaled log jams and walked in cold water in Oneonta Gorge.

Wahkeena Falls

Bwood by the falls

Multnomah Falls

Brentwood & me at the falls

620 ft falls

Oneonta Gorge

Oneonta Gorge

We had lunch and beer at Full Sail Brewery in Hood River. Then we headed up to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. I had never checked it out while I worked at Meadows so it was nice to finally see it. You can also ski there year round since it's located by the Palmer Glacier.

I love this mountain

The peak from Timberline Lodge

So there's too much more to share so I will be making another blog post for my remaining time spent in Portland.  
Rowing on the Willamette, Rose Festival, the Oregon Coast, and a surprise in the next post...