Portland, Oregon

On Tuesday 2nd August we took another Bolt Bus to Portland, Oregon, arriving in the early afternoon. I had booked a 1-bedroom apartment through Air BnB for our two night stay. The apartment was great. It was located close to the river on the northern edge of the Pearl District, meaning it was walking distance to everywhere we wanted to go. Jason, the apartment owner was waiting to meet us and let us in when we arrived. He had moved into a new place and was renting his old apartment out while he waited for the lease to end. The University of Wisconsin was his alma mater, hence the giant badger print to remind him of his school's mascot!

Jason had kindly left us a taste of Portland in the form of some local coffee and chocolates, a small gesture which was much appreciated. 

Whereas Seattle was all about sight-seeing and cramming loads into a short space of time, Portland was much more relaxed. Will had visited a couple of times previously for conferences, so knew his way around. That afternoon we walked into the old town, mostly along the river trail. This bridge was cool, it was double-decker with traffic travelling in each direction having its own level.

One of the most popular things to do in Portland is visit Voodoo Doughnut. This is a local icon which started small, but now has several locations throughout Portland, and is also branching into other states. There was a queue to get into the store, but it was pretty quick-moving, helped by their 'cash-only' policy.    

Voodoo make over 50 types of doughnut, a selection of which you can see below.

Will and I both chose a McMinnville cream, which is a Bavarian custard filling with maple frosting. It was awesome! Will's second choice ended up being a ring doughnut with grape frosting and lavender sprinkles. He didn't actually know what it was when he chose it, he just thought it looked interesting... I'm a fan of the classics, so my second one was a raspberry jelly filled one. We had one of them each for dessert that evening, and the second one ended up being breakfast the following day!  

On Monday we had a big day wandering around and exploring the city. The Pearl District is a pretty 'hip and happening' place. The area used to be light industrial and full of warehouses, many of which have been repurposed into art galleries, apartments, cafes and breweries. There were some cool buildings around.

This was also a very cool wetlands park area.

We enjoyed browsing through Powell's Books, which is supposedly the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. It takes up a whole city block and has several floors. We were impressed that it had 3 shelves of books on keeping chickens! Will spent a long time perusing the graphic novel section. There were all sorts of interesting and rare items. He said that if we lived locally he could (and probably would!) spend a lot of money in that store...

Next we walked to Washington Park and visited the International Test Rose Garden. This place was amazing, so my sort of 'tourist attraction'. It is Trip Advisor's  top thing to do in Portland. There were about 550 different varieties of rose on show. A selection of them are below.

 The top I was wearing meant I could camouflage myself quite nicely...

The place was vast. It took us a long time to fully explore, and literally 'smell the roses'. Here are a few more pics.

Oregon is known for its amazing craft beer, so another 'must-do' was to visit a brew-pub. We chose Deschutes and sampled some very good beer. Will was in the mood for an IPA, whereas, after telling the barman the types of things I liked, he put together a bespoke tasting tray for me, filled with some amazing stouts and porters. He even included a couple of expensive ones from the reserve list for me at no extra cost which was nice of him.

Dinner that evening was some cheap and cheerful (and super fresh and tasty) Vietnamese, before catching an Uber back to our apartment. That was the end of our whistle-stop stay in Portland, although I definitely felt like I was there long enough to get a decent taste of the city. The next morning we were up nice and early, ready for our flight to San Francisco.