Portland: Food

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

Portland is a delicious foodie city!  While we were there, we definitely ate our fill.  A ton of places were walking distance (or a super quick Lyft) from our Airbnb in southeast Portland.  If you have a bad meal in Portland, you're doing it wrong.

Fifty Licks Ice Cream

Everyone talks about Salt & Straw (and their line is out the door), but another spot with a line out the door that we found was Fifty Licks.  Since it was in our Airbnb neighborhood, we ventured out for some scoops.  

I loved the smell of them making fresh waffle cones!  I got to see them making and shaping them as we waited in line.  There was limited seating, but we got our cones for walking since it was a bit crazy in there at the time.

As for the ice cream?  Buttery, fatty, deliciousness.  Just how ice cream is supposed to taste!  I'd highlight recommend it.

Cascade Brewing Barrel House
Just a quick (dark) pic from Cascade, because it's definitely worth mentioning.  Dan is a huge fan of good sour beers, so Cascade was a must-visit for us in Portland.  He liked the taproom, and they had a great selection.  While we didn't eat there, it's close to a lot of restaurants and serves its own food,  so you definitely should pop in for a visit.

Al-Amir Restaurant

We met up with my college buddy and his wife at one of their favorite Portland restaurants, Al-Amir.  Serving Lebanese and Mediterranean fare, I had no idea we were in for a family-style feast!  The food was fresh, aromatic, flavorful, and tasty.  It's unassuming from the outside, but once you're in you feel like family for sure.  Dan loves Lebanese food, especially lamb dishes.  We really enjoyed our meal at Al-Amir.

Screen Door 

One of the spots walking distance from our Airbnb (and highly recommended by our hosts) was Screen Door.  YES YES YES.  This place is a must!  I'm a huge fan of breakfast foods and brunch, and this place was awesome.  It was jam-packed with people too, always a good sign.

The food came in huge portions.  It was decadent.  I could eat there every day for a week and not get through all the things I wanted to try.  Again, I'm a breakfast fanatic, and this menu was amazing.  I went with the vanilla bean brioche French toast.  I think Dan got the waffle with fried chicken.  I loved every bite, and I'd love to come back here.

Blue Star Donuts
Here's another one where we went with a local reco over the iconic reco.  We'd eaten Voodoo Doughnuts in Austin, so we figured we should try the place that locals told us was even better: Blue Star Donuts.  These are seriously good doughnuts, but you'd be hard-pressed to finish more than one in a sitting!  So much flavor and density!   If you like a cake donut and foodie flavors, this place is for you.

Our one mistake?  We had no idea the day we decided to get these donuts was National Donut Day.  So basically it was perfect for Instagram, not perfect for lines.  We chose one particular Blue Star donut shop based on it being the most residential, so our line wasn't so bad as others faced that day.

EastBurn

EastBurn was another spot walking distance from our Airbnb.  We headed over looking for dinner, and this place also had a great list for beer and whiskey.  I loved the super hipster cage chairs hanging on their stage as seating, but Dan and I weren't up for braving them.  I totally have a fear that I'll sit in one and it'll fall and hurt my pride... and I might not be able to eat without making a mess! LOL

We made the mistake of ordering a delicious appetizer, meaning my (tasty) gut bomb of a sandwich was entirely too much food for me to finish, but boy was it flavorful.  I think I got the brisket sandwich, but looking back I was too busy inhaling it to remember months back.  I'm pretty sure it was the brisket, because a Korean inspired sauce is always my jam!

Do you have a favorite spot in Portland for great food and drink?

Portland: Washington Park

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

At the end of our vacation, Dan and I spent a couple of days in Portland.  I'll be honest, we were pretty worn out after a week of road-tripping, so we took it easy during our stay.  Portland is a great city.  While I think Seattle is more our style, we found that the food and beer in Portland is fantastic (follow-up post coming on that later), and we spent an entire day exploring one area: Washington Park.  We loved that once you get there, you can take shuttles around to different areas.  We hit up three of the big ones!

Oregon Zoo

We love zoos, so we often try to visit AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums when we're traveling to different cities.  This zoo is one of our favorites in the U.S. now, mostly because we absolutely fell in love with their elephant exhibit!  It's also really reasonably priced even for adult tickets, so we were fans.

We seriously could not get over these two elephants, little sister and big brother, as she nudged him to play in the water.  They were so active and animated, and they seemed really happy.  The rest of the elephants entered the water after them too.

Also of note, the restaurant at the zoo entrance is actually really good.  It's not badly priced, and the food was yummy.  So if you're hungry and in the park, it's a safe bet to grab a bite there.

International Rose Test Garden

This garden is actually a public park!  You can visit it free of charge.  In 1917, a group of enthusiasts in Portland came up with the idea to have an American rose test garden, and now they are sent tons of roses from all over the world to "house" together here.  There are over 7,000 rose plants of approximately 550 varieties in the gardens.

I was just in love with the variety!  The sizes, the colors... the yellows were probably my favorite (it's my fav color after all!) but the huge roses with a zillion petals made my heart swoon.  Even Dan really enjoyed literally taking time to stop and smell the roses.

Portland Japanese Garden

This garden involves a LOT of walking, y'all.  So just be prepared.  But it's got eight garden styles and some beautiful settings and zoos.  It's not a cheap price of entry for what you get to see, but if you're at the nearby rose garden it's an easy add-on to your Washington Park visit.  There's also some great views, since you climb a huge hill to get to everything.

Isn't the view stunning?  Mount Hood is there in the background, but being in the Japanese garden I kept thinking it could be Mount Fuji LOL.

Washington Park was probably our favorite place overall in Portland!

P.S.  We really loved our Airbnb (see it here).  It was a little basement efficiency unit for two people (no full kitchen, but we didn't need one!) with separate entrance and safe neighborhood for walking.  It was nice and cozy, and we loved the area and its restaurants.  Sign up for Airbnb here with my referral link for $40 off your first trip!

More than the Goonies: Visiting Astoria, Oregon

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

When we were planning our trip, we knew we wanted to visit Newport, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.  So we had to figure out what to do in the middle, a stopping point for a night of our road trip up the coastal 101... and I happened upon a cute bed & breakfast in Astoria, Oregon.  So after Newport, that was our next destination!

Astoria is the oldest U.S. settlement west of the Rockies, named for John Jacob Astor whose fur company founded the first settlement there.  As a results of its early founding, this small city is filled with incredible historic buildings and architecture.

Fortunes in Astoria have risen and fallen over time, but we can tell the city is on the up and up.  While some houses needed attention, many have beautifully been restored.  New businesses and restaurants are popping up too.  I would love to have one of the old Victorian homes in the area!  Quite a few have become bed and breakfasts, and ours was within walking distance of so many things.

One of the things that put Astoria on the map in modern times?  The Goonies.  Yup, that movie was filmed here, and the Oregon Film Museum is now located in the old county jail.  You'll recognize quite a few buildings and areas from the movie.  The "Goonie house" however is not so visible these days; legions of movie fans have harassed its poor owner over the years, so she has obscured most of the house from view.  But we were content to just take in the town!

We were only in Astoria for one night, but we'd already picked out where we were going to grab dinner: Fort George Brewery.  Craft beers for the win.  And I absolutely love the building it inhabits!

The beers were good, and the food was delicious.  It was a modern, fun atmosphere, definitely with a modern vibe.  It's nice to see the old and new combine in Astoria.  We didn't get to eat at the cafe/bakery under the brewery, because our lodging included breakfast, but I read it's good!

One iconic sight to see is the Astoria Column, built in 1926.  It was one of a series of planned historical markers constructed between St. Paul, Minnesota and Astoria by the president of the Great Northern Railroad at the time.

It's $5 to access the column, which is good for a year if you leave nearby.  You can even climb the column, and toss a little wooden glider plane if you'd like.  But I think it's worth it for the view.  We didn't even climb the column, and we really enjoyed it!

We really loved the architecture and old charm of Astoria.  I don't know if we'll ever return, but perhaps we'll drive past this way again someday!  I really think that a full day or two in this town is enough to really appreciate it.

Worth mentioning, Astoria is just 40 minutes away from the photographically famed Cannon Beach, known for its iconic Haystock Rock.  We actually stopped at this beach on our way up from Newport to Astoria, but opted not to stay there because it was a bit pricier.

In hindsight, I would have enjoyed more time exploring Cannon Beach, and our resort in Newport has a sister resort there.  It was definitely more packed with tourists and visitors than Astoria, though, and it doesn't have the same historic architecture.

Dan hates taking pictures, LOL

Gosh, I wish I could own one of those old historic homes in Astoria!

Pin the image below to save this post for later.

Wild Coastal Charm: Visiting Newport, Oregon

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

During our trip to the Pacific Northwest, we spent two nights in Newport, Oregon.  It was late May, so the weather wasn't your stereotypical summer beach temperature, but it didn't detract at all from the wild, natural beauty of the shore!

We stayed at the Hallmark Resort, where every room as a true ocean view.  It also has an adjoining restaurant, Georgie’s Beachside Grill, which even offers room service!  We dined in the restaurant for dinner, and it was absolutely packed with people.  Luckily, we were able to call ahead from our room.  For dinner, we had the "diablo" tenderloin bites to start, and I had a gorgeous and delicious blackberry barbeque salmon salad.  We loved the food at Georgie's so much, we ordered their breakfast for room service the next day.  I ate it so wholeheartedly, I didn't even snap a photo!

Georgie's wasn't the only tasty spot in town.  We had amazing blueberry pancakes, literally bigger than your face, at The Coffee House.  Just a little spot along the water, it was absolutely packed for breakfast.  It's always a good sign when you pick the restaurant that's full of people, right?  I had to snag a table while Dan placed our order.  We could have shared a single pancake between us!

Dan loves aquariums, and I've grown fond of them as well.  The Oregon Coast Aquarium was definitely on our list, as we like to make sure to visit AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums.  This one was definitely a good one to visit if you're in the area.  It's hard to visit smaller aquariums after visiting some like Georgia Aquarium or Aquarium of the Smokies, but I loved the indoor and outdoor components of this one!  Those seals and otters were fun to see, and we loved the tunnel where we could see a bunch of sharks and fish.  I recommend buying your ticket in advance to save time in line.

We also walked along the bay front near Rogue Ales and the aquarium, which was absolutely beautiful once the sun peeked out from behind the clouds!

The natural beauty of the area just can't be ignored!  We drove up to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, parking near their lighthouse to see the view and tidepools.  You do have to pay admission, but I think it's well worth it to help maintain such a pretty spot.

It was so lush and green, I felt like I was in another country, maybe Ireland?  We could see birds and seals in the distance.  There were a lot of people about, but it didn't take away from the experience as we explored.  It would be great for families who have curious older kids interested in kelp, sea anemones, tides, etc.

I loved the sound on the rocks as we walked to the tide pools.  Dan was like a kid, looking for sea anemones and pointing out mussels and fish to me.  Nerd marriages are the best!

We also drove down to another cove in the park, which had lovely views too!  We could see more seals or sea lions (hard to tell, bring binoculars!) chilling out.  We could see surfers from our vantage point too.

Our last stop was a sort of natural wonder, Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area.  This one was a little pit stop, and free too.  One theory is that the hollowed rock formation was caused by a cave ceiling collapse.  People hiked down into the bowl, and you hear some fantastic water echoes!  There's a picnic area nearby too.

Newport was full of natural beauty and things to see!  I think you can experience pretty much everything you'd like in a weekend, and add things like whale watching or sailboats and surfing.  It was nice to hear the ocean roar.  I miss the view of the sea from our balcony!

Have you added Newport to your travel wishlist yet?

Pin the image below to save this post!

Beer From Ground to Glass: Rogue Ales & Spirits

Every year, Dan and I try to take a week-long vacation as a couple.  For our 2017 trip, we decided to take a road trip through parts of Oregon and Washington!

When you're married to a craft brewer, every vacation includes a taste of beer.  On our Pacific Northwest adventure, after flying into Portland, we started the trip off with a pit stop in Independence, Oregon, to visit Rogue Farms, where they grow hops and other ingredients for Rogue Ales recipes. 

Rogue also has spirits to call its own too, so it's come a long way from its basement beer operations in 1987!  It was listed as #30 in 2016's Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies by size, so you've likely seen it in your local bottle shop.

As most farms are, this one is out in the country!  There's ample parking, but no air conditioning.  But there's cold beer on tap, and you can bring a picnic if you want.  Tons of outdoor seatings and clean portajohns for your convenience.

If you come at the right time, there's a free tour.  You can see the lay of the farm as well as the hops harvesting and processing facilities.  We've toured a zillion breweries before, but this was the first hops operation we'd visited!  I was surprised to learn that the U.S. produces much of the hops for the globe, not just our own country, and the Pacific Northwest is where most of it is grown.

I wish we'd been there during the right timing to see the hop cones on the vines, or to see the harvest.  Those would be fantastic things to experience at Rogue Farms!  But I still loved that happy feeling of having a cold beer amongst the hop vines in Oregon.

As we continued our journey, we reached our first overnight stop, in Newport.  This also happens to be the home of Rogue's brewery.  You have FOUR Rogue options in Newport.  The Rogue Ales Public House is on Bay Blvd., and the Bed 'n' Beer is above it.  Yes, you can stay overnight above the bar!  There's also Rogue House of Spirits, if liquor is your preference.

We decided to visit Rogue's Brewers on the Bay, their two-story brewpub by the Marina near the aquarium.  You can take tours of the brewery and distillery, and pick up bottles and merch too.  In fact, to get to the brewpub and sales room, you walk through part of the brewery itself!

There's almost always going to be a wait, as it's a popular destination in town, but we found that having our party be 21+ in age meant we could be seated in the bar and not just the brewpub.  Score!

We tasted a number of their beers, which had some really great flavors!  They usually have 40 beers on tap.  We each got a full beer, which we ate with our tasty burgers, as well as some tasters to sample together.  That's the nice thing about traveling with my husband: we get to share samplers!  I think the only one that wasn't my speed was the chipotle ale.  Smoky flavors in a beer aren't my thing; but they had hazelnut and chocolate flavors in others that I loved!

There are even collaborative beers with my favorite Iron Chef, Morimoto.  I think that's pretty cool!  And you can even peek into the brewery from many of the tables within the brewpub.

We definitely enjoyed visiting both sides of Rogue Ales, from ground to glass!