When talking about this trip, I often say we went to Portland, we really got a good taste of the NW region. We kept Portland weird, you can read about it below, went to Oregon’s wine region, Willamette (read about it here), and then of course, highly recommended, went to the coast (read the blog post here). You can see how I packed here.

Planning this trip was almost as exciting as going on it - no one has had a bad experience in Oregon. We lucked out with perfect weather for all 6 days and stayed away from the area with wildfires. Luckily that area was much more inland and south of our plans. We kept track of the wildfires with this website. The state of Oregon was also following similar COVID protocols as Chicago which made me feel pretty confident in traveling there.

We stayed in a very convenient neighborhood that was 15 minutes from the Portland Airport (PDX) and NE of downtown. Our airbnb was in the Alberta Arts District, walking distance to the “strip” that had coffee, great food and breweries. We also loved the house we stayed in; it was clean and well stocked .

We Ate and Drank:

Albert Arts District has several restaurants, breweries and coffee roasters. Our first morning, we enjoyed coffee and breakfast at Proud Mary Coffee and then walked around to the micro-clusters of restaurants and breweries around the neighborhood. Started with gluten free beer at Mutantis, stopped by Tough Luck bar and had the best mussels (and beer) at Breakside Brewery. And of course we got Salt & Straw. It’s as good as everyone says 😊 We had several restaurant recommendations for downtown Portland and by process of elimination by reservation availability, we ate at Canard and Andina and got drinks at Rontoms. We also grabbed donuts from Blue Star, the local favorite. One restaurant that I received several recommendations but closed during the pandemic was BEAST. The owners did reopen with a reimagined concept, but we were unable to check it out. Deschutes Brewery downtown ended up being closed so we went to 10 Barrel Brewery which had awesome food with a great rooftop!

We Saw:

We visited the Japanese Garden’s as well as the International Rose Gardens. And even after Portland’s heatwave (which we missed!), the roses were still very much in bloom and the smell was so incredible! On a clear day, there are great views of Mount Hood from the Rose Gardens and Japanese Gardens. If we knew ahead of time, the Japanese Garden’s is nestled in Washington Park which has more hiking trails within city limits. We explored downtown Portland and perused Powell’s Bookstore - one of the largest bookstores in the US. A great place to for Portland gifts!

We got around Portland by foot, lyft and public transportation with Hop Pass

Day Trip from Portland:

A quick day trip from Portland is hiking to Multnomah Falls. Don’t get intimidated by this hike. You can make it as easy or challenging as you prefer. You can see the fall from the road and it takes about 10 minutes to get to the bridge. If you would prefer a more challenging hike, you can continue to the top of the waterfall.

After hiking to Multnomah Falls, we continued on to the Hood River area. Our main goal was to hit up pFriem Family Brewery so whatever happened in between pretty much was a bonus. We did have the intention of walking the Bridge of the Gods, but found out there wasn’t a sidewalk or area for pedestrians to walk safely. Otherwise, we were interested in walking over to Washington (the state) to see the view of Portland. We were successful in buying fresh smoked salmon under the Bridge of the Gods, so you could say it’s a win-win 🤷‍♀️ Once we got to pFriem Family Brewery, we decided to get beers-to-go and swam in the Hood River Waterfront Park while our table became available.

We had several suggestions that we did not get to: Pittock Mansion Hike & Tour / Vista House