Portland Visits

Portland has a vibrant culture surrounded around art, literature, and music - all things you’d an easily find in downtown Portland. I am a huge book lover, so one of the first things I wanted to do was go to the famous Powell Books. It has 5 stories and a vast collection of new and used books and literature to get lost in. They also have a cafe inside, from which we got coffee and breakfast as we browsed the shelves. Even if you aren’t a book fiend, it’s fun to see and a staple in the Portland area.

Depending on the day, lots of the neighborhoods in Portland have farmers markets with food vendors, fresh produce, and material vendors. On Saturdays, the Portland Farmers Market is at the Portland State Campus at SW Park, which is the one we went to. There is also one in Lake Oswego, right on the lake, which I have also been to. We milled around the market and tried some of the local food vendors. They also have live music to sit and enjoy, and it’s fun to walk around the PSU campus too!

A day in the city isn’t complete without a trip to Salt and Straw, a very popular ice cream shop with wild flavors. We stopped in and got a couple scoops. After that, we continued to just explore downtown Portland. There is an awesome light rail system that can take you all over the city for relatively cheap, where you can find live music, shopping, and great food. Nike’s headquarters are there, so we went and visited their huge store just for kicks (pun intended)!

We took a day trip to the famous Multnomah Falls, about 45 minutes north of Portland. Once there, we took a hike up the side of the waterfall to the top where the river falls over the cliff. You can get gorgeous pictures of the famous bridge and falls from below and above, and it is a relatively short and moderate hike to do. You can hike as far back as you’d like once you are on the top. We brought a picnic lunch, and stopped midway on the hike to enjoy it. We spent a few hours there before heading home to wash up for dinner. We went to Lil Shalom in downtown Portland, a really fun spot for Mediterranean food - and reasonably priced! We found a local bar for drinks afterwards and spent the rest of the evening doing a little bar hopping.