Exploring Portland Oregon

| January 27, 2017 |

Contrary to what you may believe from my previous post, I did not spend all 48 hours in the Portland area eating donuts (though, if you read it, you’d know where I was getting my donuts from).

Portland wasn’t really as “weird” as it claims to be. It actually seemed quite grounded. And filled with good beer and vibes. Also I’m somewhat obsessed with Powell’s City of Books. Not too far outside of Portland is Mt. Hood National Forest, where I was blessed with an incredible trail run to a waterfall.

Not too shabby, Portland!

The streets of Portland have a simple and free feeling to them. It’s certainly a liberal town, though not as strikingly liberal as Olympia, Washington, where was residing. I adored the older feel to some of the streets, neon signs, and the relatively quiet streets. For a major city, I definitely expected more hustle and buslte on a Saturday!

Powell’s City of Books

I can’t wait another second to share my love for this place. As the “largest used and new book store in the world” and over one million books, this place is an avid reader’s dream and time capsule. I meandered through the various floors and greater than 3,000 categories. Check out its Burnside location map here, and be prepared to feel overwhelmed with all you want to explore. I found myself drawn to the metaphysics, Pacific Northwest, philosophy, psychology, Pacific Northwest, and travel sections. I discovered Alan Watts and Thich Nhat Hahn books I hadn’t known existed, and I had to constrain myself from purchasing too many books. In a later trip to Powell’s, I also picked up my first Tom Robbins book from the PNW section.

It really is a heavenly place.

Brews on Brews

There are SO MANY breweries in Portland, I can’t emphasize that enough. I didn’t really get to explore too much of them while in the city, but I’ve had their beers outside of Portland. I definitely plan to explore some of them next time I return to Portland, but for this time around, we went to Portland Brewing for some tastings and food. See a complete list of Portland’s breweries here and try not to be too overwhelmed.

Mt. Hood National Forest

The weekend was topped off by a visit to Ramona Falls in a 7.0 mile hike/trail run. It was a perfect Sunday morning and I was excited to get up close and personal with a new mountain. Although the road leading to the trail head was filled with many pothole obstacles, it was worth it! There weren’t too many people on the trail, we got to cross a sketchy tree stump across a river, and the falls were even more magnificent than I could’ve imagined. I would have sat and listened to them all day.