The PNW Diaries: Welcome to Portland

The PNW Diaries: Welcome to Portland

• January 6, 2014

I'm finally back in the beautiful New York City and I can't wait to share all my Pacific Northwest adventures with you guys! A huge thank you to all of my lovely guest bloggers for keeping this blog warm while I was away. :)

Jeremy and I spent our first full day in Portland, Oregon exploring the Northwest section (where we were also conveniently staying). Angela, you're absolutely right about how lovely it is there. We took Gwyn's suggestion and started off our day at Stumptown coffee. Turns out there's a Stumptown coffee shop in New York City as well, but hey, good coffee is good coffee no matter what coast you're on. And dude, that decor man. Any hipster would feel right at home there so I pretended to be as hip as possible as I strutted through those doors and placed my order as aloof as I possibly could.

Next on the list was a healthy feast of Voodoo Donuts for breakfast. The line was out the door but we decided to wait anyway just for the novelty of it. Plus, Jeremy can't say no to a doughnut. I gotta say though, their donuts were incredible and the line was worth the wait. We ended up sharing an order of the Blazer Blunt Donut (ha) and the Maple Bacon (of course). I was pretty tempted to get an entire dozen but what were we going to do...have them for lunch and dinner as well? (The answer is yes. Yes, we should have).

Next, Jeremy really wanted to stop by the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Chinatown since he loves all things Asian (obviously). It was such a beautiful little oasis in the middle of the city and was actually built by artisans from Portland's sister city in China, Suzhou. I would definitely recommend stopping by here for a nice stroll and a slice of Chinese culture. There's also a lovely tea house within the Garden with a great selection of teas and appetizers. Noms.

Forever 21 Brown Coat (similar) | American Apparel Black Crop Top (similar) | ASOS Khaki Dress (similar) | Urban Outfitters Hat (similar), Satchel, Ankle Boots (similar) | Gap Arm Warmers (similar) 

We spent the rest of the evening at Powell's bookstore (thanks for the suggestion, Sonya!) which was the one thing that absolutely sold Portland for me. Well, besides the multitude of food trucks. You can always win me over if you can win my belly over. You want a book? You got it. I could've stayed there for hours on end getting lost within the bookshelves. I ended up picking up Me Talk Pretty One Day to read on our long bus rides. 

And to top off our night, we couldn't not check out some of the Portland brews. We ended up picking Bailey's Taproom so we could try as many local brews as possible in one night. Glug glug glug.