#pdx

 

Mark and I escaped for three days to celebrate our 10th anniversary in Portland, Oregon.

 

So, 10 years of marriage is pretty great. But, Portland...ah Portland...Portland is fantastic! Loved. It. ALLLLL of it! The neighborhoods, the people, the FOOD! Sooooo much great food! We're pretty spoiled in Chicago with a stellar food scene, so I often find myself disappointed with restaurants when we travel. But, Portland delighted my mouth and stomach--from the simple fried egg sandwiches at the Fried Egg, I'm in Love food truck to the 10-course gourmet magic at Roe, it was all spectacular. Not one bad bite! (Quick run down of restaurants/food trucks...Fried Egg I'm in Love, Olympia Provisions, Lardo, Tasty N Sons, Roe, Screen Door, Por Que Non?, Salt & Straw, and Han Oak--check them out online and drool!!!)

 

Let's talk people for a minute...Portland people are the nicest people I've ever encountered.  Everywhere we went we met super nice, friendly people. And not in a fake way either. I loved all our encounters (except maybe the Uber driver who almost hit a woman pushing a stroller. But even as horrible a driver as she was, she was totally friendly! She felt really bad about almost hitting that baby.) I loved the "free to be me" vibe where people can let their freak flags fly and no one bats an eye. People go on about the homeless situation in Portland, and yeah, there's a lot of it, but I didn't find it grossly more noticeable than Chicago, and we only had one person ask us for change--and did so in a pretty unobtrusive way. When I worked downtown,I could get violently screamed at three to four times on my walk from Union Station to my office.
 

Eating and drinking composed about 85% of our time, but we did hit up the Japanese Garden and made it out of the city to the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls, stopping at a few hiking trails along our route. The forests are gorgeous...so lush and green! They felt enchanted--I kept expecting fairies and gnomes to cross our paths.
 

When we weren't taking in nature or stuffing our faces, we just roamed the neighborhoods, checking out the houses and small shopping districts. And when we weren't doing that we RELAXED and did NOTHING at our hotel. It was amazing, wonderful, sorely needed time to ourselves.
 

Three days went way too fast, but we enjoyed every minute. Happy 10th to us! Portland, I hope to see you again!

Mark + Kylie + PDX 4eva!!!