It wouldn’t be proper to live in Oregon and not make the journey to one of the most unique towns in all of the country, Portland. There is a certain allure to the controlled chaos that comes along with the “Keep Portland Weird” movement that incites us! Also, coming to Oregon set in motion the goal to see all of the family we could while we were here. After my mom’s visit earlier in the summer, we were only left with seeing my Grandma Pat before our time in Oregon was over. This made a long weekend in the big city an easy decision to make. We knew it was going to be a journey to get up to Portland from Brookings, but made a plan to make an adventure out of it! With a total of 12 hours of driving across the state, we had a few side quests plugged into this fun-filled family adventure! Better buckle your seat belt, it’s going to be a long and windy drive!
Mile: 97,873
Quote of the Blog: “It’s weird to not be weird. “ - John Lennon
Song of the Blog: “Little Stranger” - Simply Business
When Amity took her contract here, she had negotiated a couple of three-day weekends into her schedule. We figured one of them would be the perfect time to head up to Portland. We set off bright and early to get the most out of our day. We had initially planned on getting into Portland and doing a run around the city there, but we decided that, for safety and simplicity, we were going to do our training run in Eugene again. This was a super strong move, as the parks and sidewalks in Eugene are nowhere close to the situation that is going on up in Portland with their transients and homeless communities. We had an 11-mile run in front of us. We have talked about this before, but running in Eugene is a dream! They have endless paved bike paths and the history surrounding running to match! After getting the run done, we hopped back into the car and finished our drive up to Portland. Sometimes I wonder if we have a running problem! One of the main reasons we also wanted to get it done before we arrived in Portland was because our first mission once we got there was to meet up with our friend Kip and her boyfriend for dinner and drinks. The last thing we wanted was to have to wake up early after a night out with them. So, it all worked out!
Upon arrival, we got into our hotel and found a local brewery no more than two blocks away from the hotel. Upon entering, we were surprised to learn that this was a satanic brewery celebrating all the dark magic in the world. We had one beer and got out of there quickly. As weird as it was, it did give us the full reminder that we are currently in Portland! This is normal here, right? Even the Uber driver who picked us up to go to dinner was like, “How was it in there?” He had never been there, but had heard about it. We all had some good Portland laughs as we headed over to meet up with Kip. She had suggested this Cajun-style restaurant that had a Midwestern flair to it in the neighborhood she lives in called Cliffs PDX. It was 100% on point! Even though the Friday Night Fish Fry was sold out, the fried chicken sandwich we both got was amazing! Catching up with Kip is always full of lots of laughs and lots of storytelling from college days and hanging out with my sister, Cassie! Her boyfriend was super cool and a great match for her! We are very happy for the two of them, and grateful they took their night to entertain us.
The next morning, we were both happy to not be waking up to go running! We slowly got ourselves together and headed over to a diner called Stepping Stone Café. The bottomless coffee was huge! While we had breakfast, we made the plan to head down to the waterfront park, as there was a lot going on down there today. They had multiple markets, food festivals, and the Portland Dragon Boat Races. We channeled our inner tourists, hopped on some electric rental bikes, and zoomed our way down to the waterfront area. On the way, we stopped by a place Amity had found, Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum. The name said it all. This place had all the weird things from human history, from movie props to visual tricks to really weird stuff straight out of a traveling circus’s freak shows. It was a great reminder that Portland is the land of weird things. Afterwards, we cruised our e-bikes down to the waterfront area. We enjoyed walking around all the shops and booths. At one point, we found ourselves right next to Voodoo Doughnuts and found no line to get in. If you know Voodoo Doughnuts in downtown Portland, no lines are rare! We both got a massive doughnut we were not able to finish. They were so big and rich that we would have had a sugar coma if we finished them both. Walking around Portland is a sight! Something I am familiar with, but every time I am blown away by the controlled chaos that is downtown Portland! It truly is the weirdest town in the country, and the people there reflect this!
After some good random people-watching, we made our way to the Dragon Boat Races to watch people race super long, oriental-style boats across the Willamette River. I have never actually stopped to watch one of these before. Pretty cool, and a little crazy that the population that does these is on the older end. I always get pumped up seeing older adults kicking ass! This is one of the biggest Dragon Boat Race events in the country, so there were people from all over the PNW, representing Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California. Once boredom began to set in, we started to make our way up to a bookstore Amity had as a priority to go to. This was the famous Powell’s Books. This was Amity’s Disneyland of books! To me, it was Overstimulation 5000! This bookstore went on forever! I walked around for a while checking it all out, before telling Amity I was going to wait for her at a nearby pub while she picked out a new book. It wasn’t long before she was posing for her new book photo! Pretty funny that someday we will have a photo gallery of Amity’s new books where she’s pretending to be holding a fish that she just caught! Following her new book acquisition, we headed over to do some brewery sampling around town. We got a sampler at both Deschutes Brewery and Backwoods Brewery, as they were conveniently right next to each other. Amity had put together plans for dinner. She had found a Thai BBQ spot called Eem-Thai. The BBQ Curry was so good! We felt like it was a great way to cap off a solid day of exploring Portland!
The last day we were there was dedicated to having brunch with my Grandma Pat and my Aunt Sally. They live close to each other, so it was really easy for us all to get together. Having some time to chat with Grandma Pat was fantastic! She was so kind to even cook us breakfast, and they picked us up some delicious pastries from the local bakery. We enjoyed telling her all about our adventures in Oregon, and sharing in the memories of coastal towns and areas we have explored. We wish we were a little closer to be able to make this trip a little more regular, but we were happy to have any time with both of them. After a quick tour of her home, which is beautiful and sits right on the tee box for the golf course, we took a couple of photos and said our goodbyes. The long journey back to Brookings sadly needed to happen. As sad as it can be to know we are driving back to the Pacific Coast! Another amazing adventure in the books, with only a few more weeks left in Oregon! Time to make every moment of Living Rad count!
