48 Hours in Portland

If you like quirky, Portland is the city for you. Truth be told, it reminds me a lot of Denver: the outdoors, beer and food. But Portland has been getting a lot of attention over the past couple of years, and let me tell you– the hype is true. It’s a pretty sweet place, as Will and I discovered on our whirlwind trip last month. And while we only had 48 hours in the city, we capitalized on every single minute. Read on for details on how we spent our 48 hours in Portland!

Huge thanks to Travel Portland for arranging our weekend of adventure!

Photos by Will Rochfort

Friday Evening

Will and I both work traditional Monday-Friday jobs, so we didn’t catch our Southwest flight until 4pm on Friday afternoon. We caught a cab from PDX and headed directly to our sweet accommodations downtown: Hotel Vintage Portland.

The hotel itself is beautiful and the location was pretty awesome. Smack downtown, Hotel Vintage Portland is located in the Pearl district which is within walking distance to pretty much everything. And did I mention how cool the interior is?!

The hotels uses graffiti-inspired cork artwork, a lobby bar, and an adult game room to liven the place up a bit. Vintage cruiser bikes are propped against the wall in the front lobby for guests to rent, and the bar has a wine hour every night– with live music Thursday-Saturday.

All that said, my favorite part was our room! Hotel Vintage Portland hooked us up with a comfy-and-modern room that had an entire wall of windows. Of course, the absolute BEST part was our balcony: we had our private hot tub!

After getting settled, we met up with Alacia, our contact at Travel Portland. We grabbed an Uber and headed over to Division Street for dinner at Block + Tackle. It was a quiet little spot, but Will and I couldn’t focus on the ambience: it was time to EAT ALL THE OYSTERS!

Don’t judge. We don’t get a lot of fresh seafood here in Denver!

After dinner, we caught a quick beer at Base Camp Brewing. Naturally, I loved the spot thanks to its outside vibe. Denver is a mecca for microbreweries, but Portland definitely takes the cake. There are 84 breweries in the Portland metro area!

Saturday

If you find yourself in Portland with a lot to see and no idea where to start, I suggest calling Kieron Weidner of First Nature Tours. With a background in ecology, Kieron has been in the tourism industry for years, showcasing the outdoor adventures in Portland, along with Costa Rica and Europe. And did I mention he picks you up in a sweet Mercedes Sprinter?!

We first cruised over to the Internation Rose Test Garden. Founded in 1917, the test garden is the oldest official, continuously operated public rose test garden in the country. Currently, the garden features over 10,000 rose bushes and 650 rose varieties. We do a lot of work with roses in our family business, so I was enthralled by the test garden. I kept picking my favorites and then wondering if I’d see them in our wholesale nurseries in a few seasons!

After the rose test garden, we swung over to Forest Park for a trail run. Admittedly, I dropped the ball on this one. After all, our itinerary told us that we were “trail running” in a park in the middle of the city. How rugged could these trails be?! As a result, I grabbed my road shoes, which turned out to be a major error. Crazily enough, Forest Park is a legit trail system smack dab in the middle of Portland!

Truthfully, we didn’t do much running. We admired the massive spiderwebs, hiked along some trails, chatted about the history of Portland, and simple enjoyed the greenery as we ducked away from the hubbub of the city. If I lived in Portland, I would definitely run at Forest Park on the daily.

My stomach was growling at this point, so it was time to check out the food carts at the Portland Farmers Market on the Portland State University Campus. Y’all, there was so much edible goodness that I barely knew where to look! We found honeycrisp apples the size of my head; pour-over coffee that smelled delicious; green cauliflower-stuff that fascinated me; perfectly-soft donuts coated in sugar; and a crepe booth that cooked up fresh crepe concoctions of both the savory and sweet variety. Will grabbed a sweet nutella mixture as an homage to our engagement trip in Paris. To balance that, I went with a savory goat cheese-and-spinach blend that I promptly inhaled.

Man, food makes me happy.

Of course, we weren’t done eating yet: we had made some dinner plans with a few of our Columbia Sportswear friends, and they weren’t that far off. Kieron took us back to the hotel in style– in our Sprinter!– and we said goodbye. We had a brief moment to shower, clean up, and get ready to meet our posse; it was time for sushi!

But first: I had to investigate the CANNED WINE Travel Portland left in our room!

Meet: Bamboo Sushi, the first certified sustainable sushi restaurant in the world! According to Bamboo, roughly 76% of the world’s fish populations are over-fished or simply fished out. With 67% of the country’s seafood consumed in restaurants, Bamboo has a goal of only serving sustainable fish. They won’t serve items on the “avoid” list according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute. Bamboo is also a certified green restaurant: the majority of their products come from local, organic and sustainable farms, and they ensure they have a light footprint.

And the food was amazing. The four of us gave our server our budget, told him of any aversions, and let him plan our menu. His choices and order of dishes was unbelievable and he impressed me to a ridiculous level. Not only was the fish itself quite tasty, but he ordered us some very unique items that I never would’ve ordered on my own. And somehow, he placed them in an order that complimented each item. In short, I’d recommend Bamboo to anyone in town!

And then we had dessert. ‘Nuff said.

Sunday

Sadly, Sunday flaunted true Portland weather: dreary, gray and rainy. Nevertheless, Will and I bundled up in our most rainproof layer: we had a bike tour with Cycle PDX!

Our tour guide quickly outfitted us with a bike and a helmet before we rode straight out of the shop and into the rain. I’ve heard that Portland is a crazy bike-friendly town, and it’s the truth. In fact, I’ve never been anywhere that is so accommodating to two-wheelers! Bike lanes go everywhere in the city, including the new Tillikum Crossing bridge. Opened in September, 2015, the new bridge only allows pedestrians, bikes, and public transportation vehicles: no private cars allowed.

The rain poured on us for a solid two hours as we tooled around the city on our bikes. I’ll admit that I was a bit cold and wet, but I had to laugh: it was seriously dumping buckets yet people were out exercising in full force! Runners, biker, walkers– it didn’t matter. As our guide told us:

“If you don’t get used to being in the rain, you’ll never get anything done here!”

The rest of Sunday passed in a blur. We had an amazing brunch at Tasty n Alder, a delightful little spot with ridiculous food: chocolate malt milk shake and fries, potatoes bravas, Korean fried chicken, and bloody mary’s all went down the hatch.

When on vacation…

Of course, we weren’t done eating and we had two iconic spots to visit before catching our flight back to Denver. First up was the classic coffee joint of PDX: Stumptown Coffee. I had another pour-over {people in Portland are highly caffeinated!} which lived up to its reputation. But truthfully, I was more excited about our next visit: Blue Star Donuts.

Let me be clear: tourists flock to Voodoo Donuts when they visit Portland, and it’s definitely worth a visit–once. {We have a Voodoo in Denver so trust me on this one!} But if you want a truly delicious donut with unique flavors and well-sourced ingredients, you need to visit Blue Star. They make their dough from scratch daily and it stems from a classic recipe that originated in the South of France. All the ingredients are responsibly sourced: hormone-free milk, cage free eggs, and sustainable bread flour. The flavors change daily, so you never know what to expect, but it’s definitely not going to be a plain glaze.

It was like I had died and gone to heaven.

48 Hours in Portland: Here's the shortlist of what to do and see. #PDX Click To Tweet

Disclaimer: Travel Portland covered our flights, accommodations and the majority of our excursions over the weekend. All thoughts, stories, and opinions are my own.

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