All I knew about Portland (and pictured) before this past weekend was from the show Portlandia. Ha! Sorta kidding, but actually true. And while we actually didn’t get to spend too much time in the heart of the city as we spent most of our days at a music festival about 30 minutes outside of Portland… I feel like I have a much better vibe of the city now. So much good food, cute shops, yummy coffee… you can’t possibly take it all in in one quick trip. BUT since I got a lot of questions on Instagram about some of my favorite Portland spots and where we went I thought I’d share my highlights from the trip. Again, I didn’t even do a proper research as I knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time but these are just some gems we happened upon while staying in the downtown area and loved.
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1. WM Goods: I have this knack for spotting store windows and knowing right away if it’s “my kinda spot.” From across the street while sipping coffee at Heart Coffee I knew WM Goods would be my store. Sure enough, I stumbled into a number of cute stores throughout the weekend but this one was the only shop I purchased anything at. They had an assortment of some of my favorite designers (The Great, Mara Hoffman, Heather Taylor Home textiles), home goods, coffee table books and wellness goodies. A great mix of everything I’m into! Other shops I liked: Frances May and BackTalk (all within a few blocks in downtown). Also within that block, Rebel and Hero’s had a cool selection of Levi’s jeans and vintage tees.
2. Brunch at Little Griddle. This was such a random one-off find for us. Maybe it’s well known, I don’t know! We wanted to drive across the river Sunday morning before our flight and just put in a random address that led us to this cute part of the city. I’m so glad we did as this is more of how I pictured Portland. Cute tree lined streets and houses that reminded me so much of Midtown in Sacramento. Little Griddle felt like we found a true neighborhood gem tucked around the corner off the main street. Super yum and great for a casual breakfast. This trip taught me that biscuits are definitely a must order when in Portland–and they did not disappoint here with their sage maple butter to go with. OMG.
3. Heart Coffee. | We went here every morning for coffee because it was just a block from our hotel. The smooth flavor reminded me so much of Temple here in Sacramento and I loved their in house walnut-almond milk. Also good to know: we put our name down on the waitlist at the popular Tasty N’ Alder for brunch across the way then grabbed coffees at Heart while we waited.
4. Powell’s Books. | By far the downtown highlight for me! This bookstore for those who aren’t familiar is an entire block–room after room of new and used books–I could have spent days in here. I’ve been on a reading kick again after a hiatus since Rex was born, and since making reading a priority again I’ve been all about finding new fun summer reads. BTW, if you have any current recommendations send them my way and maybe I’ll have to share some of my favorite reads on the blog soon as well.
5. Driving outside of the city to the music festival for the weekend. Windows down and music blasting–we were on such a musical high! The country roads and forested hills were gorgeous and made me want to come back to explore more of the surrounding areas. There’s just never enough time!
