Confession: we’ve never been to Portland before. We would make the worst hipsters. But this trip, we’re taking care of that lack of cool…and catching up with old friends. We arrived in the city of beer and donuts and headed to Amy and Dan’s place. I was lucky to live with Amy a whole six months in college. She slept on an air mattress the entire time and we had some killer dance parties (including one that involved me putting my ass through the wall).

Amy and her husband Dan live in a great area of Portland, surrounded by our favorite things. Bars.

Craig was in hop heaven and I was happy to be reunited with my lover (and so close to her birthday nonetheless).

 

Our first full day in Portland we explored the downtown area and hit up all the touristy attractions. No shame here. Besides, if going to a massive bookstore is touristy, than I don’t wanna be write.

Post page overdose, we waited in line for some trendy donuts. We took the advice of a local, Amy, and went to Blue Star instead of Voodoo. And a good thing we did, because we got to witness some awesome in-store signage. #CopyPorn

 

Donut, check. Next up? Rooftop brewery? Twist Craig’s arm. We found/were told to go to 10 Barrel. Portland jackpot.

Not to mention, the food was fucking delicious. #FoodPorn coming right up…

With full bellies we made our way to the Chinese Garden to get our culture on. And another confession for this post, we were a bit underwhelmed here. It was rather snoozy. Or did I confuse that with zen? We did a quick power tour and I inserted a few token “oh, that’s pretty” comments.

Judgment aside, we made our way back to Amy and Dan’s, with a few stops along the way. And by stops, I mean bars. I mean, when in Portland you just HAVE to check out the breweries. Right, Craig? But we did venture into a science museum that was about to close and paid full price to see all the closed exhibits. Travel fail. Until this pic, in infrared…

Portland is truly a beautiful city that we could see ourselves moving to in the future. Maybe. We tend to say that a lot. We are a bit city slutty. So just deal with it.

After a day of being tourists under our belts, we spent our last full day giggling with friends and singing karaoke. Which in my mind, is pretty much the best way to end a trip in a new city…even if the Warriors happened to lose the NBA Finals that day.

The next day we woke up, with raging hangovers, and headed East. The rumors you’ve heard about the Gorge are totally true. It’s a gorgeous drive with endless stopping points to snap those Insta-worthy photos. And it looks like others had a case of the Mondays, because it was slammed.

The Historic Route 30 is a must, even if it’s filled with cars. You get moments of solitude that can’t be beat.

If you’re a waterfall fan (like Craig and TLC), this stretch of road will make you overflow with happiness.

Past the gorging action, there’s a Stonehenge wannabe that’s actually quite awesome and actually called Stonehenge (trademark lawsuit, anyone?). I highly recommend taking the time and driving off the interstate a bit. We also witnessed what can only be described as a Pagan ritual. 

We decided to set up sleep in one of the bumping tri-cities of Kennewick to help break up our long drive to Glacier. And thanks to Craig’s first experience with Priceline, we got the room for a steal.

The next day we woke up refreshed and ready to get our Idaho on, by stopping in the adorable town of Couer d’Alene (and Lindsay Chambers, my blast-from-the-past friend). She showed us a rocking time in this quaint town and it was so great to play another game of catchup with an old friend (even if she almost set her hair on fire while starting the grill for dinner)

She also took us to the hidden-from-tourists gem of Hayden Lake. So calm and peaceful, we could’ve stayed here forever…

But driving called. And even though we broke up the drive by two nights, we still had a cool 6.5 hour drive to Glacier National Park…neat.

We’ll keep you posted on close encounters with grizzly bears (and cubs) and Montana moments. Next time.