I’ve been so invested in researching and planning our upcoming trip to Italy, that I realized we never blogged about our getaway to Portland.   One of us had some vacation days to use up before losing them, so we decided to take a quick trip to somewhere new.  We narrowed it down to a few destinations to consider and then picked Portland based on finding the best deal.  Being that Portland is known for great food, breweries and beautiful scenery it definitely checked off a few boxes and we were excited to add another new place to our list of adventures.

Here are the highlights:

Donuts Wars!  We had our own taste test challenge by trying both Blue Star Donuts and Voodoo Donuts.  First up, Blue Star.  This place is great!  There flavors are more creative They were also quite filling since they use a brioche base.  All in all, these were some tasty donuts.

Next stop was Voodoo Donuts.  If you’ve never been here before, be prepared for crazy long lines.   Depending on the time of day, you could easily spend over an hour before even getting to experience the delicious pastry treats. We finally made it there at 10:30PM and still waited 30 minutes.   Now these donuts are creative, colorful, fun and delicious. Nothing too unique when it comes to flavors, but overall a good quality donuts.  Our verdict for this challenge was that we preferred Voodoo due to having more variety to choose from.

Blue Star Donuts

Voodoo donuts

Other highlights were a trip to Multnomah Falls, Latourell Falls and Forest Park’s iconic Stone House.  Growing up, and still today, one of my favorite movies is The Goonies, so for me, one of the other highlights was taking a trip out to the coast to see the Haystacks.  “Hey you Guuyys!”

Multnomah Falls

Latourell Falls

Haystacks

Stone House

I do want to mention one of the more unique places we went.  McMenamin’s is a restored elementary school that was vacant for years before being converted into a hotel with a movie theater and multiple bars and a restaurant.   If you’re ever in Portland, it’s worth stopping in and just walking through the halls.  All of the classrooms have been converted into hotel rooms, and old school memorabilia and murals still hang on the walls.

Kennedy Elementary School Bar

Finally there were lots of stops to check out some signs and murals. Overall the trip was fun and we ate lot of great food (Salt and Straw ice cream, Pine State Biscuits, & Breakside Brewery). Until next time…Stay Weird.