More from Portland

We had a really fun weekend in Portland. We saw a lot in just a few days. We spent most of our time downtown around the Pearl District, on Alberta Street and Mississippi Avenue and the neighborhoods that surround those two fun streets. We loved how Portland reminded us of what we like about Atlanta and what we like about San Francisco. The downtown area, neighborhoods and people reminded us of Atlanta, but then with Portland you have mild weather (unlike the hot, hot, hot of Atlanta right now) and great outdoor diversity with the mountains and river nearby. Here's a bit of what we did over the weekend.


I've heard of Voodoo Doughnut a few times and had to check it out. They specialize in really fun and unusual toppings for their doughnuts. I first heard of it on No Reservations and have since seen it mentioned on a few blogs. Bacon on your doughnut? How about fruit loops? A slice of cheese? Well, I didn't pick anything with those toppings, but the Portland cream doughnut I did have was great and so was Andrew's maple cruller. Check out more pictures and flavors from Voodoo Doughnut here. (That smear of chocolate in the foreground looks really gross, huh?)


We went to a great antique mall called Stars. For the short time we were in the mall, I was in heaven! I'm not very good at judging prices--my mom's the expert at that, and I need her with me to know if prices are good on junk and antiques--but usually I figure if I'll buy it, it's a good price. I'm pretty frugal about these kinds of things, and the prices looked reasonable to me. I really wanted this little blue rocking chair for the baby's room but passed since we flew to Portland.


I did get a few old ABC blocks. I've been wanting some of these!


I just liked this sideboard so I took a picture.


We ate A LOT of good food. Above is french toast from Helser's, a terrific place on Alberta Street. We tried to go to another place Andrew read about, the Tin Shed, but the line was way too long for us to wait on Sunday, so we headed to Helser's down the street. We did try the Tin Shed the next day, but decided we liked Helser's more. We went to a few good places for dinner as well, but our favorite had to be Wildwood in the Northwest neighborhood. It was terrific!


Powell's bookstore is a famous bookstore that takes up one whole city block. Around the corner from the original Powell's is Powell's Technical Books, an exciting place for my engineer husband.


We were in Portland during the Rose Festival. We decided to pass on going to the parade (though we did go check out the floats afterwards) and instead we headed to the International Rose Test Garden. Wow, it was beautiful and the roses smelled amazing! Also the weather was perfect that day. If you like roses, this is a wonderful place to visit if you're in Portland during the spring or summer.


Can you see snow-capped Mt. Hood in the background?


Here's a cute snack spot called Moxie RX on Mississippi Avenue, another fun neighborhood for good shopping and eating. We didn't eat here because we had just eaten, but the sandwiches and muffins looked wonderful. And the place was just so darn cute. It's hard to tell from the picture, but trailer was decorated so adorably both inside and out, and I wanted to wheel it home.

So those are some highlights from our trip! I'm glad we went and would love to go back sometime. Also, if you stay at the Kennedy School Hotel and are up for walking, Alberta Street is close enough to walk. We didn't rent a car and instead just used public transportation, and it worked out great. We just took buses and the light rail and got along fine. Next on the trip list is Atlanta and Edisto Beach in South Carolina. Can't wait!

Portland

We had a great time in Portland! We packed a lot into one long weekend--too much to tell you about in one post, so I'll start with one of our favorite parts of the weekend, which happened to be the hotel itself, and later this week I'll post more from our trip. The McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel was one of our top favorite places we've ever stayed. We love places that feel homey, and we usually prefer B&B type lodgings over your typical hotel. The Kennedy School felt much more like a B&B than a hotel. Not only are the rooms large, cozy and comfortable, but they're unique in that each was once a classroom and even has the original blackboards. The hotel also has a courtyard heated pool surrounded by lush plants, a few pubs, a movie theater (which is in the old auditorium ), and a great restaurant with yummy casual food. Oh, yeah, and there's a brewery in the hotel as well. The McMenamins brothers are known for their craft brewed beer. They even have their own brand of coffee as well, which is really tasty. If you go to Portland, we'd highly recommend staying at the Kennedy School Hotel. I imagine their other hotels are just as great and worth checking out as well.

The grounds around the school were beautiful. Gardens surrounded the entire building.

I love the lighting in the restaurant. All kinds of pendant lamps hang from the ceiling in various styles and colors. This is one I especially liked.

There are no TVs in the rooms, which we thought was refreshing. It pretty much forces you to relax. They had a good selection of books in the bookcase. Andrew almost finished a whole book in the short time we actually spent in the room.

We loved the blackboard panels and the way they opened up to a long closet with kid height coat hooks in the closet.

Nice, soft bedside lighting.

I loved our headboard! It has all the colors I'm always drawn to--red, green, yellow and blue. I wanted to take it home with us.

The theater is amazing! It's really intimate and cozy with random miss-matched sofas for seating. They have a popcorn and drink stand where you can order beer and food as well. We saw a really good movie one night called In Bruges.

The halls are lined with huge, beautiful old windows, and the walls are covered in artwork, most of which has something to do with the history of the school.


Some of the art.

More from our trip later this week!