Top Row L-R: Voodoo Doughnuts; Mt. Hood; streets of Seattle. Middle Row L-R: Signs in Astoria; Seattle graffiti; Biscuit Bitch. Bottom Row L-R: Dick's Burgers in Seattle; Multnomah Falls; hiking by the falls.
Last weekend I went to the Pacific Northwest for the first time with my friends Tom and Matt from high school. We spent a day in Seattle and 3 days in Portland. Amazing! It happened to be my birthday that Saturday which made the trip even more special. I decided to let loose and placed no rules upon myself during the trip--I did have a set budget, but rather than nickel-and-diming myself on every purchase I ate, drank and shopped however I want. No financial or dietary restrictions!
In Seattle we hit up:
- Pike's Place Market
- Perennial Tea Room
- Biscuit Bitch at Caffe Lieto
- Multiple bars on Capitol Hill
The next day we drove to Portland via the coastal scenic route, stopping briefly in Aberdeen (be still my 14-yr-old-Nirvana-obsessed-self) and Astoria. As a country gal I loved seeing the lush green backroads of both states.
In Portland we trekked to:
- Happy Knits
- The Cultured Caveman (A paleo food cart! My one good food choice the whole trip.)
- Voodoo Doughnuts
- Groove Suite (My birthday night dancing destination!)
- A TON of restaurants and bars
- Multnomah and Wahkeena Falls (A short drive outside the city.)
That's the super abbreviated round-up--we hit up a lot of Portland but most of it was walking around and stopping wherever looked good, rather than crossing set destinations off a list. We were lucky enough to have gorgeous, non-PNW weather the whole weekend there (sunny, 60s & 70s) so we wound up getting an unexpected spring vacation.
And now I'm back in good ol' Massachusetts, where the temps are still in the 40s and 50s and everything is brown. Sigh. Paradise never lasts!