Long Weekend in Portland

Somehow I always forget about a three-day weekend until it's upon me, and then it's too late to book travel. Thanks to one of my coworkers, this time I was reminded about the upcoming Labor Day holiday and decided to make a four-day weekend out of it. I had driven through Portland once, on my way to a cousin's wedding in Seattle, but that was years ago, and we didn't make any pit stops at the time, so I had never truly explored the city. Since I booked way in advance, airfare was totally affordable. I convinced Josh to join me and away we went.

I have to say, we did watch a bunch of episodes of Portlandia before going, which gave us several chuckles while we were there.

Usually when I travel, I wake up super early, try to see every single thing I jotted down, and come back from vacation exhausted. This time around, I promised myself that I would take things easier, relax and enjoy my mini vacation. 

We basically spent our days walking and eating our way through town. I'm obsessed with the decor of the Ace Hotel chain, so I had to sneek a peek in their lobby, and was dying to take some photo booth pictures (located in their lobby), but sadly, it was under maintenance. Right next door, is  Stumptown Coffee Roasters, where I had a killer cappuccino. Being that I don't regularly drink coffee, I was super excited when it came with a pretty little heart out of foam. This kind, little sentiment seemed to be the norm, as I also got a cute little heart at Heart Roasters, which by the way, has the most fantastically stylish interior. 

For lunch, we planned to go to Tasty n Adler, but the wait was two hours! I guess that's one thing you can expect when traveling on a holiday weekend, everyone wanted to eat there too. Instead we went across the street to Lardo, which did not disappoint in the least bit. I absolutely loved my Bahn Mi sandwich. It was so big that I was still picking at it, when we were cruising NW 23rd avenue later.

For dessert, we happened about a drinkable chocolate place, Cacao, which I just had to have, and it came in this teeny tiny little mug!

And because I couldn't stop craving it, spicy miso ramen for dinner at Boxer Ramen.