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My wife wants a short vacation and a Thurs-Tues trip in May to Portland, OR has been floated as a way for me to make her happy while ideally not having to deal with a lot of logistics issues (nearby airport does daily direct ~2 hour flight). What can two people in their early 40s do in Portland? I like beer so that should be pretty covered, she likes discount fancy clothes shopping and the beach. We both like the outdoors, or unique cultural stuff, and fancy/different food. I dunno, I've never been there and have always been kinda curious about it (if they had a basesball team for her I'd be looking at retirement options). Uh... she likes cats a lot. Also if there is a way for her to get to pet either a large feline animal or a sea otter then that would be a big win, although I'm not expecting that. For a similar trip example, a few years ago we went to Seattle, where I met up with a close friend, did some beer drinking, went to Pikes, the Chihuly museum, did a lot of walking, etc. Also, how necessary is a rental car? I'm assuming I'll need one, but didn't in Seattle...
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Feb 21, 2018 06:11
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 18:14 |
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I don't know much about discount fancy clothes shopping, but there are plenty of nearby rivers to go swimming in. Coast is about an hour and a half away so you can go out to the ocean if you really want. If you like hiking there's a lot of good options, but you'd definitely need a rental car if you want to get out of the city. Mt. Hood, the Gorge, Mt. St. Helens, the coastal ranges and the coast itself have a lot of good hikes. There is a minor league baseball team here, if you want to go to a ballgame. As far as anything unique... well, I don't know. Right now, the city art museum has a big exhibit on the art of the city's wealthiest inhabitant's son, which to be fair, is pretty good since he bought some of the best talent money can buy. When I was younger and didn't have any kids, I recall the music scene being decent enough... big name bands tend to skip Portland, but there were plenty of interesting shows to go to. Don't really keep in touch with that stuff anymore. As far as food is concerned, there's good food to be found, for sure. The beer is definitely good. There's a lot of micro-brewing within the city itself and the state. Also legal weed if you like that sort of thing. Much of it grown locally as well. As far as animals are concerned, the zoo has otters, a tiger, and a bobcat (not in the same pen). You can't pet them unless you want to jump in the enclosure and, in the tiger's case, climb out of the trench.
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Feb 23, 2018 06:28
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sullat posted:If you like hiking there's a lot of good options, but you'd definitely need a rental car if you want to get out of the city. Definitely agree here. For things to do in the city, I'd take a look at some festival calendars and see what events are going on. Depending on when you're going you might be able to hit their St Patty's Day celebrations, for example. When my wife and I went they had a fruit beer festival going on which was awesome. Looks like they have a Portland Dining Month in March too which might be cool to check out. I'm not sure what the local papers are but maybe check out those as well for events listings, but there's probably music, art and drinking going on about every weekend. For places to see, I'd say the Grotto and Multnomah Falls (there are quite a few waterfalls around Multnomah to hike to, and the drive itself is gorgeous). Wahkeena Falls too. Waterfront Park market and the Saturday Street Fairs are cool. Late May is the Rose Festival and while it's probably pretty early now, the International Rose Test Garden is IMHO a must-see. It'll be a long drive (probably ~6 hours one way) but the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Area is quite stunning if you want to do a bit of camping for a night (though that might be better for a "northern California/PCH" road trip type deal). For food: first off check out the food trucks. I think you can go to SW 9th & Alder for lunch and find quite a selection, can't remember if that was weekends only or not though. I'd hit up Bing Mi, Hot Box BBQ and Frying Scotsman as those were the only ones that stood out enough to write down last time I went (especially Bing Mi since it's not something you see very often in the US). For actual restaurants, Bollywood Theater was probably my overall favorite place (Indian street food). Salt & Straw had delicious ice cream. If you want to overload on Portland twee hipsterness then Sweedeedee for a brunch is a good place. Meat, Cheese, Bread and Bunk Sandwiches were both pretty good. Ox was pretty good. Definitely hit up Pok Pok, and for that matter check out Langbaan and Nong's Khak Man Gai as well. Frank's Noodle House gets recommended as a hand pulled Chinese noodle place but TBH, it's not impressive. Portland also does some great pizza with I think Al Forno, Sizzle Pie and Apizza Scholls being some of the most commonly recommended. So basically for Portland food: Asian, brunch, food trucks, pizza. Portland also has no shortage of coffee places but to be honest my wife and I got a hotel near Jim & Patty's Coffee People and that place was amazing so we just hit that place up every morning. Not only do they have great coffee and a host of different types/flavors of milky coffee drinks (they had one that was sort of like an horchata latte that I still dream of to this day), but they also have little jalapeno and bacon pastries they call "pig newtons" which were delicious. I love that place so I'm not even going to recommend any others (though if you simply google "best coffee Portland" you'll get plenty of lists). Amergin fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 03:55
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Thanks for the ideas, the Rose Garden (and surrounding park?) looks like a winner. I actually live in Sonoma county, CA and have family in Eureka so a 1-way road trip on the 1 isn't an impossible idea, although I should plan for a bit longer trip in that case. We had discussed a similar idea in the past by going up the 5 to Crater Lake and flying back... maybe I hate myself enough to do a giant road loop for a longer vacation.
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Feb 24, 2018 04:38
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If you like books check out Powells city of books. Easily the largest bookstore I've ever been to, and lots of really obscure titles. And for Multnomah falls, there's a cheap tour bus that leaves like every half hour or so from the city, so you don't even have to drive if you don't want to. See http://columbiagorgeexpress.com
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Feb 26, 2018 04:52
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GexIsLight posted:If you like books check out Powells city of books. Easily the largest bookstore I've ever been to, and lots of really obscure titles. And for Multnomah falls, there's a cheap tour bus that leaves like every half hour or so from the city, so you don't even have to drive if you don't want to. See http://columbiagorgeexpress.com Powell's is a good rec and TBH if you want to just wander around, Hawthorne isn't a bad street to do it. Also the bougie areas around Alder and Jefferson have some shops that I thought were fun to take a break and look around (Alder & Co, Canoe, etc.) (though they are outrageously overpriced). Portland isn't a city to shove a bunch of stuff into a few days, IMHO. I'd suggest you take it slow and give a day or a couple mornings/afternoons to just wander around, pop into a cafe and chill, pop into stores and chill, etc. But then again that's more my traveling style, YMMV.
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Feb 26, 2018 07:05
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OMSI was pretty cool. It's been a decade or so since I've been, but it was a good day of looking at interesting stuff. https://omsi.edu/
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Mar 19, 2018 00:04
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The Japanese garden is really good. The zoo isnt bad either if you're into animals
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Mar 19, 2018 03:46
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Seconding Salt & Straw. Best ice cream I've had.
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Apr 4, 2018 21:25
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For shopping visit the Nob Hill area. There's a bunch of weird little boutiques, consignment stores, etc, most of which are in converted residential buildings. If you like chintzy amusement parks, Oaks Park has a single tiny but fun roller coaster, a giant roller rink with scheduled lessons for stuff like skate dancing, and a mini golf course.
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Apr 4, 2018 21:36
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I was there in February and the highlights for me food-wise were Afuri ramen, Nong's Khao Man Gai, Bing Mi, Ava Gene's (I love the chef's cookbook too), and the passion fruit donuts at Blue Star. On the other hand, Han Oak has gotten a lot of good press but I thought it was just flat out bad. Salt and Straw is pretty good but whatever you do, don't get anthing with bee pollen in it. Tried a few breweries and Cascade was by far my favorite, but I am partial to sours. They had some really interesting stuff. I don't know if it will still be there when you're there in May, but the Portland Art Museum also had a really cool exhibit about Laika, the animation company that did Coralina, Kubo, and Paranorman. Agreeing also that Nob Hill was fun to walk around for an afternoon.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:56
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The food trucks and vendors in downtown Portland are good. The variety of distilleries and breweries are endless! For breakfast, I would recommend hitting up The Screen Door restaurant.
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Apr 11, 2018 08:46
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food: whiskey soda lounge, olympia oyster bar, paadee bars: holman's, lovecraft, goodfoot, pepe le moko abelwingnut fucked around with this message at 03:43 on May 6, 2018 |
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May 6, 2018 03:40
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So the weekend never happened but now we're looking at almost a full week at the end of September. I'm looking at a hotel a block from the Albert Schnietzer Concert Hall and Nordstrom downtown (just two things popping up on google maps). Is there a lot of fun downtown activities for two sorta-quiet nerds in their 40s, and is that a good location or a SF Tenderloin/LA Skid Row-esque hellscape?
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Jul 25, 2018 03:45
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That's a fine location. Portland is a good city to just aimlessly wander and you'll be within a 15 minute walk from a lot of it, or a 15 minute uber ride from stuff further out. Seconding The Grotto, Powells, Japanese Garden, and Multonomah Falls. Double check that the falls are open though, some of the trails have been closed due to fires but may be partially open which might be good enough depending on what you want to do. You can take the light rail to the Gateway station to get on the bus mentioned above for cheap and also get a decent view of the city and surrounding country without worrying about driving. Portland City Grill has an incredible view and their happy hour food prices are fairly cheap. There's a cathedral with some cool architecture and art near the soccer stadium if you're into that. You could also catch a soccer game. If you're not anti-gluten doing a taste comparison between Voodoo and Blue Star is fun (Blue Star by a mile--you can't beat blueberry basil bourbon). The Alberta Arts district is pretty cool to stroll through on the east side. Kennedy School Hotel is nearby and has a nice restaurant and fun events (usually beer themed). If you want to see something that's not downtown. There's not a bad brewery or coffee shop in the city, hard to go wrong. Deschutes is a little more of a tourist trap with long waits if you prefer to avoid those. I did a different coffee shop every morning and a pint at a different brewery every afternoon and was a nice rhythm. I don't think there's anything on the level of the Tenderloin, but the old town area seemed to be where the homeless were thickest at night with some crazed shouting. Fine during the day though.
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Aug 13, 2018 01:01
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Gentrification and ruthless policing have driven the homeless out of downtown. Also, now you can escooter around, across the bridges if you want to sample the microbrews of eastside as well.
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Sep 15, 2018 05:05
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 18:14 |
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So we went and had a good time, enough that now I look at my extremely pricey NorCal city and realize how badly they're loving up planning for the future, although if we ever get our giant earthquake maybe that'll help fix it. When I retire in 14 years (CA willing) if the home price ratios of where I live:Portland remain the same then it has shot way up on our list of places to sell and retire to. Anyway, thanks for the recommendations as we did take advantage of the following:quote:say the Grotto and Multnomah Falls quote:Powells, Japanese Garden quote:For shopping visit the Nob Hill area. quote:food On our way out we went to the big farmer's market street fair thing, my wife bought a catnip carrot which the cats have wrecked with drool. Maybe one day I will post photos but otherwise, thanks again!
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Jan 10, 2019 07:26
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