Our Day in Portland!

We drove from eastern Oregon through the Columbia River Gorge on the most beautiful, clear, full of sunshine day. Even though Mt. Hood was partially covered by clouds it was still an awe inspiring sight as we came closer to it.

Since it was my first time in Portland, I wanted to do as many of the "tourist" things that I could. While trying to figure out the parking for Powell's Bookstore, we happened to pass the "Keep Portland Weird" sign that is on the side of Voodoo Donuts. We didn't go inside because I had already tried one of their donuts and wanted a different treat that I found on a list of recommendations.

Powell's was very fun and huge, but slightly overpriced compared to some of the other cool bookstores we have been to. After buying a few books we walked down the street to Ruby Jewel. It came highly recommended and the ice cream was good, although the flavors were not nearly as unique as I had heard they would be.

The International Rose Test Garden was next on our list, and even though the gardens are a few months out from being at their best, they were beautiful. And it was fun to catch a glimpse of the city from above. (If we had more time we would have gone on the aerial tram to get the overhead views.)

For dinner we went to Nicholas, a Mediterranean restaurant. My girls were in love with the giant pita that they brought us. I loved their hummus and dolmades.  

After dinner we drove up and down Klickitat Street because I wanted to see the road where Beverly Cleary's Ramona was fictionally set. My five year-old wanted us to play a game where we picked out Ramona's house. Here were a few of our top guesses. :) 

Sadly the sun was starting to set so we drove back down near the Willamette River so that we could see Mills End Park, the world's smallest park.

Even though our day went quickly and was fairly short, we were able to see most of my top picks. We even made a quick drive over St. John's Bridge after the sun went down. 

When we were planning our trip, we didn't intend to stop in Portland on our way back from the coast. Plans changed though and so we were able to spend a few more hours exploring. We had dinner at Little Big Burger which was amazing. The neighborhood it was located in was amazing, we all fell in love with the houses there. We also stopped for more ice cream (calories don't count on vacation, right???) because we wanted to try Salt and Straw. I had the Pear with Bleu Cheese and it was quite tasty. We also tried the Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, which tasted mostly like strawberry after a few bites. Also the Honey Lavender, and the Cinnamon Snickerdoodle. 

While walking the ice cream back to our car, we had a little snafu. We parked our car on the corner of 33rd Ave and Clinton. Not realizing that the next street over was also 33rd (Place) we walked to that corner and got very confused by the car not being there. Thanks to my smartphone we figured out our mistake and got the ice cream back to the car so that we could enjoy it before it was a complete puddle. 

Our last stop in Portland was the Beverly Cleary sculpture garden. We love the Ramona books so when we found out about this place we of course had to stop to see it.

On our way out of town, it was a really clear day and we were able to glimpse Mt. St Helen. Really the weather was amazing on our entire trip -- if I didn't know better I wouldn't think it rained there at all. ;)

We also said goodbye to Mt. Hood.