To save cost on hotels we looked at Airbnbs. It was impossible to find a place with four bedrooms and at least three bathrooms; so we settled on renting two two bedroom , two bathroom condos in Pearl District at Block 17 (managed by Stay Aflred; found on Homeaway; they even had a pack and play for us). The location was unbeatable; we could walk to everything, and having two units across the hall from one another allowed us to hang out together but also have some breathing room (much needed with seven adults and two young kids).
- Walked to breakfast at Isabel Pearl
- Coffee at Case Study
- We used public transit to get to Washington Park. This park is huge and houses the zoo, children's museum, rose garden (free) and Japanese Gardens.
- We started walking to the children's playground then we realized there was a free shuttle to get there! Portland's public transit system (trains and buses) is extensive and easy to use. Google maps navigates it for you and you can buy an all day pass for $5
- We walked the trail out of the park and hopped on a bus to get back downtown
- Lunch at Deschutes (the quinoa "burger" was awesome!)
- Walked to Italian dinner at Mama Mia Trattoria (yum! we were able to book reservations in advance. Our biggest fear was trying to find dinner for 9 people so we booked ahead where we could)
- After dinner beers at Bridgeport Brew
Day 2
- Walked to breakfast at Daily Cafe. It's an order at the counter type of place but all of our food was delicious!
- After there we walked down to Portland's Saturday market; which is a huge vendor type market-like an art fair. It was worth checking out but after a while everything looked the same and we left
- The majority of the day was an unofficial brewery tour. We went to Wayfinder Beer, Hair of the Dog, Cascade, Rouge and Modern Times. Cascade was the crowd favorite with their sours and desserts. We had lunch at Hair of the Dog and Modern Times hadn't been on our list but we walked by and are glad we stopped in. Their IPAs are awesome!
- For dinner we went to the Kennedy Schoolhouse. We took Lyft to get there. It's an old schoolhouse converted to hotel, theater and restaurant. It was an interesting place! The old classrooms were the hotel rooms!
Day 3
- All of the lists raved about Mother's Bistro for breakfast/brunch. They open at 8am so we got there right when they opened and were seated right away. It did not disappoint! By the time we left there were crowds waiting, so if you go, go early or be prepared to wait.
- We were itching to get out into the pacific northwest woods, so we hopped in the car and went to the closest waterfall hike we could find which ended up being Latourell Falls, about 30 min from Portland. Again, another crowded spot but thankfully we were able to find parking. The hike was about 2 miles and pretty easy coming from Colorado elevation. The hike itself was beautiful!
- On the way back we stopped at hoping for lunch but they had a limited brunch menu. Instead we went to Ex Novo Brewing and had a great lunch with good beer.
- We regrouped and walked to Salt and Straw ice cream. The line, as anticipated, was insane! About two blocks long. Thankfully my girlfriend had given me a tip to skip the line and order pre-packaged pints to go; so that's just what we did and even bought a cone to scoop our own ice cream. It was fantastic! Rhubarb crumble! And salted caramel!
- From there we walked to Powell Book Store; which was huge and intimating!
- We had to follow our tradition of Sunday Night Pizza Night and our family joined so we went to nearby Oven and Shaker. We had no issues walking in and getting seated about 5:30p (but when we left it was packed). We all agreed this was our favorite dinner
Day 4:
- With just my family and my parents left this morning, we walked to Slabtown area and had brunch at Besaws. It was so good my parents went back there for dinner that night!
- We also wanted to check out Forest Park, the largest US park in a city, so we walked some of Lower Macleay Trail (which was wide enough to take the bob stroller on and we weren't the only ones. We saw three other families with bobs)
Flying with an 8 month old wasn't too bad. We checked luggage and the carseat and took the stroller with us through the airport. Coming back, we checked everything and wore him in the ergo through the airport. It was so nice to have just him and the diaper bag! The flight back was a little difficult for Grayson. It was naptime but he had issues staying asleep so he'd wait and be cranky. Even though I nursed at takeoff, it seemed like his body couldn't adjust to the pressure on his ears because as soon as we were off the plane, he was fine!
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