After spending a few days with FDF (as I started calling Katie … Future Dr F) in sunny Seattle, B and I were off on our own adventure! We picked up our rental car and headed down to our first stop – 24 hours in Portland! Well, more like 16 hours. Which is not nearly enough to give you a full review of the place, but here are a few things we did enjoy on our brief visit.

Voodoo Doughnuts- super touristy, but a must if you’re looking for a sugar high. We got too many doughnuts, but my favorite was  the peanut butter, banana and chocolate fritter!

Stumptown Coffee Roasters- if you’re like B and enjoy a good cup of coffee, you’ll enjoy this place. He enjoyed some fancy smancy Ethiopian pour over coffee, but I stuck with a chai and latte. Yes, we went there twice in 16 hours … B really likes coffee.

Deschutes Brewery- pretty good beer! B and I stopped there for a drink and stayed a little longer. We tried a flight of beer and then decided to get some more – I loved the Black Butte XXV .. a lot!

Luc Lac– our awesome dinner. Seriously, I looooved this place! You order when you walk in and they bring it to your table -so you must know what you want when you walk in. I had the Vermicelli Combo and while I didn’t plan on eating the pork (it also had shrimp and chicken), I loved it! We became members of the clean plate club that night.

Powell’s Bookstore- I promise we did more than just eat and drink in Portland. This bookstore was great! I love looking at, smelling (yes, it’s a little weird but I love smells of books), thumbing through and even reading old and new books so I adored this place. The  book B was looking for wasn’t actually in, but he bought some other reading material instead. Definitely a place to stop, even if it’s just to see all the books they have!

After Portland it was time to drive down the coast for the rest of our trip. I leave you with the beautiful scenery we encountered along our drive. Enjoy! More to come on the rest of our vacation.