A Quick Stop in Portland

Late July we took a summer trip to the Pacific Northwest area of America.. which consists of Oregon and Washington. M wasn't 100% convinced this was going to be a trip worth taking.. but by day two he was convinced.. it was such an amazing trip.

It was an 11 day trip and we started it by flying into Portland. In the initial itinerary we were going to be spending a night in Portland but after a few revisions we ended up with just a few hours in Portland. We took an early morning flight and thanks to the time difference we arrived there in the early afternoon. This was our first time flying with Alaska Air, not bad.. no complaints. We picked up our rental and with our stomachs grumbling we headed to our first stop, Alder Food Carts.

This was mainly a large parking lot lined with food carts along the outer edge.. there were so many options to choose from..     

The boys shared a grilled cheese, I didn't try it but it look pretty good. Came with a side of pickle and some chips.

M and I shared a savory crepe and some Korean taco's that I forgot to take a picture of.. OMG I will go back to Portland just to eat this crepe again. It was so good.. the taco's as well.. and we loved that when we asked for spicy it was really truly spicy.. 

We did a really bad job with our photo taking in Portland.. : / 

With out stomachs full we walked over to the Keller Water Fountain.. to our great disappointment the water fountain was closed.. we also took a few wrong turns making our walk longer than planned.. so
we were not too happy. But the boys tried to make the most of it.

Along the way we spotted a few of these drinking fountains known as Benson Bubblers they are iconic bronze drinking fountains named after businessman and philanthropist Simon Benson (1852–1942). In 1912, Benson donated $10,000 for the purchase and installation of 20 fountains; the designer was Portland architect A. E. Doyle. One of the reason he did this was his hope that they would reduce the consumption of alcoholic beverages during lunch breaks, and the other was that he felt the need after witnessing a girl crying at an Independence Day parade due to her inability to find a drink of water.

I had wanted to try Blue Star Donuts as well as Salt and Straw Ice Cream but we could pick only one.. well actually initially we thought we'd have two ice creams to split and then two donuts to split but it didn't work out that way. We visited Salt and Straw's Wiz Bang Bar and tried their chocolate blondie as well as there strawberry roasted coconut... both were amazing.. the strawberry was unlike any strawberry we'd ever had before.. the blondie was pretty indulgent.. the cone was half filled with brownie!! 

With our tummy's full again we headed to Powell Books.. 

There were floors upon floors, rooms upon rooms of never ending books.. it was the most amazing place.. we barely made our way through half of it.. I could live here.. 

And that wraps up our quick stop in Portland. We stopped at a Target to stock up on snacks and sunblock and bug spray.. we decided to buy everything at the destination rather than bring it all from home. Then we drove the hour and a half to Seaside where we planned to spend the night.

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