with love from portland

RT and i spent the long memorial day weekend in portland, oregon in celebration of our four year anniversary. neither of us had ever been and let me be honest .. it did not disappoint!! all of the restaurants use as many local ingredients as possible .. there are tons of local breweries and wineries so the restaurants serve all of that greatness .. the scenery is to die for .. the people are super friendly .. the weather was complete perfection .. all in all portland is absolutely amazing and i would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested

we flew out saturday morning and arrived at around noon

we had gotten recommendations from people and the internet about what to do so we went straight to portland's international rose test garden. it was gorgeous!! so many different kinds of roses and they are flippin' huge!! in TX our roses are pretty but they are miniscule in comparison to the beauties they grow up north 

saturday afternoon we checked into our hotel .. hotel lucia .. and then walked to clyde common for lunch. they were serving brunch which at first i wasn't super excited about but my scrambled eggs and whole wheat strawberry pancakes were so insanely yummy!! i also had a fresh made grapefruit pomegrante soda which was the perfect pairing. RT had eggs a big piece of thick cut bacon hash browns and biscuits and gravy with a local beer .. also really yummy!! then we walked around downtown for a while before we stopped for happy hour at nel centro .. more local brew for RT .. a non alcoholic beer and water for me :)
then we went back to the hotel and snoozed for an hour or so before getting ready and walking to tasty n alder for dinner. all of the food we ate while we were there was good but this was by far our best meal!! i had a burger and fries which sounds super ordinary but in reality was one of the best burgers i have ever eaten. RT had cowboy steak that was served with tortillas and fresh baked beans and a glass of pinot noir from right there in the willamette valley. for dessert we ordered fresh made chocolate potato donuts and butterscotch lava cake .. excuse me while i drool!!

sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast in the restaurant that was connected to our hotel .. the imperial .. i had the chilaquiles and fresh fruit coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice and RT had raspberry french toast with eggs bacon and coffee
then we jumped in our rental car and drove about an hour to see the water falls that are so awesome in the area. We actually didn't see them as we were heading there .. we stayed on the main highway and ended up crossing over the bridge of the gods into washington where we stopped at this pretty little park and beach

baby p and i checking out the view :)

sorry for the poor quality of this iphone pic

then we crossed back over the bridge and stopped to walk out on this peninsula that offered gorgeous views of the columbia river

from there we took the historic scenic highway back toward portland and stopped at horse tail falls where we hiked around for a few hours. the weather was cool and the hiking was out of this world. this was my favorite part of the trip i think

when we got back downtown we had lunch at cheryl's .. i had a tuna bake sandwich followed by a fresh decaf latte and RT  had a french dip sandwich
then we indulged in yet another afternoon nap {so awesome! i never nap in the afternoons .. the perfect vacation indulgence!!} before we went to deschutes brewery and public house for dinner. of all the food we ate while there this was very good but not the best .. i had mac and cheese {seems like a weird dinner choice but it was homemade and sounded so yummy!} .. RT had a bison burger with fries .. and then we had a fresh strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert. RT was able to try several of their beers and he felt like they had the best selection of any other place we had been. his favorite was their fresh squeezed ipa
after dinner we walked back to the hotel .. watched a little monster week on animal planet and went to sleep

monday morning we went back to the imperial for breakfast .. i had eggs and ham with fresh fruit toast and coffee .. RT had a ham and cheese omelet with toast and a coffee and then we checked out and headed back home

this trip was exactly what we needed .. a quick getaway for just the two of us :)

happy wednesday!!