Keep PORTLAND Weird

Way back in fall of 2019, Amy, Beth and I planned a trip to Portland set to occur in April 2020.  Well.  We all know how that turned out... Everything had to be canceled and we were majorly bummed.  

Fast forward to April of 2022 and we were finally able to go!  We basically planned the exact same trip as we had in 2020 - our Airbnb rental was even in the same neighborhood.  We were pumped!

Late afternoon flight out = wine for happy hour at the airport!

The girls wrote me sweet cards to open on the airplane.  

We arrived late in the evening and it was already dark.  We noticed that the Lyft driver waited until we got all the way inside before leaving - which is very courteous but also made us wonder what type of neighborhood we were in...  With Airbnb, sometimes you aren't totally sure....  

We looked out the windows and balcony and noticed several homeless tents set up across the street - it was a little sketchy...  No one wanted to say anything, but all three of us were feeling a bit nervous about the situation. 

Thankfully, the owner of the house contacted Amy about some maintenance work that was going to be done the following day.  Amy was able to ask about the area and if we were able to walk safely to an area for dinner.  Lucky for us, she said the area is totally fine and gave us some recommendations for restaurants close by.  In the light of day the following morning, we could tell she was right - not creepy at all.

our "neighbors"  lol

The first day we ventured out on a hike and it was amazingly green and pretty.  There was a chance of rain pretty much daily, multiple times per day, which apparently is normal for that area.  Totally explains all the very happy and colorful plants we saw.

This particular hike took us to an old stone house affectionately known as the "witches castle" and it was completely covered in moss and graffiti.  Such an interesting juxtaposition of the natural and unnatural.

"Every story ends as a ghost story."

Beth and I had prepped ahead of time with some letterbox clues and geocache clues for Portland and one of the letterboxes was at the Witches Castle.  I sent Amy up to look for it and she found her very first letterbox!

After our hike, Beth said there was a geocache located nearby that was found recently.  Geocache works with clues and also GPS locator coordinates.  We got to the right place, but were unable to find it even after about 30 minutes of looking like total idiots searching....

We eventually gave in to our hungry bellies and headed off to brunch.  The walk there was awesome - so much unique architecture of the houses and the flowers!  the flowers were amazing!

The brunch spot we found reminded us all of old school "weird" Austin.  Little local place with funny personal touches - like this little cat face on the wall.  

The other awesome thing was what happened when the door opened or closed....

After brunch we snagged some scooters and headed toward the Japanese Gardens.  It was supposed to be super pretty and we wanted to make sure we got to see it before more rain headed in.

Really awesome water fountain!

The Japanese Garden was a total B to try and get to on foot (the scooters were only allowed so far) - we were exhausted after climbing up some major hills and were very annoyed to learn that the Gardens was $20 admission.  BUT, we had made it that whole way - turning around was not an option.  

Let me tell you, our morning hike was 10x more pretty and was 100% free.

For dinner, we headed out to a restaurant at the top of the "big pink building" as the locals call it.  It is a very large, pink skyscraper building in the middle of a non tall building area.  It looks really out of place, but because of that, the views from the top are awesome!  

It was already crowded when we arrived and reservations were required for the restaurant.  We opted to take our chances in the bar, hoping to snag a coveted window seat.  After MANY attempts to get a table - we totally failed...  Gave in to one couple on an anniversary date, another time to someone we know had been sitting there waiting longer than us, a sneaky group who stashed their coat at a table before the other people even left and the very last attempt had Beth sitting knee to knee with a group of guys who invited her and us to join them for dinner rather than give up the table.  UGH.  

In the end, it was hilarious and frustrating.  But, they had good wine.  :)

The following day we ventured to Tom McCall's park to hopefully see the cherry blossom trees in bloom, but we missed that window by a couple weeks.  The area was still pretty and there was a farmer's market going on.

See that weird big pink building??  lol

Beth noticed on her app that we were very close to a geocache, so we decided to try our luck at finding this one.  We searched around and were not spotting anything for a long while.  Beth looked back at the clues on the app and saw this: 

After that amazing clue we were able to find it!  It was a TINY nut that had been sitting in that same spot since 2016!  Are you kidding me?  How cool is that????

"Secrets never cease"

See it?  Since 2016 people.  That's impressive.  Hidden in plain sight.

After our big win, we headed out to another headliner for Portland - Kennedy School.  This is an old elementary school that has been converted into a hotel, restaurant and bar.  They preserved as much as possible from the actual school building - it was like stepping back in time.  One of my favorite things we did, for sure.

Original cafeteria

The "detention" bar.  There was an actual fire in the stove and it was HOT in there...  lol

The Boiler Room Bar - this is where we hung out.  It was so fun!

That evening we were so pumped to go to a comedy show!  When we arrived we immediately knew this is NOT what we signed up for.  There were maybe 30 people there and these "comedians" were VERY UNFUNNY....

We left at intermission.  We are terrible people, but literally could not stand it anymore. 

We headed back to the house - played games and drank wine all evening and it was a great time.  I loved this trip and I'm already excited for next year!  Barring another f-ing pandemic, we hope to make it an annual thing!