Put a bird on it, Portland....

I'm back in London, and have lots of blogging to catch up on!  It's always a little tough getting back into the swing of things after a holiday....especially when you arrive home to grey, drizzly weather...bleh!

Where to begin?  Well, I will start with Portland!  After hearing many great things about this city, we decided to spend a few days visiting a good friend of mine, whom I had not seen for over three years.  Aaron had never been to Portland either, so it was nice that we both got to explore somewhere new together.  Our whole trip was based around his sister's wedding in Seattle, so this was the perfect opportunity to visit, as Portland is only a three hour (and very scenic) train ride away.

We arrived on a hot and sunny Friday afternoon, and I immediately liked it!  As we drove along on the train from the airport, we passed lots of trees and lush green foliage, then as we got into the downtown area, it was (this is the only way I can think to describe it) totally American looking.  The streets were really clean, and the buildings reminded me of countless American movies.

 

 

It was awesome being reunited with my friend Julie, who I have known for years, since she used to live in San Francisco.  She was a most wonderful host and tour guide, and on our request, took us around to lots of vintage shops!  She also took us on our first American antique mall shopping expeditions...which turned out to be the first of many, on this trip - I will post about these later!

Aside from sparking a bourgeoning love affair with antique malls, this trip also introduced us to: a song about camel toe, an estate sale, sleeping on a trundle bed, the best ever Bloody Mary, pig ears for breakfast (both this and the former from The Country Cat), Stumptown coffee and Voodoo doughnuts.

I had heard many things about Voodoo Doughnut in the past, and after seeing it featured on the tv show Man vs. Food right before we took this trip, I knew I had to sample these doughy delicacies.  Bacon-maple doughnut - what's not to love (apart from the taste of maple)?  Despite my aversion to maple, this was my favourite of the doughnuts that we tried (it's topped with a whole rasher of crispy bacon!).  We also sampled the mango tango and the one that looks like the 'old dirty bastard' but is covered in rice crispies (chocolate and peanut butter) instead of oreos.

As we sunk our teeth into the last doughnut, we were bombarded by a flurry of people involved in some sort of task challenge - and they all needed a photo of themselves posing with a Voodoo doughnut.  At this point I wish we would have bought a dozen doughnuts (instead of just three), as they were all offering cash of up to $10 for one doughnut - to understand why, you need to know that there is always a loooooong line of people waiting to get into this doughnut Mecca.

In case you think that all we did was eat and vintage shop....we also went up Mount Tabor, crossed the picturesque St John's bridge, saw a great country band called Saturday Night Drive, danced at the Scottish Rite Centre and marvelled at the amount of cool neon signage dotted all over the city!  But mostly....we goofed around!

On our final night we visited The Driftwood Room for the late-night happy hour - yes, that's right, this place has not one, but two happy hour sessions per evening!  So that's why everyone in Portland is so happy!  This Mad Men-esque bar is situated in the Hotel DeLuxe, and it was only when we stepped inside that I realised I recognised it from a Vixen Vintage blog post that I had read a couple of weeks beforehand....

The hotel foyer features a huge light screen with rotating vintage images of movie stars.  It's very schnazzy, and adds a touch of Hollywood glamour to the place.

On our final morning, we wandered around getting brekkie in such a leisurely manner, that you would never have thought we had a train to catch!  Subsequently, our seven minute cab ride to the station was panic-strikken, and we made it onto the train out of puff and with less than a minute to spare....talk about cutting it fine!  Good thing the rest of the journey to Seattle was nice and relaxing, with views of clouds shaped like cats and dogs...