Portland Girls Weekend - Downtown Highlights

The funny thing about this Girls Weekend is that it was literally planned off the cuff. My cousin is from Alaska, so I don't see her very often. When we were together this summer, we said we needed to plan another girls weekend and nothing ever got planned. We are both busy working moms and life gets away from us. We had went to Sonoma together 2 years ago this past October and had an incredible time. Fast forward to early October, we were talking via email about their trip to Hawaii  this December and how much I wished we could come too. She said, "Let's plan a girls trip!" She asked me where I could get inexpensive tickets to on the west coast and then she looked at where she could get cheap tickets too. Portland just happened to be one of those cities! We booked our flights to Portland and started looking online for ideas. I had NO idea how amazing the Portland area would be!

In my earlier posts this past week, I talked about Portland Wine Country and our Food & Accommodations. Today's post is going to highlight all of the amazing things we did in Portland in a very short period of time. We were only in the actual city of Portland on Saturday all day and Sunday until 2pm. 

Saturday morning we arrived in Portland around 11am. Our first stop was the Saturday Markets. I was completely amazed at how large this was. Rows of vendors, food trucks, people... Wow! The markets are open every weekend from March through Christmas Eve.  The Saturday Markets are an iconic landmark in Portland. The views of the water & bridges around this area are gorgeous as well. We shopped for a couple hours and then had the most delicious gyro I have ever had in my life from Angelina's Gyros.

{via}

After our fill of shopping & food, we headed back to our car to explore downtown a little more.  

Salt & Straw was one of the iconic hotspots that I found when researching online, so we decided to check them out too! I recommend you check this place out! The ice cream is divine!

We met one of the Shock Top beer girls while we were enjoying our ice cream outside!

We did a little shopping at some adorable little shops near the Salt & Straw. I had to take a photo of the Amelia clothing store, as that is my daughters name! We also bought cloth at the cutest cloth shop, I could have spent a lot of money there! 

We decided since Portland is so well known for it's breweries, we better check out at least one. Well, we ended up stopping at the most well known brewery in the city, Deschutes Brewery! My husband works in the brewery industry and laughed when I called him during our tasting, as I am not a big beer drinker! We tried them at least!

After our beer tasting adventure, we started to head back towards our hotel & stopped at the Ruth Chris Steakhouse to share some amazing chocolate cake for dessert!

The views from our Hilton hotel room during the day & evening! 

Sunday morning, we got ready for our last day of girls weekend. Our first stop of the day was Voodoo Donuts, we walked a couple miles there in the rain & then stood in line outside!! It was so worth it to check out this iconic Portland bakery! 

After enjoying our incredible maple bacon & creme filled donuts, we walked a bit to our next destination, Powells Books, which again is another iconic landmark in Portland. We hit most all of the major ones! I have to say, this is the most amazing bookstore I have ever been to in my life. It never ends, floors and floors and rooms and rooms of amazing books! I could have stayed there for days!! I bought books for my kids, a new book for myself, it was wonderful! 

My new book!! 

Once again, our mission was to hit most of the major iconic landmarks of Portland, so we decided our last stop for this weekend would be to tour the historic Pittock Mansion. We loved every minute of our hour long tour. We were so glad we decided to drive up to the top of the hill and check it out. We learned about Portland's history and what it looked like in the early 1900's.  The house was built in 1914 for one of Oregon's most influential families Henry & Georgiana Pittock, the mansion overlooks the entire city and is absolutely breathtaking!

Goodbye Portland, we will miss you!! I suggest adding Portland to your travel bucket list; it is beautiful, they have amazing restaurants and the wine is delicious! 

To read my recent posts about my wonderful trip to Portland, click on the links below: 

Portland Girls Weekend - Wine Country
Portland Girls Weekend - Food & Accommodations
What I Wore - Portland Edition