Peeking in at Portland

Matt and I spent this last weekend in Portland, Oregon. It was just a weekend jaunt, really the kind that I love. I’m a road-trip kind of gal, I love driving. It is fun and adventurous. You get to see sights and your nation, stop buy junk food, listen to great music and sing along, and just talk to one another. I particularly enjoy driving with Matt, although his multi-tasking behind the wheel can make me nervous, even when we’re silent it’s never uncomfortable.

Our journey to Portland was just for time away to spend with one another and keep good company with each other. I enjoy spending time with him; I really like Matt on top of love him. He’s interesting and very funny. We used my new free app on my iPhone to make our way to the Hilton in downtown Portland.  The app was free and we got a little lost and it recalculated about 5 times before we made it to the hotel, what do you expect for free but it did get us downtown. Portland is a really neat city and if you’ve never been there you should go, it’s got a ridiculously laid back vibe. I mean the people are almost missing backbones they are so relaxed and it’s so easygoing, it’s a wonderful change from the more rushed Seattle. Really Portland is what Seattle was maybe 20 years ago; it’s a nice calm town. We get to the hotel which is downtown on a Friday night and it’s absolutely barren, really slow. We go to a pub that serves one of favor microbrews, McMenamins’s at Ringler’s Pub and it’s just so chill, people sitting and relaxing and drinking good beer. I notice a funny thing while in Portland, the number of black women dating white men was very apparent, I must say it was refreshing to see. At Ringler’s there were three other black female/white male couples there beside Matt and myself. Also at the Trailblazers game there two more interracial couples in our seating section with black women and white men. I think Portland may be giving Seattle a run for its money when it comes to interracial dating and I’m so thrilled about it.

And yes we went to see a Portland Trailblazers game, Matt and I both like basketball, he used to play in high school and since Seattle doesn’t have an NBA team anymore we support the Trailblazers. They did really well; they were playing the Indiana Pacers and were losing the first half but rallied
in the second half and beat them 97 to 92. I enjoyed the game, even the over-priced Budweiser was tasty always seems better at sporting event. LOL. We ate at the food trucks sprinkled in empty pay parking lots all over downtown.  Portland is a foodie city and they have small food trucks in empty pay parking lots, selling freshly made great food at cheap prices, all kinds Thai, Chinese, Greek, Iraqi, Vegan, Indian, and Vietnamese it was killer and nothing was over five bucks. I bought a pair of $109.00 shoes from Banana Republic for $16.99 on sale and Oregon has no sales tax so the savings are even better. And we ate donuts at the famous VooDoo Doughnuts, yes in the picture below that is a donut with a Trix cereal topping and one with bacon on it, yea it was good. I say visit the Rose City as soon as you can, it’s such a neat town. They do have some issues with homeless teenagers, they have a large population on them but they do what they can to help to them. Really, Portland is my kind of town with my kind of vibe, very laid-back and mellow. You cannot go wrong with that, great food and good beer. Enjoy the photos.