Portlandia| Visiting Portland for a weekend in January
Travel: go from one place to another, typically over a distance of some length. Travel blog for the family or those who have wanderlust in their veins. A few of our favorite trips will be highlighted in this simple travel blog. All images are available for print. We are also available for travel sessions and commissioned work.
Travel: verb, go from one place to another, typically over a distance of some length.
Portland has always been high on my places to visit. Thankfully, each January my husband and I pick a getaway together over a long weekend. We had the mildest and wonderful weather in Portland, Oregon, during our visit in 2022. That may not always be the case though, so plan accordingly. Rain jackets are always a “must pack” for 99% of all our January travels. This trip, thankfully, we only used it the first night we landed in Oregon.
The best part of Portland honestly was the ease of getting out of the city to so many lush outdoor spaces. Portland is quite walkable, although the city seems a ghost town after many of their downtown workers stayed working remote after Covid-19 hit. Then after a few day excursions walking the city, we decided to rent a car to get out of the city and enjoy the PNW.
I would say our favorite moments came on our overnight road trip to the Oregon coast. Haystack Rock, you know the one from the movie Goonies, has always been a childhood dream to visit. I can’t believe it took over thirty years to actually visit! We headed to a smaller town outside of Cannon Beach itself, which was a wonderful way to enjoy the beach town of Cannon Beach without the tourists all the time. We stayed in this airbnb in Arch Cape instead. The walk at sunset and first thing in the morning all alone looking down at Arch Cape was beyond my wildest PNW dreams! We ate dinner in Cannon Beach though, and that meant one of us was the designated driver with the dark roads with January’s early sunsets but you could even have planned a picnic and taken it back to the airbnb if you had time and cooler space. Our light traveling made that more challenging. We did bring back a bottle of wine to enjoy by the fire inside though!
Other highlights of Portland:
We loved the Duniway Hotel Portland, a Hilton Hotel right in a fantastic downtown location.
Visit Pittock Mansion, even if just for the view over the city on a clear day you can see Mount Hood & Mount St. Helens, as well as Mounts Ranier, Jefferson and Adams. We did not go in, but the views and the long walk we took up the hills and gorgeous neighbhood leading up to Pittock were just as memorable!
After Pittock Mansion you can walk down the hills toward the International Rose Test Garden. Clearly in January, everything is pruned back but the walk was lovely and we still enjoyed walking the grounds. Right next door is the Portland Japanese Garden. We did the free rose garden walk instead but looking at the Japanese Gardens online, and just the outside grounds, it probably would have been even more beautiful. Next time for sure!
The Saturday morning was spent purusing the food and goodies at The Porland Farmers Market on PSU campus. We enjoyed breakfast from a couple of bakery stalls and just loved talking to everyone there enjoying the fresh air and lush veggies everywhere!
Visit Powell’s Books I could have spent hours here, my husband not so much. But we did go and enjoy the old book smell of this very large independent book store!
Other fun places to at least walk by: The White Stag Sign is iconic Portland. Best viewed from the Burnside Bridge area or waterfront at night! We stopped at night to see the lights lit up and then went to dinner at Lechon and every single thing we ate and drank was heavenly! We ate right at the bar and could take in all the people watching and the very cool aquarium behind the bar staff! These were both walkable from the Duniway but we did see rats as we walked at night down toward the river, and a lot of homeless that night, our first night, which lived up to our expectations of Portland as seen on the news. However, we absolutely feel the news really sensationalized the homeless problems in Portland overall. We have seen tent cities in many of the bigger cities we have visited in the last four years for sure so Portland didn’t seem that big of a deal. Of course if you are heading to Portland, you know Voodoo Donuts is hyped up. We didn’t feel this one hit the hype at all. Maybe it was because we hit it so late in Old Town, but definitely not a “must eat” for Portland in our opinions.
Hands down our FAVORITE meal was at Duck House Chinese Restaurant. I could eat anything and everything on their menu!
Our second favorite meal was a lunch over at Bao Boa - we ended up walking across the Burnside Bridge to this little spot and enjoyed everything very much!
Our favorite outside the city stops were:
Cannon Beach - just the most perfect spot to have lunch and walk the beach. Insane but the day we were there we had a tsunami warning so that was a little crazy but everythign was fine! We ate at The Wayfarer Restaurant. It wasn’t jaw droppingly good, but the location couldn’t be beat. We ate, and walked the beach a bit and left our car in the lot and had no problems. We wen’t there too long so that is probably why.
We loved the drive from Cannon Beach to Cape Arch. The Oswald West State Park was along the way and we stopped and hiked at a few spots! So breathtaking!