Eating and Drinking Through Portland

We left Boise on Tuesday to head for a city we've been eyeing for a long time: Portland, Oregon. The long drive across Oregon took us through fields, mountains, and along the Columbia River (with a stop at Sedition Brewing in The Dalles) but we finally made it to the City of Roses. Exhausted from the long drive, we stayed in at our Airbnb that evening and planned the rest of the week. Maureen was mapping every interesting vegan restaurant in town and we were both scouting out the best breweries in the city, no small feat since Portland is a mecca for both.

Oct 11 - PDX Brewery Tour

We started our first full day in Portland with breakfast at the Arrow Coffeehouse and planned what to do that day. Planning turned out to be a little difficult; we wanted to do more than just eat and drink but we also wanted to avoid spending money on things. We decided to check out Powell's City of Books, the self-proclaimed largest bookstore in the world. It was hard to walk out without buying a book but we both have enough reading material to last the rest of the trip already. Nearby was the Deschutes Portland Public House so we stopped in for a snack and a beer. Going into the first day we weren't planning on hitting up a lot of breweries, but after chatting with the guy next to us at Deschutes about a brewery that tops one of their beers with a toasted marshmallow, we knew exactly what the rest of the day had in store for us.

We spent the rest of the day going from brewery to brewery on the east side of Portland, taking recommendations on where to go next as we went. Our first stop was for the marshmallow beer, Base Camp Brewing's S'mores Stout. All the breweries in the area were close enough to walk to so we left our car behind and headed to The Commons Brewery for a flight followed by Wayfinder Beer. We needed a break for some food and Maureen knew just the place: 24th and Meatballs. Our last stop for the evening was Burnside Brewing before resigning ourselves until tomorrow.

Base Camp S'mores Stout

Oct 12th - Vegan Barbecue

We started slowly the next day and didn't feel like exploring as much as the day before. I don't want to totally blame the five breweries in one day, but they certainly didn't help. We did manage to walk to an all vegan cafe and bakery, Back to Eden, for breakfast before we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon doing laundry and relaxing.

Once the laundry was done we ventured out to the vegan restaurant Maureen was most excited for: an all vegan barbecue joint called Homegrown Smoker. We shared a plate of "ribs" and some hush puppies and mac and cheese sans real cheese. One thing I've learned since Maureen and I have been together, especially in the past few months, is to not doubt vegan foods. There are people who will see "vegan barbecue" and immediately write it off or laugh at how ridiculous they think it is but I say keep your mind open and save judgement until after you've tried it for yourself. Every vegan place we went to had great choices and everything we got was delicious. Comparing tempeh ribs to pork ribs is apples to oranges and once you get over prejudices about a restaurant being all vegan you will have a much more enjoyable time there. It never hurts to try!

After Homegrown Smoker we made our way to a couple of breweries near our Airbnb: Breakside Brewing and Great Notion Brewing. It was raining off and on the entire time we were in Portland but we somehow managed to be inside during all the heavy rain. We even got a popup hail storm at Great Notion but it cleared by the time we left.

Oct 13th - Voodoo Arboretum

We started our last full day in Portland by visiting the original Voodoo Doughnut for breakfast. The area is definitely a tourist spot, it's also right next to the "Keep Portland Weird" sign, so we got our donuts and got out of there. We were interested in visiting the Portland Japanese Garden but were shocked and appalled by the the admission price (more than free) so instead we headed to the nearby Hoyt Arboretum. The arboretum had a very large variety of trees and it was easy to forget we were still in Portland.

Hoyt Arboretum

We went from the arboretum to walk along the river near Mill Ends Park, the smallest park in the world. In reality it's just one tree in the middle of the street but exciting nonetheless! We wrapped up Portland with a few more breweries, Hair of the Dog and Mt Tabor. We went to Mt Tabor just as they were opening and had a great time chatting with the bartender and the few other locals in the taproom with us. We got food at Hungry Tiger which Maureen found to have some well recommended vegan mac and cheese. We made one last stop at Ecliptic Brewing before calling it a night. Overall Portland was a great city and we just scratched the surface of all it has to offer; we'll definitely be visiting again.

Oct 14 and 15 - Crater Lake

We got breakfast at Elevated Coffee Co. on the way out Portland. We made our way down to the Medford area through the fog and checked into our Airbnb with enough time to make dinner and watch some college football. The next day we got up early and trekked up the mountains to visit Crater Lake National Park. The weather difference was stunning; there is already a foot of snow in some parts around the lake. We hiked along the rim of the lake for a little while but the snow and ice made the trail a little treacherous. We hiked back and luckily the roads we were near were open and we took in a different viewpoint of the lake from a little higher up the mountain. The lake itself is awe inspiring and it was crazy to imaging the volcano that was there before. The lake's watershed is just up to the rim of the caldera; no rivers or streams flow into the lake. All the water that is there, and it is a LOT of water, just comes from snow melt and rainfall.

We made our way back down the mountain where there was no snow and called it a day. Oregon was an amazing, beautiful state that we will want to return to someday. Now we move on to California and down the coast with our first stop being Redwood National and State Parks!

If you haven't noticed, our trip is in large part a brewery tour of the U.S. If you want to keep up on what we are drinking you can add us as friends on Untappd! Here is a link to my profile and here is Maureen.