2020 PNW Trip - Washington 1

Last day in Portland, most of it was taken up with a roadtrip along the Oregon coast and into Seattle late afternoon. But before we left, we had to get another taste of Portland food.

Between Seattle and Portland, each city has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but when it comes to food we definitely feel Portland just slays. Maybe if I were a huge seafood fan I’d better appreciate Seattle’s food scene, and their scene is no slouch, but the options in Portland genuinely made me excited just so much more often. Maybe even more than Bay Area…

Once on the road, I wanted to swing by Tillamook’s factory for some of their ice cream. Unfortunately, we chose the one day that they were filming a new commercial. They were letting a limited few in at a time for a factory tour, but the food was closed until they wrapped up their shoot which was indefinite. So being mindful of the distance we needed to cover, we decided not to wait and went straight to the coast.

I don’t know if it’s normally like this or we just got lucky with a break from the weather, but the moment we got to the coast the sun really came out and turned the whole place into Studio Ghibli level beauty. We had to stop at Cannon Beach of course and after stretching our legs a bit and a great lunch, we got back on the road to Seattle.

After checking in we grabbed some nice warm ramen and then walked around Capital Hill for a bit. Had to swing by a Starbucks of course, but this is one location that (as long as the crowds aren’t crazy) I don’t mind going to. Afterwards we drove up to Kerry Park for a good view of the city before turning in for the night.

2020 PNW Trip - Oregon 2

We continued to explore most of eastern Portland but also spent time around downtown, trying to take advantage of some tax-free shopping (even though we hardly bought anything). The weather was also on and off with the rain during the whole day so we ended up doing a lot of the exploring in the comfort of our rental.

It’s probably safe to say the donut is Portland’s local delicacy, but don’t be tricked into automatically going to VooDoo’s crazy cereal/meat creations. Try to look for independent shops, but if you’re gonna go for a chain, I’d recommend either Heavenly if you’re feeling something Winchell’s-like or our choice Blue Star for something a little fancier but so, so good.

See See Motor Coffee is a local chain that I had to visit. Good coffee, cool bikes, and that really cool Camel Pro banner they had on the ceiling made it a good place to take a break from the rain. Afterwards we cruised around Portland’s North District and stopping by 10 Barrel Brewing for great beer, seasoned fries, and amazing, chili-thick minestrone soup. From that point on the rain just hit harder so I didn’t really shoot much more for the rest of our day in Portland.

2020 PNW Trip - Oregon 1

Since 2020 lit ablaze into the dumpster fire that we now know and loath and we had got back from our UK trip just as everything started shutting down globally, we had been bunkered down in the Bay Area and holding off on any of the major trips we’d typically try to do throughout the year. As things started to stabilize a bit and with the storm of the elections and holidays looming ahead, we decided to take advantage of the short window and do a little trip up north to Portland and Seattle.

The plans were to first land in Seattle where we’d rent a car to get us down to Portland, back up to Seattle, and cruise around both cities in the car so as to limit the amount of time spent on shared transportation. One constant challenge throughout the trip though was getting food as seating options and hours were limited compared to normal times. Fortunately, both cities are full of great food options which made it easy to pivot to an alternative when our first choice wasn’t available. “Happy little accidents” is a perfect way to describe how we ended up eating at a super good Mediterranean food place for our first stop. Juicy, grilled chicken with honey sauce? Oh yeah!

And of course you don’t visit the PNW without constantly consuming their most famous local delicacy: coffee. After visiting Tokyo and Seoul, it was actually a little surprising to feel like coffee shops were a little sparse for the areas, but that doesn’t mean we were ever out of reach for some great brews. Olympia is a local chain but we ended up going to one in the city itself as we headed down to Portland.

Arriving to the city within a few hours and with good weather on our side, we quickly checked into our hotel and started exploring some of Portland’s eastern neighborhoods.

When we were planning for our food stops, we did our best to find ones that provided outdoor seating, though that only really works when the weather is decent. We knew it’d be colder up north, but having just flown out from a heatwave that the Bay Area was experiencing that week, we were probably a little more optimistic with the temperatures than we should have been.

Heading back to the hotel, we turned in early for the night knowing we’d be going all around the city the following day, though not before admiring some of the modern Portlandia decor our hotel was filled with.

FILM / FJ75 in Portland

Always found it interesting how someone from one subculture can be so excited about an object that is essentially invisible to everyone outside of that culture. Case in point, this seemingly average Toyota pickup. To the general public, it's just some beatup Toyota truck. But for those in the know, it's a rare, grey-market imported outback/sahara/anywhere-ready legend. 

Needless to say, it's easy to guess how I reacted when I saw this.