Portland- Fun Places/Things to Check Out for 2 days

Normally, my family travels to Georgia for most Thanksgivings to visit my grandma, dad’s sister, and my cousins. However, this year I decided to visit Portland instead. My cousin Sonam recently moved there for school, and I’ve been wanting to visit. The hot pink rain boots were the first thing I made sure to pack since it rains in California about twice a year, which means I never get to wear them! (Akshay’s note: good. They’re hideous) (Tika’s rebuttal: Coming from the guy who wears bright red pants.)

I took a 9:15PM flight out of Orange County on Wednesday and landed 2.5 hours later in Portland. I was finally reunited with my lovely cousin after so long! For some reason, over the years, we’ve found ourselves playing certain roles with me being the “bougie” one and her being the poor cousin who caters to my ridiculous needs. In fact, she prepared a home cooked meal with a REAL turkey knowing that this is something I’ve long desired since in the past, our family would cater our Thanksgiving meals. So sweet.

Day 1 (Thanksgiving):

We woke up around 10:30AM, and started preparing our meal shortly after. Five exhausting hours later, we had a full turkey, creamy mashed potatoes (with no butter!), mac n cheese (using 3 packs of Tillamook blocks of cheddar cheese), stuffing, marshmallow yams, and bacon wrapped asparagus. I think I may have helped chop a couple of veggies, but it’s because I wanted to leave the cooking to the real chefs! (Akshay’s note: probably a good thing, since Tika is the type of “chef” who burns cereal) I can’t even express how pleased, full, and grateful I was by the end of dinner! We ended the night watching a marathon of “Chrisley Knows Best” and Zootopia, both super hilarious and light-hearted.

Day 2 (Black Friday):

I woke up with a mission to explore Portland. Even though it felt like we didn’t do much, the day went by ridiculously fast! Places we visited included:

10 Barrel Brewery: The garlic chevre sweets appetizer consisted of sweet potato fries drizzled with goat cheese and rosemary seasoning. It was a strange mix, but surprisingly tasty. I tend to prefer wine over beer, but Portland is known for their breweries, so I just ordered a Boise 50 light beer, and it was great! The atmosphere was laid back and casual. We sat at a community table and had great, fast service. Definitely recommend a visit! Check out website here.

Food Carts: We stopped by an area filled with food carts taking over an entire block. It was so awesome walking down the street and seeing various types of cuisines including Chinese, Mediterranean, Thai, American, Korean, and more. All for a reasonable price! I found myself in front of a halal meat food cart that was serving kofta kebab wraps. I devoured the ENTIRE thing, and was on a mission to eat one on Saturday as well. I would suggest asking them to add their spicy sauce because I think it would add a lot more flavor.

Powell’s Bookstore: Everyone who visits Portland and knows how to read goes to Powell’s, so I had to check it out. Powell’s is huge, and we only hung around the entrance of it, which was super crowded and noisy. Maybe if you venture deeper into the store, there might be a a quiet area in which someone could spend some time reading. However, it seems more of a touristy area that should be explored just for its sheer vastness!

Voodoo Donuts: The line was ridiculously long; however, it went by quick–probably 30 minutes vs. the hour we were expecting. When we got to the front, we chose the option of having the server pick a dozen donuts for us. When we walked home, I discovered that the pink box has a sexual connotation attached to it, because a lot of people were saying some questionable things to us as we walked home! I wasn’t too impressed by the flavors of the donuts, but that’s my personal opinion since I don’t generally like anything dunked in cereal or cookies. Also, they had a grape flavored donut, which was repulsive! Grape isn’t my thing at all, and never has been. My cousin mentioned that Blue Star may have been a better option since the donuts there are more “bougie”, which fit me. Thanks Sonam. Regardless, I’m glad I got to check this place out, and love my cousin for making this experience happen! (Akshay’s note: Voodoo is super overrated. Blue Star is much better)

Keep Portland Weird Sign: This is right across the street from Voodoo Donuts (on the west side). It’s in a parking lot, so there may be cars, but it’s a cool picture opportunity, regardless!

Day 3 (The Last Day):

Brix Tavern: This place serves brunch on the weekend, and let me tell you it’s SOOO WORTH IT! $9 bottomless mimosas!! Also, when you sit down, they serve you fresh cake donuts drizzled in chocolate and lemon sauce. Very sweet! We ordered the fried chicken and waffles, fried chicken n gravy, and Brix’s Eggs Benedict. The eggs benedict was on corn cakes, which were good, but I think I prefer the typical English muffins. However, the fried chicken they prepared was absolutely delicious! Super crispy and flavorful! Definitely recommend this place! Unfortunately, I was SOO full that my dreams of ordering another kofta kebab were crushed. Check out the website here.

Barista Coffee: I had a sore throat, and so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try their iced coffee. I’ve also heard Portland is known for their brewed coffee, so definitely make sure to try some. I ended up getting a hot tea, which was very soothing for my throat. Cute little shop too (pictured as the featured image).

White Stag Sign: We walked a good mile or two to find this sign. And then it started pouring shortly afterwards! However, we found a Saturday/Sunday market that sells fresh food and cute little knick-knacks nearby, so I’d like to say I helped Sonam discover a new part of Portland (ha). I’m not sure what the history is behind this sign, but it looks cool at night when you’re driving across the bridge and see it all lit up. Anyways, we took a few photos and then made the 3 mile journey (or something like that) back to the apartment.

Cart Lab: My cousin lives in this cute little apartment near Portland’s Riverfront. We walked down to Cart Lab for our last and final meal. This place has a food cart feel to it in which you have multiple cuisines to choose from, but it’s not as casual. We ordered some carne asada nachos. Being from California, it’s hard to give good reviews on Mexican food. If I was to rate them, maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10. We should have probably ordered the burgers that my cousin was raving about, but for some reason, we just weren’t craving them. I gobbled up the nachos, called the Lyft, and bid a sad farewell to my cousin :(.

All in all, the trip was way too short! I had an amazing time catching up with Sonam and cannot wait to visit her again! She did such a great job of showing me around Portland, catering to my diva needs, and being the best hostess possible!

Words of advice:

– Airport security line in Portland on Thanksgiving weekend was surprisingly empty! I arrived within 1 hour of my flight departing (not going to lie, was freaking out), but had plenty of time to kill at the airport. I would still show up the normal time before a flight though, sooo not worth the stress. I wanted to yell at my Lyft driver since he wouldn’t drive fast!

– Purchase a $5 pass for the train. I never activated mine (luckily, they didn’t check), so I was able to use it both days. However, if you don’t purchase this day pass, you run the risk of getting caught and having to pay a ticket that’s way more than $5!

– 3 days (2 in my case) really isn’t enough time to visit Portland. I would have loved to explore the East side as well as rent a car and explore the waterfalls.

– Dress warm! Even though I had coats, scarves, and rain boots, I still got sick! My body is clearly a wuss and can’t handle cold weather, but figured I’d share the warning.

– For November/December time frames specifically, don’t bother bringing anything other than thick boots. I wore my rain boots the entire time, and it probably rained 75% of the time I was there.