Beards and Backpacks

Days 3-4. The whole reason I came out west was for my friend's wedding and man, it was beautiful. The wedding was at her friend's parent's house and the grounds of the house looked amazing. The landscaping, the flowers, the set-up...everything looked gorge. I have never been to an outdoor wedding before and this one was just right. It was a small wedding which made it more intimate too. We drank and danced all night and then myself, C, and another friend tried to go out afterwards because we weren't ready for the night to end after the wedding did. Well you know what? A Sunday night in Portland after a long weekend apparently is a tough night to go out. After asking some locals and doing some walking around ourselves, we finally found a bar that seemed halfway decent. Turns out, as soon as we walked in, we realized it wasn't and we were totally out of our element. One, we were still in our wedding clothes and two, we didn't have beards, we didn't have tons of visible tattoos, and we didn't have large backpacks. The crowd was super Portland-y if you will. We had one drink, played a round of Naked photo hunt and called it a night.

Sunday was a long first full day in Portland with my long run, exploring all day and then the wedding. However, I was ready to check out the city more with LL and that we did. I think I finally may have figured this city out a bit from all my walking around with C. It's pretty gridded which I like. Once LL arrived we got right to it. I showed her around downtown a bit and then we headed to our tourist destination of the International Test Rose Garden and Japanese Gardens. We walked to these which was only about a 2.5 mile walk but had a very steep incline. My legs were pretty tired from the previous day (I put in almost 42,000 steps (almost 20 miles) according to my FitBit) with all the walking and wedding dancing but all was good. Once there we got there, we got an awesome view of Mt. Hood (which didn't photograph well. Boo.) and saw all the beautiful roses and other plant stuff (like that description?) in the gardens. Luckily my allergies cooperated and I didn't have a sneeze attack. Phew. We walked back down this giant hill and hit up another food cart for lunch and walked some more. I had to find the Real World Portland house too which was a success. Of course, it was a non-descript warehouse, but I had done my research totally knew what it was. First Pizza Schmizza and now this. Yes! Then we managed to hit up Target again, we grabbed a quick dinner at a restaurant by our hotel, and I took her to Voodoo so she could taste the amazingness. Then it was early back to the hotel to just relax because we had another big day ahead of us.

In our full last day in Portland LL and I both started our days with runs along the Willamette again. Since she is a speedster, we didn't run together, but we did see each other which was fun. We then showered and then headed to the Aerial Tram. We asked the concierge how to get there and headed on our way. He severely underestimated the distance and time it took to get there but we made it. We wanted some good aerial views of the city of Portland, Mt. Hood, and Mt. St. Helens. The very short tram ride goes from the ground up to the Oregon Heath and Science University hospital and back. That's it. Once at the top, we had great views of the city but unfortunately even though the skies were pretty clear it was too foggy to see both the mountains. HUGE bummer. The security guard told us that they are visible pretty much every single today but today just wasn't our day. Did I mention what a bummer this was? It was okay as the view was still pretty spectacular. From there, LL and I were heading to Pittock Mansion which was near Washington Park. We were told that it also had great views of the mountain so we had to check it out. We were also told it had some cool hiking trails which also sounded great to us. This mansion was located near the Rose Garden from the previous day so we had to take the very steep hill back up. Then some more hills and after asking for directions many times, we made our way to the actual trail that would take us to the Mansion. We were told this trail, the Wildwood trail, was well labeled and we would make it to the mansion. I felt very Troop Beverly Hills-ish on this hike looking for the labels to keep going. This trail was pretty much 90% uphill and was slightly challenging but I liked it. We were sweating a lot and just wanted to get to our destination but it was so much fun. I rarely trail hike and to get to do so in the Oregon wilderness (not really, but go with it) was awesome to me. When we finally got to the mansion, the view was most def worth the hike. Literally. We were tired, sweaty, but the view was certainly worth it. We finally got ourselves a clear picture of Mt. Hood. Then, much to our fatigued dismay, we had to actually head back down. Duh. We toyed with the idea of taking the bus back downtown, but just decided to walk it. What goes up most come down, so the trail was mostly downhill, but it was still exhausting. My dogs were barking and I was ready to shower and relax, but first, another stop at Target for some snacks for our bus ride tomorrow and to just have around. I've been in Portland three full days and I've been to the Target three times. Oh me.

We are off to Happy Hour and dinner at Henry's Tavern in the Pearl District and are hopefully going to sample some of the craft beer that Portland is so famous for. They have 100 beers on tap and we've heard good food too. A friend from NYC who lives here now is going to meet us out for a bit too so it's always fun to see an old friend and catch up. Tomorrow we have a half a day here in Portland and then are heading to Seattle. We will have two days there, a quick trip to Vancouver, and then back to Seattle. More to come!!