The Adventures of Annie and Mitch: I Love Portland

Portland is one of my favorite cities. This trip makes twice I've been, but it was love at first visit. Firstly it is home to two of my favorite people- Stephanie and Lesley. Fun fact: we all attended NAU at roughly the same time, had friends in common, and yet none of us knew each other. We met later in Tucson. I first met Stephanie while working in a DV shelter and then met Lesley through her. And I'm so glad, because they're both just the best.

We also got to stay in the jaw droppingly beautiful mansion they are fortunate enough to call home. I cannot get enough of that house. It's like a life sized dollhouse!

We only spent two nights in Portland, so we had to prioritize. We hit Blue Star Donuts and Salt and Straw (twice), window shopped along 23rd street, and checked out Powell's World of Books(and picked up a few things there as well).

Stephanie was able to take a whole day of to hang out, but poor Lesley had to be a responsible adult and go to work. We had brunch at Slappy Cakes- a DIY pancake place. You order batter and toppings/mix-ins and then get to work creating edible masterpieces on the griddle in the middle of the table. It was so good!

We walked along the water front, saw some ducks and geese and boats, and enjoyed the sunny and warm day. Then we went to a Barcade. For those of you confused by this term it is Bar + Arcade. And we were lucky enough to hit it on a free play day. $5 got us unlimited playtime. I suck at arcade games, but when they're free I don't care! There was pinball, Xmen, 4 player Pacman, and DonkeyKong, among many others. I was terrible at all of them. Stephanie and I made sure to take a few minutes to shoot things. And we all took turns racing in Mario Cart. And got tasty alcoholic drinks called a Kirby's that tasted like an Orange creamsicle.

We managed to rally for some dinner and a round of Exploding Kittens after that. We had planned to head out the next morning, but Stephanie's aunt offered us guest passes to the Nike Employee Store- where everything is approximately 50% off. So we took them! In order to enter you have to present ID and you're checked against a list, then given a pass to use for 1 transaction and allowed to enter. It's impressive. The store is huge and packed with shoppers. Who doesn't love a discount after all? We browsed, picked up a few items including new shoes for each of us and I got a super cool hot pink visor. Don't judge. I'm confident a visor will be very handy. I'm also fairly certain I've reached a new level of old lady. I'm choosing to embrace it.

After that we strategically packed our purchases in the very full car and hit the road headed east. Midwest, here we come!