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.