Oregon Road Trip Part 2

PORTLAND! We had finally arrived! Our hotel was right on the river and it certainly did not disappoint! The funny part was that we booked it through priceline last minute, to get a decent rate, so we ended up with whatever room was available, which was this...

Yep, TWO count em TWO full sized beds. At first we were a little unsure about this, but MAN I think Lucy and Ricky were onto something. Don't get me wrong, this won't be a permanent thing but  for those two nights it was pretty sweet stretching out on my very own bed! LOL (Love you honey bunches!)

We unloaded some of our stuff (let's be honest, mostly Hailey's stuff. For such a little girl, she sure comes with a lot of baggage!) and we decided to break into some of our wine and cheese stash...

Wine & Cheese & Hailey Photo Bomb!

Next up we went out for an evening stroll to see the river at night.

If Joe were a superhero his super power would be blinking EVERY time the camera went off.

My adorable loves.

Once we had walked enough we decided to grab a bite to eat, which turned out to be a common occurrence on our entire trip, but hey… I wasn't complaining. Portland has a ton of food trucks so we ventured out to try a few, in true Givens' style.

Delicious Crepes

om nom nom

Shrimp Po Boy Anyone?

Holy Giant Po' Boy Batman! We had to use Hailey to scale this for you in the picture

MMMMMM them were some good eats. At this point, you'd think we were stuffed beyond belief and down for the count right? Nope. Because Portland is one of the few places that has a Voo Doo Donuts, which makes some seriously, famously, amazing donuts….. Challenge Accepted.

Voo Doo Donuts

Donuts on Display

Every.Flavor.Imaginable. And yes those are Fruitloops

 Here's the spread we decided to get.

The Bacon Maple Bar may have been my favorite, but they were all to die for. After this we pretty much passed out from food coma. Heavenly food coma.

The next day, perhaps just so this blog wouldn't make us look quite so glutinous, we went on a hike. It was a bit chilly, but we all bundled up and hit the trail.

One Handed Tree Lifts… Gotta love staged photo funnies

 Whew! That was enough calorie burning, right? Now back to our eating/drinking frenzy around Portland lol… For starters, we walked over to the Deschutes Brewery for some samplers...

Mom of the Year Award? Yes, I'm wearing Hailey in the Moby Wrap and she's sound asleep.

 There were quite a few beers that we liked, so we got a little crazy with bringing some home with us…  Good thing we brought the stroller right?

Dad of the Year Award?

 Don't worry, I was wearing Hailey for the rest of our walking around anyways, which she loves, so we didn't technically kick our daughter out for beer. Although it sure looks that way doesn't it? Yikes.

Next up on our Portland tour was the Tea Garden.

mmmmm Tea & Desserts

Awkwardly enough, as we were walking around this whole time, there was no decent place for me to nurse Hailey so I pretty much had to set up shop in the middle of the Tea Garden, as we had already paid for admittance and she was now starting to hunger-cry. The entire scene was pretty hilarious because the Tea Garden was a very proper place, very quiet and very conservative but here I am…. nursing my child because what the heck else am I gonna do?!!? On the plus side, we lucked out and no guided tour walked by us while this was going on. That would have been interesting.

Cheers!

Next up on our route was the Portland City Grill, which is basically on the top floor of this tall building and lets you see the entire city.

Portland City Grill

We didn't stay long there, as were were all pretty tired by that point, so we headed back to the hotel.

Our little traveller

Play time with Daddy back at the hotel

Our last outing in Portland was dinner that night. We went to McMenamins Kennedy School. For those of you not in the know, this chain basically transforms old buildings into renovated hotel/restaurant/bar attractions. This one used to be an abandoned elementary school and it was amazing to see what they did with the place. If we ever go back, we might try and book a room here.

Dinner in the "Cafeteria"

Boiler Room Bar

Bar for "Honors" students (the "Detention" bar was just down the hall)

School Hall

We had heard really great things about Portland, and the city did not cease to live up to our expectations. It was seriously such a fun visit. Sadly it had to end, so the next morning we were headed back, but this time down the coast...