Good morning, pals! Or good afternoon. I know I’m late with today’s blog post, but I REALLY wanted to share my trip with you, so I had to edit photos and get everything ready.
I hope you enjoyed my Mother’s Day series. This week I promise not to write about motherhood at all.
Well, at least not devote an entire post to it.
We just got back from a trip to Portland and it was super fun, except for that scorching ball of fire in the sky. You know, us Pacific Northwest people aren’t used to 80 plus degree weather in May…or even August, really. Too much sun drains my energy and gives me headaches. That’s one of the reasons I don’t live in Louisiana anymore.
Lucky for us we got to step out of the heat and into a bed that was extremely hard to get out of. We stayed at the lovely and super friendly Hotel deLuxe. It was our first time to stay there and the staff made it extremely pleasant. Thanks for the tip, Courtney!
We stayed in the King Premier Suite and it was so comfortable. I really can’t recommend the hotel enough. Drew and I both agreed that the service was was so great that it seemed effortless.
One of the other reasons that we chose Mother’s Day weekend for our trip was that The Sketchbook Project I participated in was exhibiting in Portland. Plus, we hadn’t been there in a year, which is too long to be away from the awesomeness that is PDX.
It was cool to go and see the project I took part in and what the process for viewing the sketchbooks is like. If I hadn’t been traveling with a toddler, I would have checked out more books.
There was an art table set up where visitors could create a piece of art for a stranger to be sent to any of the tour stops. Nathaniel sent artwork to Austin and Portland.
We visited some cool shops and had some good food while we were in town. Some of the highlights were:
Digs Inside & Out: Cool home, garden, lifestyle design shop on Alberta Street.
Et•cet•er•a: I picked up a Dana Hebert scarf and Patch NYC candle.
Coffee Kids: Nathaniel walked away with a new book.
Vintage Pink: I just found out I missed Modern Pink. SIGH!
Sabi & Friends: I found a set of vintage crayons that had to come live with me.
Canoe: Amazing modern design store. What better place to buy a much needed pencil sharpener?
Jam on Hawthorne: Delicious breakfast and a great play area for kids. And you can draw on the tables and floor with chalk.
Dove Vivi: Awesome cornmeal crust pizza.
Besaw’s: Yum, but yikes. The food was good, but the wait was an hour. It was Mother’s Day, but it wasn’t even “brunch” time yet. Also, it felt like it should be called Cafe Claustrophobia. But the food was good.
We also checked out the Portland playground scene, because that’s what you do when you have a toddler that needs a break from looking at pottery. Seriously though, I am SO LUCKY to have a child who will go in store after store and not constantly touch things and actually seems to enjoy himself most of the time.
Here are a couple of observations about Portland playgrounds: 1) There are some old school playgrounds in Portland that can’t possibly be that safe. In fact, there was a slide with a warning sign. 2) The parents at Portland playgrounds are very friendly.
There are some gorgeous neighborhoods in Portland, and we had a lot of fun just walking through them.
I even managed to grab a quiet moment on Mother’s Day morning…coffee, Kinfolk, and fluffy pillows. Priceless.
A huge thanks to Hotel deLuxe for sponsoring my awesome Mother’s Day weekend in Portland. I can’t wait to visit again!
P.S. Rich, thanks for having your cookie guy make Mother’s Day cookies for me. That was awesome. xo