Shirt: Express, last season. This season’s here
Jeans: Old Navy (my fav jeans- they’re such a good fit!)
Runners: Champion (these are the most comfy runners I’ve ever had.
They have weird cushioning that feels amazing)
I am so excited to share my recent trip to Portland with you guys! As you know if you read my blog post here, I road tripped down to Portland for 4 days for my birthday last week. It was my first time in Portland and I had such an incredible time. Our first stop as soon as we arrived in town was Powell’s. Powell’s is the LARGEST BOOKSTORE IN THE WORLD! It is an entire city block in size and they have maps for you when you enter! We spent 3.5 hours here! :O haha
Hat: Borrowed from a friend (thanks Lauren!) Similar: here
Romper: Forever 21 (in store) Similar: here
Jacket: Old. Similar: here and love this fitted one here
Monogrammed Purse: Marley Lilly
Flats: Old. Similar: here and here
Life rule: never leave a criminal lawyer alone in the crime section of a book store. … I couldn’t help getting ALL of these books!!
After working up an appetite book shopping for so long we went to Pok Pok for some amazing Thai food. It was probably the BEST Thai food I have ever had (…and that includes when I was actually in Thailand!) This is definitely a “must do” if you are in Portland!
Later that first night we went to Hopworks Urban Brewery. One of the “must do’s” when in Portland is checking out some of the (many!) breweries and distilleries. Hopworks was my favourite of the ones we went to – I unfortunately can’t drink beer (wheat allergy) but Hopworks also had a Cider which I tried and it was SO good. Not to sweet and not too dry. I highly recommend it. My favourite thing about Hopworks though was just how PORTLAND it was. From the hipster staff & clientele, to the atmosphere, it was just really cool. The best part? They have bikes outside that help provide the ELECTRICITY FOR THE PUB! On it’s own, that is a wicked cool idea, but it’s even better because for every 15 minutes you bike you get $1 off your beer. If you bike for an hour, that’s a free beer! If I lived in the neighbourhood I’m afraid I’d come every night after work for an hour workout that I reward myself for doing by getting an ice cold cider haha.
Next up, we went to Punch Bowl Social which was a ton of fun. If you haven’t heard of it before, it is essentially chuckie cheese for grown ups haha. They have a great cocktail menu and a whole slew of fun activities – bowling, karaoke, ski ball and shuffle board (which by the way was SO MUCH FUN. Why is this an old person game?! I want to play this all the time!!) I won at ski ball and shuffle board which is basically the greatest athletic accomplishment I will ever achieve being the completely klutzy, lack-of-any-sport-skill, human that I am sooooo; YAY!
Ombre Chambray Shirt: Current/Elliott Similar (and under $30) here
Jeans: Old Navy
Flats: Old. Similar: here
Necklace: Aldo
The next day in Portland was my birthday (Wooohooo!) and if you follow me on instagram you’ll know that I was surprised with a stay at a really cool hotel for my birthday! The hotel was the Hotel Monaco right in downtown Portland. Let me just say that this was the WEIRDEST (in a good way) hotel I have ever been to! Everything from the crazy room decor (bird wall paper, crazy patterned sheets), to the giant Jenga in the lobby, to the zebra and leopard print bath robes, was wonderfully awesome (and again, oh-so-Portland).
*please note the collapsed remnants of a giant Jenga game … we may or may not have drunkenly partaken in some giant jenga one night…*
The
hotel also had a bottle of Cava delivered to our room (for free) for my
birthday and they even sent a HAND WRITTEN card! It was surprisingly
touching (… or I am just a big softie and got overly emotional that
the front desk lady actually wrote me a card and signed it!!)
For my birthday dinner we went to Noble Rot where I had one of the best meals I have ever eaten! This restaurant has some of the best city skyline views in all of Portland as well, so it was a beautiful setting for dinner!
One of my favourite (and unexpected!) things from this trip was stumbling across the Oregon Ballet. I LOVE ballet (trained in R.A.D. ballet for years). I didn’t plan on going to the ballet (mainly because travelling with a man, so it didn’t seem like the best plan haha) but we stumbled across the building one day and I went just to go see the outside and peek in… and I discovered that they were rehearsing inside and that you could see the rehearsal studio from the lobby! I stood and watched a few minutes of it and it was absolutely breath taking.
Overall, as I’m sure you can tell, I had a great trip and really like Portland. Thanks so much for reading my “travel & fashion series”! I hope you enjoyed it and found it informative on things to do (and wear!) in Portland!
Your braid is so impressive! I'm the worst at doing anything with my hair besides plain straight or curly. Also a huge fan of the trench!
Xoxo-
Shian | The Fashion Investigator
Portland is on my must see list and now after your post it's just risen higher on the must go scale. Glad you had such a lovely birthday!!
What a fun trip! And that food looks delish! I love the idea of posts giving a little insight of your personal life.
Red Reticule | Red Reticule Collection
Loved that you shared all these pictures! Looks like you had a great time!
xo,
Jacqueline
Stylin In St. Louis
Leeanne, I love this! (and my shoutout hehe)
That hotel looks so cool and quirky, I have to go!
Can't wait for our vegas adventure! woohoo!