Voodoo Donut!

After dinner on our 1st night in Portland, we walked to the famous Voodoo Donuts for some dessert. We were so stuffed we ended up saving them for breakfast the next morning. They had flavors there I've never even heard of: bacon maple bar, blueberry cake glazed, icing and oreos, captain crunch, and peach fritter to name a few.

*jelly filled voodoo doll donut

The Nines

Ryan and I splurged a little on our awesome hotel. We stayed at The Nines. It has an art gallery and a roof top restaraunt. The decor is to die for (lots of my favorite color, light turquoise) and. fun fact: Clark Gable used to work there before he became an actor. 

  

*last 3 photos from google images

*chocolates made by the in house chocolatier just for us

Our view was rad, in the middle of downtown, Pioneer Square, and right across from the old courthouse.

As soon as we checked in and checked out our room, we hit the town.  Our friend Abi Bowden, who grew up near Portland, gave us a great list of things to do and see, so we scoped out the location of all the sites we wanted to see in reference to our hotel (ALL within walking distance). Since it was our ACTUAL anniversary, we decided to go to a nice restaurant that evening. 

We went to the Portland City Grill, on the 30th floor of the tallest building in Portland (as a mandatory recommendation from our friend Abi). The view was breathtaking and only got better as the sun went down. The city has a river running through the middle of it (just like Paris) with beautiful bridges crossing over the water. The food was... I can't even tell you. SO SO good. SO. GOOD.

DAY 1 in Portlandia

Ryan and I have a tradition. For our anniversary every year, we pick a city (preferably one we've never been to) and spend a couple days exploring and relaxing in it. This year, March 19th 2013, marked our 9 year anniversary. NEXT year is the big one, but we knew I'd either have a newborn or be big and pregnant at that point, therefore unable to really travel. So we decided to chose a destination for year 9 that was far enough away that we'd have to get on a plane, but not SO far away that we'd break the bank. It came down to Seattle or Portland. We decided we want to do Seattle later with Ryan's best friend Sam who served a missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints there. So Portland it was!

The very first thing I noticed about Portland, before even leaving the airport, was how environmentally conscious they were. Two flushers on every toilet, reminder posters to love the earth all over, and to top it off, our rental car was a prius... so we fit right it. The second thing I noticed about Portland were the trees. Millions of christmas trees on either side of the freeway and everywhere. We learned that Portland is also known as "The Evergreen District."

We thought it was a funny coincidence and SO APPROPRIATE that we would be driving a Prius around Oregon. We fit right in with all the Portlandians helping save the environment. (It was either a Prius or a minivan, and I got nothin' against minivans, but we were looking to spend a couple days AWAY from life, not trying to feel even more like the middle aged parents we are).