1 Month In Portland, OR – Here’s What We Did

November is always a busy time for me work-wise as one of my other websites covers gift card deals of which there are a ton over the Thanksgiving period.

We therefore try to stay in the same place for a month at that time of year so that I have time to work while also having a bit of spare time to go and explore the local area. This year we chose Portland, OR because a) we were seeing the rest of Oregon before that and b) we have good friends in Portland and so this would give us several opportunities to meet up with them.

We didn’t get to see anywhere near as much as we’d like to because of being so busy, but here’s a roundup of everything we did from where we stayed to what we visited to what we ate and drank.

Where We Stayed

The Duniway Portland

Our first three nights were spent in the city center at The Duniway, one of Hilton’s properties. We had $600 worth of Amex Platinum credits to use up, so those covered most of the cost of the stay.

It was a decent hotel in a good location and all the staff members were lovely. Here’s a full review of our stay.

Airbnb

After our three nights at The Duniway we stayed for 31 nights at this Airbnb just the other side of the river. I picked that specific length because when staying 31+ days in Oregon (and many other states) you don’t get charged the taxes that you do on stays of a shorter length. That meant staying 31 days ended up being that same price as something like 28 days because of that tax removal.

The Airbnb was a separate one bedroom unit in the back yard of someone’s house and was a great spot. It was nice and quiet, had a full kitchen and was in a great neighborhood.

It was a little smaller than we’d been anticipating which wouldn’t be a problem for most people, but it felt a little more cozy because we travel with pretty much everything we own. Still, it was a decent choice seeing as it only cost $69.45 per night (or less than that because we paid with discounted gift cards).

My Impressions Of Portland

We’d heard a lot of negative things about Portland before our stay, so it was a pleasant surprise when Portland was much better than the descriptions made it sound.

There was a depressingly large number of homeless people living in tents all around the city, but that was depressing more because of the sheer number of people living in those conditions than because of how it made the city look. Having said that, it also wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some media outlets had made it sound and I never felt at all unsafe when walking around at night both in the city center and our Airbnb’s neighborhood the other side of the river. It was strange though seeing tents just randomly set up on the sidewalk in the city.

One thing I will say for Portland is that November is wet and dreary. We went into it knowing it was hardly going to be the sunniest of months, but I was surprised by quite how gray and damp it was the entire time. That was a shame because it meant that on days where we weren’t as busy, we had far less motivation to go outside because of how wet it was.

There was one nice aspect about the weather though. It was often misty/foggy in the evening, with some dampness in the air but not raining. This reminded me a lot of the weather in England where I’m from and was strangely comforting seeing as it’s been more than a decade since I’ve gotten to experience that.

What We Did

Columbia River Gorge

I-84 runs alongside the Columbia River Gorge and it’s a pretty sight with lots to see along the way.

Waterfalls

That stretch of road is also home to tons of waterfalls. A few of them weren’t accessible due to the weather at that time of year, but we still got to see several of them. The quintessential one is Multnomah Falls and it really was as beautiful in person as it was in the photos we’d seen before. In fact, you’d have to try pretty hard to take a bad photo of it!

After viewing the waterfall from below, we took the ~1.25 mile hike to the top of Multnomah Falls which also gave some of those great views of the Columbia River.

Those weren’t the only waterfalls we saw though. There were the Bridal Veil Falls:

The Wahkeena Falls:

And the Horsetail Falls:

Cannon Beach / Haystack Rock

Cannon Beach on the west coast of Oregon (about 1.5 hours from Portland) is a beautiful, magical place and so it’s no surprise that it’s been used as the filming location for movies including The Goonies, Point Break and Twilight.

We hit the beach on the perfect day – not too cold, some sun, but also mist and clouds rolling over nearby cliff tops.

The beach is incredibly pet-friendly and so Truffles had an amazing time chasing after her ball for a couple of hours.

The most prominent feature of Cannon Beach is Haystack Rock which has tide pools that are home to sea anemone, starfish and more.

Tillamook Creamery

About an hour south of Cannon Beach is Tillamook Creamery, makers of ice cream, cheese and other dairy products. They have a free self-guided tour you can take to learn about the company’s history which also includes an overhead view of their production line where you can watch cheese getting packaged up.

After taking the tour, Shae ordered their fried cheese curds and we both got ice cream. We both ordered ice cream flights assuming it would be a good way to try out a few of their flavors in small amounts. It was indeed a great way to try out their delicious flavors, but we were mistaken about it being a small amount – their flights include three very good-sized scoops.

Tillamook Air Museum

After checking out Tillamook Creamery, we thought about going to the beach but it was getting late and so we wouldn’t have much daylight there. We therefore decided to head back to our Airbnb, stopping off at the Tillamook Air Museum along the way.

The museum is in a large airship hangar and has all kinds of aircraft and several other exhibits. One of the great features of the museum is that you can sit inside the cockpits of many of the planes and helicopters, so it’s a particularly great place for kids and aviation nerds to visit.

Powell’s Books

Powell’s Books – the largest independent bookstore in the world – can be found in Portland, OR and is so large that it takes up half a city block.

Thanksgiving

Our month in Portland fell over Thanksgiving which we got to celebrate with our friends Mark and Megan and their kids. Mark and Megan are who we visited Ireland with a few years ago.

Seeing as it was Thanksgiving, here’s your annual photo of Truffles in her turkey hat.

Troutdale

Shae went out with one of our friends to do some early Christmas shopping in Troutdale, a cute part of Portland with some stores known as the Troutlets!

Stark’s Vacuum Museum

There’s a vacuum cleaner store/repair place in Portland called Stark’s Vacuums and their store contains a small museum featuring vacuum cleaners from over the decades. This quirky museum was close to our Airbnb, so Shae stopped by there one day to check it out.

Sandy River Delta

On one of our final days in Portland, we took Truffles to Sandy River Delta – a recreation area which also has a giant off-leash dog area which she loved.

Sedona, AZ

In the middle of our time in Portland, Shae flew out to Sedona to celebrate one of our friends’ 40th birthdays. They had a lot of fun exploring, hiking, eating and drinking for the few days they were there.

Burlesque

Shae had a couple of girls nights out while we were in Portland. She went with Megan to a burlesque show at Dante’s which apparently wasn’t as risqué as you might expect, but did include a visit with Santa.

Karaoke

Shae also went to karaoke with her friend Genevieve at Alibi and had lots of fun. Shae has an amazing singing voice, but apparently it wasn’t quite as good after a few drinks 😉

Where We Ate & Drank

Pup Passport

Before arriving in Portland we bought a Pup Passport. This features more than two dozen pet-friendly breweries in and around Portland, with the passport getting you either a discount or something free when visiting participating breweries.

Although we were in Portland for a month, we were so busy that we didn’t get to visit many of the breweries but we loved the concept and took advantage of a few discounted/free offers at breweries.

Von Ebert Brewing

We stopped by Von Ebert Brewing when staying at The Duniway as it wasn’t too long of a walk from the hotel. I got a glass of their Waning Echoes American Stout, while Shae got a cider.

10 Barrel Brewing Co

We tried to visit another Pup Passport location before we moved on to our Airbnb, but that brewery has since closed. Thankfully there was another brewery just around the corner called 10 Barrel Brewing Co. They weren’t on the Pup Passport, but they did have some outdoor seating that was pet-friendly.

The Pocket Pub

While having a drink at Von Ebert Brewing, we met another couple (Kara and Josh), with Josh originally being from England like me. When we mentioned where our Airbnb would be, they suggested we meet up for a drink another time at The Pocket Pub which has only a few blocks away from where we’d be staying.

It was a lot of fun getting to meet up with them again, with the beer at the pub being very good and the pizza Shae ordered being excellent as well (I’d already eaten).

Culmination Brewing

Another Pup Passport location was Culmination Brewing, a brewery that was fairly close to our Airbnb. I tried their Dwellers On The Threshold – a pastry stout with orange, vanilla, molasses and cocoa nibs which was very good, while Shae had a glass of wine.

Zeus Cafe

I’m hopping all around here with places we went. On our very first morning in Portland we met up with Heidi who we’d met through a Facebook group we’re all in. We started off with a quick drink at Zeus Cafe while we waited for our table at a different restaurant to be ready.

I ordered a Black Widow Porter…

…while Shae got an Orchard Toddy which contained Clear Creek Pear Brandy, apple cider reduction, orange, lemon and cinnamon.

Screen Door

The three of us then went on to breakfast at Screen Door, a restaurant recommended by Heidi which was an excellent recommendation.

We started off by sharing some squishy cream cheese cinnamon rolls.

I then had chicken and sweet potato waffles. I was a little dubious about how much I would like sweet potato waffles but it was all delicious.

Shae ordered the chicken and biscuits which came with mushroom gravy and breakfast potatoes; she loved her breakfast too.

Fire On The Mountain Buffalo Wings

Speaking of chicken, a few days later we met up with our friends at Fire On The Mountain Buffalo Wings. I ordered their boneless wings and picked raspberry habanero and spicy peanut as my two sauces – the raspberry habanero flavor had particularly intense flavor from the raspberry.

PDX Sliders

On our last night in Portland our friends took us to PDX Sliders, a burger joint with some of the most delicious burgers/sandwiches I’ve ever had. The sliders were larger than I was expecting but were packed with flavor. I got the Steel which has two patties, bacon, caramelized onions and aioli on a brioche bun (it normally comes with cheese but I ordered it without that), as well as the Burlington which contains pecan-smoked pork, Carolina mustard BBQ sauce, creamy slaw and aioli on ciabatta.

Seriously – if you ever find yourself in Portland you have to get yourself burgers from PDX Sliders.

Shae got a couple of their Portland sliders which have a beef patty, American cheese, raw onions, pickles and aioli on a brioche bun, while we shared some truffle fries which were also very good.

Fifty Licks Ice Cream

Despite being full from the burgers at PDX Sliders, we all went to Fifty Licks Ice Cream for dessert. They had a bunch of interesting flavors. One of the flavors Shae got was Cornbread Honey Butter which, to be fair, did taste just like that. However, it’s a weird flavor to have as ice cream and I wasn’t a fan of that one.

That’s not to say they don’t have good ice cream though. I ordered two scoops – one of Strawberry Cheesecake and one of their Chocolate Coconut Caramel. I didn’t realize until looking at their website just now that their Chocolate Coconut Caramel ice cream is vegan – it was very good, with its creaminess presumably aided by the coconut milk in it. The strawberry cheesecake ice cream was very good too.

The Cookie Dough Cafe

Just across the street from Von Ebert Brewing was The Cookie Dough Cafe, so Shae got a couple of scoops of cookie dough on the walk back to our hotel. One was regular chocolate chip and the other was brownie batter; the brownie batter wasn’t as good as we’d hoped, but the regular chocolate chip cookie dough was great.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

OK, so it’s not exactly a Portland-specific treat, but we got caramel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory while we were there. Their S’mores one was particularly delicious.

1927 S’mores Company

That’s not to say we didn’t have Portland-style S’mores though. Shae went to 1927 S’mores Company with one of our friends one night, then we all returned later on during our trip. Their s’mores are pricey for what they are, but it’s fun seeing them take a blowtorch to the marshmallows to toast them!

Multnomah Whiskey Library

Next door to 1927 S’mores Company was the Multnomah Whiskey Library. As the name suggests, it has a wide selection of whiskeys to try and so my friend and I went in for a quick sampling of some Blanton’s.

Pelican Brewing Company

The Pup Passport stretches out quite far from Portland as one of the eligible breweries was Pelican Brewing Company out at Cannon Beach. We ended up having lunch there; I got an excellent burger with some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had, while Shae got a pizza.

Truffles wasn’t left out either. Not only did she enjoy some of my burger and some of Shae’s pizza, but the Pup Passport perk was a free pup bandana.

The Winery At Manzanita

After Pelican Brewing Co we made our way over to The Winery at Manzanita. I was driving us back and so stuck to water, while Shae did a wine tasting. It was a lovely location with a pet-friendly patio that had fire pits to keep us warm.

Mashita Teriyaki

I had a $10 Grubhub credit to use on my Amex Gold card, so I ordered dinner from Mashita Teriyaki one night which was a surprisingly tasty dinner.

Voodoo Doughnut

Mea culpa. When visiting Austin, TX in the first year of our road trip, we got Voodoo Doughnuts and were unimpressed – we couldn’t understand the hype. Fast forward three years later and we went to the original Voodoo Doughnut in Portland and got a selection of donuts to try. These were much better than the ones we’d had in Austin, so I can understand why they’re so popular, but Round Rock Donuts and Hurts Donut are still my top two donut spots.

Blue Star Donuts

We’d heard that Blue Star Donuts rivaled Voodoo Doughnut, so on our way out of Portland on our final day we stopped there for breakfast. Apologies to all the Blue Star Donuts devotees, but we weren’t fans. They weren’t awful, but I’ve had better grocery store donuts.

AniChe Cellars

Kara and Josh who we’d originally met at Von Ebert Brewing and subsequently met up with again at The Pocket Pub recommended that we visit AniChe Cellars which is just across the border in Washington State.

After checking out some of the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge one day, we drove up to AniChe Cellars and had a lovely wine tasting experience at their winery which was also pet-friendly inside.

Mamma Khouri’s

Our Airbnb had a menu for Mamma Khouri’s and their Middle Eastern food looked tasty. There was a Groupon for them along with a promo code that could be used for a further 25% off, so I was able to get a $20 voucher for something like $10.

I ordered their chicken and lamb shawarma plate which came with lots of rice and some pita, all of which was very flavorful and so it wasn’t surprising that they had such good reviews online.

The Rambler

The night that Shae went out to do karaoke they started off with dinner at The Rambler where she got the Rambler Poutine which had their Toronado potatoes with beef gravy, bacon, mozzarella and green onions, fried brussels sprouts and then followed up with their roast beef sandwich.

Apizza Scholls

Our friends recommended that we get dinner from Apizza Scholls, so Shae and I shared a pizza – her half was margarita, while my half was meatball and onion and we both enjoyed it.