Portlandia Day Two

Our second day in Oregon was incredible. We enjoyed lovely, mildly warm weather. We loved the food, the friendly vibes and the gorgeous nature everywhere you look! I swear we walked into a living Subaru commercial.

Friendliest cat we've ever met

Olivia snapped this awesome photo

I did some research for our trip and I found out that Portland is all about that brunch.

I had so many great options to choose from but when I saw Slappy Cakes on the Food Network I knew we had to try it! Story & Chris have been wanting to go there too but there is always a crazy long wait. We checked out a cool vintage video store while we waited to be called. It's ridiculous how many great movies we've missed in theaters because we don't go as often, but when faced with thousands of DVDs to choose from, all we could decide on is The SpongeBob Movie for Liv and Veda.

We parked near a food truck lot. There are incredible food trucks (and trailers) everywhere!

Here was my order, buttermilk pancakes and fresh blueberries

You guessed it, it's a cook your own pancakes restaurant

Slappy Cakes Portland from sunkissis on Vimeo.

Liv requested a snail, I ended up eating it

Obviously, this is my pancake, it broke during the flip

Pancakes de la Totoro for Antz

Our next stop was Multnomah Falls to take in the beautiful local nature.

Aren't these photos insane? I didn't have to edit anything.

I'm still in denial she's five years old!

So pretty!

We also checked out a fish hatchery where we saw a 100 year old sturgeon named Harold. We headed to downtown Portland for donuts at the popular tourist attraction, Voodoo Doughnuts.

We only had a few minutes on our parking meter and the line was ridiculous so we passed on buying anything. Story assured me she knew a better donut place closer to their house.

Every single thing that Carrie & Fred make reference to on Portlandia is 1,000% true!

We finished the day with dinner at McMenamins Kennedy School which is an old school renovated into a hotel, venue and restaurant. I heard they have an insanely beautiful soaking pool but it was closed to the public due to a private event. I took these photos of almost two year old Veda being adorable outside on the patio.

I can't tell you how much I've missed our dear friends. So far we are convinced we are moving to Portland!

Our Epic Road Trip: Portland Day One

Despite our hotel forgetting to give us an early morning wake up call, we hit the road by 7 am for the eleven hour trek to Portland, Oregon. I went to Portland in my teens for basketball camp and all I remember is TREES EVERYWHERE!! If there is such a thing as a tree phobia, beware! Antz did most of the driving so I could read my new book, Go Set aWatchman by Harper Lee. I love how she dropped her sequel fifty five years later, so gangsta! I love long scenic road trips but by our eighth hour in the car, we were getting restless.

It's sad to see how bad California's drought is

Our first stop was in Eugene which is home to the University of Oregon. We needed gas and was shocked to discover that it's illegal to pump your own gas in the state of Oregon. We found out the hard way that it's unnecessary to give them a tip so we ended up having to go in the store and get change for the guy.

Another fun fact about Oregon, there's NO SALES TAX!! Believe me, I was very happy to discover this, only we had so much planned, I had very little time for shopping. I did squeeze in time to pick up a pair of shoes for Liv but next visit, I will be ready! We arrived at our friends Story & Chris' house around 6pm. Story told us we just missed a major heat wave. Yay! we were happy to move into their adorable attic guest suite. Their house is insane! We both had similar little 2 bedroom houses in LA but their new house is three times the size of ours. They have three stories and live in an awesome neighborhood. They walk everywhere. We settled in and walked to their version of Highland Park's York Blvd for dinner.

Finally made it!!

Olivia made friends with every cat in the neighborhood!

I've missed these faces terribly

The tacos and sangria were muy bueno. Seriously, DO NOT go to Portland because you will never want to leave!