Ever since our Boston trip in 2010 with my sister and her husband, we had planned to take another trip together to the northwest to see Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. We finally managed to make it happen a couple weeks ago after much planning. We spent the week of Memorial Day seeing the 3 cities and a little bit of the surrounding area. We were there for 10 days but there was still so much we didn’t get to see, particularly in the outskirts with all the national parks, ocean and wine country.
Drew and I arrived in town the night before Lisa and Branden, so we walked around the Portland Rose Gardens for a bit. We couldn’t get over how green and lush everything was, right within Portland’s city limits.









When Lisa and Branden arrived, we headed to a Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game. The MLS fans in the northwest are crazy – so it was really exciting. A rainstorm came through during halftime but swept through quickly and that was the worst weather we experience the whole time!

The next morning, after waiting in a long line, we got a major sugar high from doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnut – they were delicious. Lisa tried one topped with Captain Crunch cereal and Drew tried one topped with Fruit Loops. I stuck to good ol’ glazed.



They also tried a Bacon Maple doughnut with real bacon on top. Later, they bought the Bacon Maple Beer made by Rogue and it ended up tasting exactly like bacon.

Then we walked around the Portland Saturday Market, visited Powell’s Books and then grabbed some beers at Deschutes Brewery.




We ended the evening with a delicious dinner at Little Bird.

The next morning we drove out to Newburg and Dundee for a day at the wineries! Drew got to do all the tasting for us, so I relied on him to pick some good Pinot Noirs to bring home. Willamette Valley is such a beautiful setting for wine tasting – every winery had a view. We visited four that day, all known for their Pinot’s – Anderson Family, Lange Estate, Winderlea and Erath. Anderson Family was a small, family run vineyard that is all organic and sustainable. They need no air conditioning for their cellar since it stays perfectly cool all year round.





At Anderson Family Vineyard, the owner let us put our ear up to a barrell to hear the yeast bubbling.






The next day we made our way out of Portland and on to Seattle, but first with a stop at Mt. Rainier National Park!