Portland: land of hipsters and coffee shops, right? Well, I probably didn’t fit in or look as cool as I thought I did, but we did have a great time! I’m excited to finally get the chance to upload these photos and write a little bit about our travel to Oregon.
These images are from our visit to Oregon’s Lavender farm in Oregon City. We just happened to be in town while they were having their lavender festival! They were allowing people to come in and cut their own lavender for just $3 a bundle and had tons of lavender vendors selling everything from lavender chicken, lavender lemonade, tea, and beer all the way to lavender fudge!
What I loved about this lavender farm is that you can actually see Mt. Hood from the fields of purple. It was a little hot and crowded, but I love the photos we got! This was one of our favorite parts of our trip!
Definitely hoping to go back to this festival someday. They had a table set up where attendees could sit down and make flower crowns or wreaths. Little kids splashed in the nearby fountains, and bluegrass singers were on a small stage making music, too. It was like a little piece of home in Oregon.
One morning, we actually got up at 5:45 am to see hot air balloons lift off in Tigard. We were a little sleepy later on, but it was fun to see all the pretty balloons float off into the mountain side! We also took the 2 hour drive out to the coast, not one time, but two! (We put over 600 miles on our rental car). Our first visit to the coast, we went to Seaside, which is a small tourist town. While, yes, there were many tourists, there were loads of fun restaurants, shops, and even arcades with bumper cars and putt putt for kids. We were so beat after the long drive that we spent most of our time napping on the beach. One thing to note if you visit: the coast is about 20 degrees cooler than Portland! We actually had to splurge and buy some jackets because we were so cold!
This was a cute little berry stand we just had to pull off for. They were SO GOOD. I loved how many fruit stands, tree farms, and U-Pick fruit farms there were. So much fresh produce!
One of my personal favorite parts of our trip was to Creo Chocolate. This Chocolate shoppe actually directly buys their beans from Ecuador – and they even know their farmers personally – and then they make the chocolate right here in the shoppe. It is a family owned business, as well! They were all so nice and we even got a private tour where we made our own chocolate bars!
Reppin’ that lunch lady attire and he still looks cute…
On the day of our anniversary, we started the morning with an “air tram” ride through the downtown area of Portland. Up high in the cab, we could see all of the bridges in Portland, the downtown area, and some of the rivers. It was crowded, but fun!
Afterwards, with five minutes to spare on our parking meter, we walked across the street to a little joint of food trucks. This was my favorite meal of the trip! We stalked out the different vendors (Chinese, Thai, Burgers) and landed on a truck that boasted a blend of Korean and Hawaiian food. Wanting to be like on of the locals, I ordered their “Aloha Bowl” which was totally vegan and had tofu, soba noodles, veggies, and pineapple. #SOGOOD
Next, we checked out (or tried to) some waterfalls. Unfortunately, the falls were so crowded that we were only able to see one before we headed out to Mt. Hood. I would love to go back someday and see more though!
On our way to Mt. Hood, I kind of got us lost. Tip: if you’re in Oregon trying to find Mt. Hood, don’t just type in Mt. Hood in your GPS. Anyways, we turned around and sped on up to a campsite with an amazing view! I would LOVE to come back here and just camp out for a week and do some paddle boarding! We were only able to stay here for about 15 minutes because we had to head to the coast for our anniversary photo shoot!
Here is a sneak peek from the anniversary shoot. It was so cold, but we were having so much fun that I hardly noticed. Cannon Beach was so majestic. I would have loved to stayed there for the evening because they actually had fire pits along the beach were people were beginning to snuggle up and make s’mores. Talk about romantic!
The next day, we transferred hotels to be closer to my fellow attendees for my film workshop. We stayed at the Society Hotel downtown Portland. The day of my film workshop with Belle Lumieré, we headed downstairs where the Society Hotel has a small café. I got a little experimental and asked for a mint tea latte. It was one of my favorite hot drinks I’ve ever had! I loved the uber-hipster feel to this community-style hotel – although, if you don’t like being able to hear your neighbors in the other room late at night, I would recommend staying on the outskirts of town or opting for the Hilton down the street. However, Society is extremely cost-friendly if you don’t mind a bunk or shared bath! A lot of girls went that route who were doing the workshop, but we decided to do their “private suite” with our own bath at the end of the hall.
And here is a sneak peek of my experience at the workshop! I really pushed myself at the workshop by shooting all film (since it was a film workshop!). The teachers, Mike and Britt from Brushfire Photography, were so knowledgeable and sweet! I made so many connections and friends, and wow – the views were amazing from the lavender farm! When we arrived, there were actually elderly women painting in the field. It was like something off of a movie.
Bottom line: Oregon was amazing. If I were to go back, and I hope to, I would opt for more of the mountain views and hiking than for downtown. Downtown is fun and exciting, but you seriously cannot get mountains and fields and coast views like you can here! I highly recommend making a trip out to the coast if you can! It’s worth it, even if you’re like us and only have 3-4 days!
