Portland is a fantastic place to visit if you like to eat food and drink beer and coffee. which we do. In fact, the city reminded me a lot of Melbourne, particularly Fitzroy, Carlton or anywhere north of the river.

We were really fortunate to stay with more lovely relatives of Andrew’s (such a handy guy to travel America with!) and they gave us plenty of tips on must-sees and must-eats around town.

On our first morning we headed to Gravy for breakfast. Andrew, astoundingly, had his largest meal of the trip so far:

Gravy’s Monte Christo; two slices of French toast (made with delicious Jewish challah bread) topped with ham, turkey and swiss cheese. With two eggs and a GIANT hash brown on the side.

And I had the house smoked salmon hash and eggs:

Which was delicious, except for the kale. ‘Never order the kale’ is my new mantra.

After breakfast we were dangerously close to Christmas Day fullness, so we took a walk around the neighbourhood before driving over to Hawthorne.

There we sampled the famous Stump Town Coffee:

And checked out Powell’s Books, a famous independent bookstore in the city.

We bought 7 books from this list of 50 Books to Read Before You Die.

I finished the orange book in the pile (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) in 24 hours. I just can’t read enough at the moment.

After Powell’s we went to Blue Star Donuts, which is kind of the rival of well known Voodoo Doughnuts.

Blue Star was pumping old school Britney Spears and Rihanna, so they immediately got my tick. But not Andrew’s.

That evening we were heading to another of Andrew’s lovely relatives for dinner, so we stopped into Loretta Jean’s pie shop to grab some dessert. Look how adorable it is:

We bought the strawberry rhubarb and it went down a treat.

Continuing along the food theme, we started the next day by checking out the farmers market.

Berries are abundant at the moment in the north west.

There was so much delicious looking produce and food.

Famers markets always make me wish I wasn’t travelling, so I could do my weekly shop and then head home for a feast.

After the famers market we strolled through the mayhem of the Saturday market before joining a veeery long line for a Portland institution.

Almost half an hour later we walked out of the store with this box:

Yep, we waited that long for donuts. Four donuts:

Peanut Oreo, vanilla Oreo, maple bacon and a traditional Voodoo donut.

We paid just over $8 for them, which I found amazingly cheap. But we had to carry the box around for the rest of the day because no one can eat that many donuts in one sitting and expect them to stay down.

So on we walked, to find a brewery for lunch. Which is not at all difficult in Portland.

We ended up at Fat Head Brewery where we shared sliders and wings.

And celery and carrots. Because we’re on a health kick.

Shortly after that I had to cram the remaining voodoo donuts down because it was time to head to the soccer stadium.

Andrew’s cousin Sue had very kindly organised Timbers tickets for us.

Right in the Timbers Army section, where the most fanatic and dedicated supporters stand. Were we up for the challenge? You bet! Check out this video I took of the national anthem.

Thankfully, we were leant some gear so we fitted right in.

 

Everyone surrounding us was lovely and imparted their Timbers wisdom on all fronts including when to get discount drinks, where to find the best food and which chant to sing.

There were Timbers Army leaders at the front of each section to keep everyone on the same chant at the same time. They stood with their backs to the game and yelled the entire time, it was impressive! The Army was so organised.

They even had the words written down for novices like us:

And when the Timbers scored this happened:

Also a mascot lumberjack would go and chainsaw a section off a giant log on the edge of the pitch. It was great!

The Timbers won 2-0 and the people sitting in front of us gave us a Timbers Army scarf and two patches to keep as souvenirs. Seriously. Who is that nice?! No one. It was lovely.

We were this close to giving up on the rest of our trip and staying in Portland forever. We’ll be back! Have you been?