Hello everyone! Welcome to last installment of my Portland series blogposts. Finally, I know! Today I wanted to share with you all the outdoor adventures near Portland! Most of these locations are only about an hour or so outside of the city so they're easy day trips to get away to. I want to try and keep this one short and sweet but there's a lot to get to so keep on reading!



Our first outing from the city was to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Located about an hour and half outside the city, it's an easy, beautiful drive through the forest. Of course, it rained just about the entire time to and from the coast, but what's visiting the PNW without a little rain right?

When we arrived to the coast, we went to Ecola State Park. The weather this day was not exactly "beach weather". It was very windy and very cold. We first stopped at the secluded Indian Beach and pretty much just walked up and down the coastline. We watched crazy surfers endure the frigid waters and crazy waves and seagulls attack crabs that would wash up on the shore. That was definitely added to my list of "Coolest Things I've Seen in Nature".



We wandered around until we couldn't bear the cold anymore and ran back to heat up the car. We made one last stop to take in the views of the Pacific Coast before heading to Cannon Beach.


Cannon Beach was definitely a super touristy town, but super cute nonetheless. We definitely had a hard time finding our way to the beach. Don't get that confused with "we didn't know where the beach was"! I'm pretty confident in knowing which way the ocean is. We just didn't know HOW to get there, as far as beach access. We ended up parking in a nearby lot and walking right across the street to it! I didn't feel so bad when we were heading out and others were asking us how to get there.


Cannon Beach was absolutely mesmerizing. We wandered out onto the beach and I ran around in the sand so happy to be there. Like I said, it was extremely windy and extremely cold. My poor Sadie did not appreciate that, thus spending most of her time wrapped in blankets in my backpack. After getting to the point that I could no longer feel my toes, it was time to pack up and head back to the city.


The Columbia River Gorge is the perfect place to head to if you're as enamored with waterfalls as I am. Beginning about 30 miles outside of Portland, there are amazing trails, views and waterfalls to fall in love with. There are two I want to tell you about today but as always, definitely explore for yourself and see what you can find.

Multnomah Falls is definitely the tourist stop of the gorge. You'll have to fight for parking and fight for that Instagram shot, but I would say it's definitely worth it. It was an absolutely gorgeous sight. After seeing it countless times on my Instagram feed, I still was not disappointed. After seeing the Spurs visit just last year, I knew I had find my way there ASAP. So happy I finally did.


Latourell Falls is very underrated. You can view it from the parking lot, but why not get closer right? Lyle was brave enough to scramble across the wet rocks and get almost right under the falls. I wish I would have gone as well but I had my camera equipment to attend to. Either way, it was a massive waterfall and I could have stayed there for hours being hypnotized by it's beauty.



We actually spent the last half of our trip at an AirBnb in Hood River, Oregon. Staying here, we had easy access to Mt. Hood National Forest. Hood River was a cute town by day, but shut down pretty early by night, so there wasn't much to do.

Our first stop out in Mt. Hood was Lost Lake. We went on the last day they were open for the season, which was lucky for us because everyone was just about gone from the campgrounds. We basically had the entire lake to ourselves and it was amazing. It was so serene to just sit and watch Mt. Hood dance in and out of the clouds from the lakeside. We explored around the lake a bit before snapping a few photos for my friends at Weekend Tee.




Timberline Lodge was recommended to us by our Airbnb host. It sits at the base of Mt. Hood and was actually used in the filming of The Shining for a few exterior shots of The Overlook Hotel. The Shining is one of my favorite movies, so I found that little fact pretty exciting! On our way up towards the lodge, we pulled over and noticed it was already snowing! We stopped for a few to look around and freeze our butts off before decided to head back down the mountain.



Since this is the last you should hear of Portland (no promises), I'll end it by sharing the video of our trip! I hope you enjoyed this mini series slash the way I broke down our trip this time around. I tried to make it informative and helpful for whoever is planning a trip out to Portland! If you're ready to book your first trip with Airbnb click here for code from me! :) Again, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!

Hey guys! I apologize I'm so behind with these posts. Our trip was the beginning of October and here we are with Thanksgiving coming this week and I'm still working on them. I've been so busy and it's been rough, but that's no excuse! I have one final blogpost after this and then I promise you won't have to hear about Portland again. That's probably not true but it's okay. In this blogpost, I'm going to give you some ideas of what to do when you travel to Portland!


If you're a book worm, visiting Powell's is definitely the spot for you. When I was younger, I swear I would read one book a week. Books are still near and dear to my heart, especially in this age of technology where you can read a book on a device; there's nothing like the smell of a new book and getting lost in flipping the pages.

Powell's is the largest new and used bookstore IN THE WORLD. Don't let that scare you off though, they provide maps to let you know where in the store to find the book you need. Isn't that insane? According to their website, the building occupies an entire city block and houses approximately ONE MILLION books. Sorry for the all caps in this post so far, I just really want to emphasize these insane facts. I could have left that store with an armful of books. So, like I said, if you love a good book there is no doubt that you will find one here.




Pittock Mansion was recommended to us by our Airbnb host. We drove through Forest Park, which was a beautiful drive by the way, and headed towards the mansion. We decided to skip out on the tour and just check out the surrounding area. There's a beautiful spot that overlooks the city so Lyle and I decided to sit and take it all in. The weather was absolutely perfect, given that fall had just barely arrived. We sat at a bench and enjoyed the view while an elderly couple sat behind us with a picnic to do the same. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen! That just goes to show that all ages can enjoy this picture perfect location!


We grabbed a bite to eat in the Alberta Arts District in Northeast Portland quite a few times while we were there.  I really wanted to walk around this neighborhood but sadly, we never got the chance. I can 100% vouch that this area is freaking cute and you need to check it out. There's plenty of places for dining, shopping and the arts so what's not to love about it?


There's plenty of miscellaneous things to do around the city, you just have to go exploring! Wandering around downtown was one of my favorite things to do. There's something about the downtown area of cities that has a special place in my heart. While exploring downtown Portland, we stumbled across some cute vintage shops that were fun to pop into and check out. You never know what you'll find so just keep exploring! That's always my best advice.


Of course, I wanted to find the "Keep Portland Weird" sign. When researching it's location, I found out it was actually located near VooDoo Doughnuts! So, if you're grabbing a donut, you might as well just walk around the corner to snap a pic of this famous wall.


If you're interested in seeing the famous "Portland Oregon Old Town" sign, just head over to the Burnside bridge! And speaking of bridges, Bridgetown is another nickname given to Portland. That is because there are TWELVE bridges that cross the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Pick a bridge, any bridge to stride, bike, or drive across.


There's so much to do in this lovely city, don't stop at exploring this short list! These are only the things we found time to do while we were there. Let me know if you've ever been and what you did while there. I hope you enjoyed reading! Remember to be on the lookout for the final blogpost on outdoor adventures. Until next time, xo!

I applaud you if you got this far in the post. I'm sorry, I just have so much to say! If you plan to visit Portland one day, I hope this mini city guide helps you decide on some places to check out for food! Since this post was already pretty lengthy, I decided to put some dessert, coffee and beer places in another post. As always, let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading! :)