Quick Portland Getaway

I had a free Marriott stay to use by October 12, which I realized was THIS WEEK, so I frantically searched for a quick last minute getaway, and landed on Portland. I only wanted to be gone for a night since I had meetings scheduled, so Portland was the best option. I hadn't spent much time in Portland in a while, so I booked a free night at the AC Hotel Portland Downtown, and went on a quick 24 hour adventure.

Portland is 2 3/4 hours (no traffic) from Seattle, and is a pretty quick and easy freeway drive. I left after I dropped the kids off at school (they are now with their dad for 5 days) and had a quick Peloton ride at home. I wanted to get to Portland as early as I could so I could explore a bit. My only goal: eat at 3 different restaurants while there: breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that is all I had planned, and had time for.

The drive went by fast, fast, fast, thanks to an enlightening audiobook, "The Magic of Manifesting," by Ryuu Shinohara.

I have read/listened to it numerous times, and this stuff works, I promise! If you envision it (but not too hard), it will come. For real. During the drive, it rained a bit, it sunshined a bit (sunglasses off...sunglasses on...repeat for 3 hours).

I arrived in Portland around 1PM, and I was starving! I had researched food spots a bit before I left and had decided to go to lunch at The Blossoming Lotus, a vegan restaurant in NE Portland (they also have a café/juice bar in NE Portland).

It was lovely.

There were so many delicious things on the menu, but I had to choose carefully.

I am doing my best to eat right for my blood type (more on this later in another post), so I have to pay more attention to ingredients. I eventually settled on a cup of mac & cheese as an appetizer, and the Thai wrap as my main dish. I also ordered a lavender lemonade.

Mac and Cheese - It was made with my most favorite pasta, Cavatappi! It was hot, creamy, had a bit of kick to it, and as I was eating it, I wished I had ordered a bowl! I ate it slow so I could savor it. If you didn't know it was vegan, I don't think you could tell. The ONLY con was, it was a bit lacking in any real flavor other than the kick of something spicy. The "cheese" was creamy, but there really wasn't much flavor to it. I didn't mind, but if you are looking for a strong cheesy flavor, this mac & cheese is not it.

Lavender Lemonade - YUM! Sweet, but not too sweet, with a mild hint of lavender. The first sip I only got a very mild aftertaste of lavender, but the more sips I took, the more I tasted the lavender, but it was never overpowering. This lemonade was a perfect blend of lemons, sweetness and lavender.

Thai wrap (I added avocado) - This little wrap was a perfect mix of crunchy, sweet and fresh. I loved all the flavors in this, and the BBQ soy curls were really good, with a more mild BBQ flavor. This wrap was filling (and after eating the first half, I was glad I only ordered a cup of the mac & cheese), and I was not able to finish it.

I left The Blossoming Lotus full (but not too full), wishing I could come back to try some other items on the menu, and wanting to eat something sweet (they had desserts, but I wanted to find somewhere else). A quick search for desserts, and I came across The Cookie Dough Café, which is located in the Pearl District (I already got to explore a couple of different Portland neighborhoods).

This is a spot serving up cookie dough like ice cream. One scoop, two scoops, three scoops? Pick your pleasure. Flavors are: chocolate chip, brownie batter, cookies and cream, confetti cake and snickerdoodle. You can either buy per scoop or buy prepackaged to take home, both in 18 oz jars ($10/each) or mini 8 oz cups ($5 each). But I just needed some tastes... Who doesn't love raw cookie dough!? Don't answer that if the answer is no. :) And this cookie dough is made especially for eating. It is made without eggs, so safe to eat, and not for baking! I bought a variety of prepackaged jars to try at the hotel.

And no, sadly, this dessert is not approved for my blood type diet, but I had to at least taste.

The hotel is located near the Pearl District, which is where the Cookie Dough Café is. Whole Foods and Lululemon were a couple of the stores I noticed in the Pearl District, and the neighborhood certainly felt more upscale compared to the more hippy vibe of where the Blossoming Lotus was. But, that is my 20 minute assessment. I would need to spend much more time in each neighborhood to provide an accurate review. So, my advice? Go check 'em out yourself! Both neighborhoods gave off cool vibes, they were just "different" cool vibes. I am a hippy who loves upscale shops, so I loved the feel of both spots!

I had less than a 5 minute drive to my hotel, and I passed lots of delicious looking food trucks (isn't Portland food truck central?) Unfortunately, I didn't eat at any food trucks on this trip. :(

Check in was easy-peasy at the hotel, and I was upgraded to a corner room on the 10th floor. The lobby was modern and clean and so was the rest of the hotel. It looked and felt new (it was built in 2017). When I got to my room, I tasted some cookie dough before I settled in to reading a long report.

When I finished the report, I did some work, and searched for a dinner spot. I really wasn't feeling very hungry, so I tried to find a spot where I could walk to help work up an appetite.

I found Duck House, which appeared to be a pretty popular place for dumplings (which I wanted to eat), and was about a mile and seemed to be in a safe neighborhood (by Portland State University). The reviews were good, so I decided to give it a try!

I arrived around 7:30 and the restaurant was packed, but since I was by myself, I was able to get seated right away. The restaurant felt more like a bar/pub with a back dining space. There was a bar with TV's and the restaurant was buzzing.I was seated at a high-top table in the back dining space.

I ordered a lemonade (are you seeing a theme here? I love my lemonade - my drink of choice used to be ginger beer, but I don't drink anything with bubbles anymore, so lemonade it is), and the vegetable dumplings, broccoli with garlic sauce and braised tofu.

Lemonade - My server asked me if I wanted it sweet or not sweet, and I told him medium. It was a little more "not sweet" than medium, but still good.

Braised tofu - this was delicious! It was full of flavor, and I loved the texture. It was served with a LOT of mushrooms, which I don't like, but it was easy to scoop out just the tofu. I ate all of the tofu.

Dumplings - meh. These were nothing special. They lacked anything to write home about. And I wasn't given any sauces to accompany (yes, I could have asked), so I just used soy sauce to dip, and I really didn't enjoy the combo.

Broccoli - pretty standard broccoli with garlic. I wouldn't call it a sauce. It was garlic, and some carrots, with some garlic. I was hoping for a stronger garlic flavor and a more saucy.

I didn't stuff myself, but I was glad to have a walk (with a lot of leftovers) back to the hotel. I felt extremely safe walking surrounded by college students.

Once back to the hotel, I tasted a little more cookie dough (cookies and cream and confetti cake are my favorite, but they are all delicious), watched Beckham and went to bed.

When I woke up, I went to the gym (I was the only one), and then searched for a breakfast spot. Normally I don't eat breakfast, but I had to eat something before I checked out, so I searched for a health food spot since I wanted something light. I found Kure Superfood Café, which was just a few blocks from the hotel.

This spot hit the spot! I ordered a Bowl of the Gods, which you can customize with pretty much anything (my dream). I also ordered a Kure Breakfast sandwich to eat for lunch since it looked so dang good!

I ordered ahead of time and my order was ready when I arrived. I brought it back to my hotel and ate the bowl while I got some work done before my late check out at 1PM. It was so yummy and I decided I am going to try and reenact it at home some day.

Some things to note about the hotel:

Valet parking is $48/night. I was lucky enough to find a street spot out front, which ended up costing me MUCH less than valet. Street parking is free from 7PM-8AM, and the Parking Kitty app made it easy to pay for time in 2 hour increments. I even was able to prepay starting at 8AM the next day!

There is a cafe in the hotel lobby, The Slab, serving coffee and breakfast treats.

The gym is located one floor below the lobby. There are no Peloton bikes in the gym. There are treadmills, stationary bikes, ellipticals, and weights.

Since the hotel is downtown, it is a little noisy. I suggest white noise or ear plugs to block out the city noise, if you are sensitive (I am).

AlI in all, it was a good trip to Portland. I had some good food, stayed in a decent hotel, walked and saw a bit of the city, and was home 24 hours later.