Bear, Christopher, and I finally went on a vacation!! Hallelujah! It was amazing to carve out the time to be together in such a special place. After my brief book tour stop in Portland this past spring, I knew I wanted to come back and spend more time in this wonderful city! I love so many things about it-from the cute neighborhoods, to the abundant gardens, the great restaurants, friendly people, and of course its sustainability! Right off the bat when arriving at the PDX airport, my eco aspirations were met by way of a water dispenser designed to re-fill my re-usable water bottles and save plastic (it even kept count of its savings!) I couldn’t help but wonder, how can we get the rest of America to do this? It is so easy and great!!
On the way back from the airport we stopped at Prasad for a tasty lunch. Afterwards, we picked up our bike rentals and headed to our Air Bnb home. After settling in, we met up with our Portland Kind Lifer friends at a park near by. Bear made friends with the Kind Lifer’s little ones and jumped into the water fountains together- it was so sweet! All you PDX Kind Lifers were so nice and helpful!! Huge thank you to everyone who showed up. It was so great meeting you all, hearing your stories, and advice for our vacation!
Portland Kind Lifers
One of the things I love most about Portland is riding bikes!! We rode our bikes every day everywhere. All of the houses and neighborhoods are so quaint, Belmont & Alberta were our favorites. One of our adventures was over to Laurel Hurst Park, where a little girl named Olive fell in love with Bear. It was a sweet and sad goodbye.
Sweet bike rides!
Pretty veggie garden!
At Sweet Pea Bakery
Another day we took a trip to Kind Lifer Andrea Bemis and her husband Taylor’s organic farm, Tumbleweed Farm. On the way we adventured to some of the waterfalls and Latourell Falls. We didn’t make it all the way through since it was late and pretty cold but we got to play in the water which was fun and refreshing! We wanted to make it to Out to Pasture Sanctuary but did not.. It looks great though!
Bear & his friends at Tumbleweed Farm
Taylor, Andrea, Henry, Bear & I
Taylor & Bear picking a watermelon
We had so many wonderful adventures and we ate like crazy!!!
Some foodie highlights include:
The Oven Roasted Vegetable Lasagne at Vita Cafe, it was sooo good!
Andina had a nice veg menu
The Vegan Mini Strip Mall was awesome, Christopher really dug it. This is a mini mall with four vegan stores next to each other: Herbivore Clothing Company, Food Fight! Grocery, Scapegoat Tattoo, and Sweet Pea Baking Company. The people who worked at these stores gave such good vibes.
The Bagel with Cream Cheese , Chocolate Croissant, and the Almond Ring at Sweetpea Baking Co are great.
House Made Coconut Ice Cream at Portobello Vegan Trattoria, was super yum. I also discovered a new ‘cheese’ there called Heidi Ho, it’s chèvre style and delicious!
Coconut Ice Cream with Petunia’s Salted Carmel Bar’s at Salt and Straw Ice Cream– it was sooo tasty we went back twice!
Walking to the grocery store Alberta Coop
Going to Cully’s Farmer’s Market
Blossoming Lotus might have been my favorite, it had a killer brie appetizer, great cobb salad, and really good nachos.
Joel Palmer House has a veg tasting menu that looked good, but it was a bit far so we didn’t make it there.
We also didn’t get the chance to make it to Natural Selections since we were with Bear. They said the meal typically takes about 2 hours which is no bueno for our 3 year old. Next time!
I also want to visit Petunia’s Pies & Pastries, it looks so cute! Another time!
Thank you for the delicious and fun dining experiences!!
Did you go on any fun adventures this summer with loved ones? Where did you go and how was your trip?
