My apologies for getting this post out a little late this week. Here’s a look at everything I did and everywhere I went last week. Sorry in advance for the huge photo drop and sparse captions.

MONDAY

The week started off with a bang – literally. To celebrate the Fourth of July, my best friends joined me at my parents house for fancy drinks, beautiful skylines and fireworks.

Why is the 4th always so fun? It’s slowly becoming one of my favorite holidays.

TUESDAY

The actual holiday fell on Tuesday so Jason and I enjoyed our day off work by getting breakfast and running errands.

I finally tried out a new breakfast spot – Pete’s Grille.

Then we stopped at a few walls I’ve been wanting to photograph.

Later on in the day I was able to pick up a fantastic mid century couch + chair duo I’ve been eyeing up for a while. I’m very excited about getting some new pillows for it and Ellie is just very excited to have a new place to lounge.

WEDNESDAY

Mid-week gave me one last day to pack for my weekend trip and get my shit together. Nailed it.

THURSDAY

After work it was straight to the airport. Jason grabbed beer and then we were off!

We had a quick layover in Denver and then continued on to Portland!

We arrived in the city late a night so we headed to bed and prepped for an early morning the next day.

FRIDAY

A special shout out to our Airbnb for providing some fresh fruit so I could “balance” out my insane donut diet.

On our way to grab donuts we walked through Washington Park which was directly next to our place.

The first Blue Star Donuts we stopped in only had a few flavors left so we obviously ordered one of each.

The next location was full of options so we tried out a few more flavors. Passion Fruit Cocoa Nib was my hands-down favorite.

For lunch, we randomly popped into Lardo for some ridiculously good sandwiches.

We walked around some more before grabbing a Vanilla Latte and Espresso Honey Tonic from Heart Coffee Roasters.

We took the coffees to go and spent some time exploring the enormous Powell’s Books.

Then a quick stop into the arcade Ground Kontrol.

We walked over the bridge to the Westside to check out a few vintage shops and admire the view.

The Doug Fir Lounge is essentially my complete design aesthetic.

We spent a ton of time walking around the city scouring for street art and other fun stuff.

For dinner we ate some amazing grub at Pok Pok – you gotta get the wings.

We picked up some ice cream from the popular tourist spot Salt & Straw for our walk back home.

Instead of going to another bar, we grabbed some beer and went back to our place before we passed out.

SATURDAY

Bright and early and out the door. First stop of the day was coffee at the wonderful Stumptown Coffee Roasters!

We ate breakfast at Pine State Biscuits thanks to a recommendation from The Wandering Millennial (seriously have to give her the biggest shout out for all of the great Portland tips – follow her on Instagram if you like torturing yourself with food photos like I do!)

Next on the coffee shop agenda was the Coava Coffee Roasters and then it was back to hunting down street art.

We checked out the Saturday Market by Pine Street and then grabbed soft serve from Wizbangbar. Jason did a great job holding things for me to photograph all weekend.

Later in the afternoon, we went to check out the Pittock Mansion – a lovely spot with beautiful city views.

We finally had a chance to head over to the Portland Japanese Garden that was located next to our place.

Before dinner we grabbed a grapefruit-cubed cocktail from The Fireside.

Our last stop of the night was dinner at the Moroccan restaurant – Marrakesh. It was 5 courses and I was insanely full but damn do I love lamb so much.

SUNDAY

I was able to steal a quick picture of the sunrise over the city thanks to the amazing vantage point at our Airbnb.

The space was very cool – I mean look at this deck!

For breakfast we ate at another local chain- The Waffle Window. Portland has so many good breakfast options it makes me so envious.

We were prepping to see some sights outside the city so we had to drop our bags off at Jason’s hotel before renting a car for the day. (Jason was lucky enough to stay in Portland for a few more days for work conference!) I picked up another cup of coffee and a couple macarons from St. Honoré Boulangerie.

We were finally on the road and I was excited to see some of the best views around the city.

Our first hike was Latourell Falls – one of many waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge.

It was a really beautiful hike!

I loved this area where the trees briefly broke away to this stellar view.

A rare photo of the two of us together!

We decided to check out Multnomah Falls next because it’s one of the most popular spots along the Gorge. The waterfall itself was a real stunner but I didn’t love the insane crowd surrounding it. 😐

The ride home just reminded me again how badly I want to road trip this whole beautiful country.

Eventually, we made it back into the city and took a quick shower before heading back out. We stopped over to the food cart pod on Alder and settled on this delicious lunch from Sawasdee Thai.

For my last night in Portland, we hit up a few more bars including the gorgeous Driftwood Room.

And then the very hip Pepe Le Moko with our friends Sean & Melissa.

I had a very early flight home the next day but there was still one last thing to check out the list – Voodoo Doughnut of course. Consider this your warning that the Cock-N-Balls donut is the size of approximately 3 donuts and yes, it is cream filled.