Portland!

Lynne and I decided a few months back to do a three day getaway trip for some shopping and hang out friend QT and our dream came to fruition this past week. We flip flopped on where to go but ultimately decided Portland was a solid choice. Not too far, direct flights from Long Beach, relatively inexpensive, no sales tax, and blessed hipsters. We had SUCH a good time, despite the crazy heat wave we had to sweat through when there. I'll tell it in pictures:

We wanted to keep as much of our money in our shopping/eating/drinking budget as possible, so we decided to eschew cabs for public transport. We took the metro from and to the airport and then walked everywhere else. Lynne is stupid and works out like everyday so it was no big whoop for her, but my calves still hurt.

The Sons of Norway meeting hall was right around the corner from our hotel. Love their sign! Didn't see any Norwegians milling about and drinking Solo though.

We stayed at the uber-hipster Jupiter Hotel, which is attached to the Doug Fir bar/restaurant. I'm so glad we stayed here. It was a great hotel in a fun area that we probably wouldn't have ventured out to had we stayed in the Pearl District, which is where we had initially planned on staying. We had to cross the Burnside bridge across the Willamette river like 13 times, but it was good exercise. And the Doug Fir is awesome. Really great breakfasts and a cool ambiance.

Above is said Burnside bridge. Our first time crossing it and the whole damn thing opens up  stopping us in our tracks for about twenty minutes while it let some puny speedboat through. We kept looking down for some huge cruise line to pass under, but it was seriously like a private small speedboat that came through instead. We were pissed, and thought it was going to happen each time we crossed the bridge, so we hustled across it every time after that.

The famous Portland, Oregon sign at the end of the bridge. Night time pictures do it no justice, it's so pretty and twinkly.

The shopping was SO good in Portland. We hit up practically every store on the Lucky Magazine shopping guide, and a few from an old issue of Domino that featured Portland, and found other random shops along the way. Woonwinkel and Adler & Co were probably my favorites. How great is that dollhouse bookcase? It was like $5000 but it folded in half and would make a fantastic craft storage case. I loved it.

I didn't go too crazy with the shopping, just two dresses, some hair ties, and a wedding gift for a friend. Oh, and some $3 earrings. The dresses are so good though. The one above is Paul & Joe Sister and is my favorite thing ever right now (besides Elsa. She's always #1 favorite thing). It was marked down a crazy ton but I would have been so tempted to buy it even at full price. The cut is really flattering and the print is just so great. Here's a close-up of the hem:

Love. Anyways, when Lynne and I weren't shopping, we were happy houring. Portland has so many great restaurants and bars, ideal for hot and tired shoppers that need a drink. The best one that we went to hands down was Clyde Common, which is attached to the Ace Hotel downtown. Cool scene, but the happy hour was ridiculous. $5 cocktails and cheap eats. We got some fried spicy chickpeas to nibble on that were super yums. Derircious!

Pretty manicures and prettier drinks.

Lynne looking mighty pleased with herself after first sip of the Second Base:

It was amazing. My very knowledgable drink master friend Max texted me a recipe with amounts when I sent him the snapshot above asking how to recreate. Will have to hit up a BevMo soon and figure that drink out. It's a winner.

We're like Laverne and Shirley, with bangs. 

Lynne was so excited to let everyone on Instagram know that we were at the Doug Fir, she busted out a little Charleston. 

What liars. It was gorgeous and sunny out and we saw like 3 bicyclists the whole time we were there. Long Beach has way more people on bikes!! We deserve that title!!

This Baby Gap cape came very close to coming home with me. So chic! Lynne promised to buy it for Elsa when it goes on sale. I'm setting a Wishpot price alert for that thing so I can remind her of her promise when prices get slashed.

Lynne in front of the Living Room Theater. Portland has totally gotten this right. They have movie theater bars! I really don't get why we don't have them here.

My bangs look so thick and dark here, and my skin so gothly white. Must be the Instagram filter. Lynne and I share a hairstylist (Hi Josie!!), can you tell?

Thumbs up for the Doug Fir happy hour!

Bye bye Portland! You were lovely to us and we'll miss you!