Portland: Keepin' It Weird

Two days ago, I got back from a trip with my mom to Portland, OR. Portland isn't a huge city; it's probably about the size of Salt Lake, but it certainly has a lot of life. Around the city, you'll find vintage hipster bicycles, random chalk drawings, and the well-known sign reading "Keep Portland Weird." This post I am going to highlight the favorite things I did in Portland and show some pictures from each of them (and they are actually my pictures this time, so don't judge my lackluster iPhone 4 photography skills).

The "Keep Portland Weird" sign in Downtown Portland.

My #1 favorite thing that I did in Portland was definitely eat. But not just regular eating, food truck eating. Portland has these huge parking lots with food trucks parked all the way around the perimeter, so you have like 40 restaurants all on one block, practically. These food trucks have food from all over the world. In one parking lot, I saw Georgian (like the Caucasian country), Polish, Indonesian, Moroccan, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Korean, Transylvanian, Scandinavian, Iranian, Greek, German, and Czech food trucks!

View looking down a street of food trucks.    

Coconut bubble tea from one of the Portland food trucks.

Portland has a ton of vegetarians (probably because of all the hipsters), so a lot of the food at the food trucks is vegetarian, or at least has vegetarian options. This made eating ethnic food a lot easier, because often my experience at restaurants consists of order a meat dish meat-free, which is usually pretty much just lettuce with maybe, if you're lucky, some bread.

A Moroccan food truck where I got vegetarian paella.

Portland has a lot of great independent film theaters, and while I was in Portland, I got to watch a couple of movies at different theaters. A lot of people stray away from watching movies while on vacation, because they think they're missing out on seeing the city, and that may be true for a big blockbuster movie like 21 Jumpstreet or Just Go With It, but going to a film festival or indie theater is a great way to become familiarized with the art in the city, and is not all that different than going to an art museum. The theaters there were really neat; one of them had a set up with round tables and plush chairs where you order drinks and dinner while you watch, and the other one even had a babysitting service! 

Another cool thing I did in Portland (and you should do, too, if you ever go around Christmas) was visit Peacock Lane, a neighborhood street with very elaborate Christmas decorations. All of the houses had a ton of Christmas lights, and a lot of them had a "theme," too (like one was themed the Grinch, one Star Wars, etc.) They even had a Elf-themed little hot chocolate hut on the street!

I thought this house was really cute.
It was one of the more simply decorated ones.

One other activity in Portland that I would recommend is the Portland sky tram, which connects the OHSU hospital (which is kind of in the middle of nowhere on this mountain) to downtown Portland. It has an awesome view of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Portland. Plus, the OHSU campus is fun to walk around in.

View from the Portland sky tram with Mt. St Helens in the background.

Portland is a fun city with a colorful population and amazing food, activities, and art. If you ever looking for short get-away in the US, try visiting Portland.