A few weeks ago, Rachel and I headed out for our 2018 summer vacation to Portland, Seattle and Disneyland for 9 days. We ended up spending 3 awesome days in each location. Today…our time in Portland!

We started our trip by flying into Portland. Rachel has family on her dad’s side who live in and around the Portland area. They ended up letting us use their condo in Portland, which gave us a free place to stay!

Now, Portland was a city that neither of us had been to, but both were interested to explore. The weather was absolutely fantastic! We ended up spending a lot of our time outside hiking, eating and exploring the sights.

We spent the first full day hiking some of the Forest Park trails, hitting up Voodoo Doughnuts, exploring the downtown area, visiting Pittock Mansion and the International Rose Test Gardens in Washington Park, and getting ice cream at Salt & Straw.

The next day, I got up for an early morning run around the area of the condo near Cathedral Park. It was an absolutely beautiful morning to run. Very different than the Atlanta summer running weather!

The view during my morning run!

After my run, Rachel and I headed over to Multnomah Falls along the Mt. Hood Loop. We experienced one of the most beautiful waterfalls we’ve ever seen. Pictures really don’t do it justice!

Next, we headed over to Macleay Park/Forest Park to hike some more of the trails in the Portland area. Rachel and I usually don’t do a lot of hiking. This was a nice experience for us! After the hike, we hit up Blue Star Donuts, which was recommended to us by several people and did not disappoint. We finished up our sightseeing by heading back over to Washington Park and the Hoyt Arboretum. We saw some of the biggest trees we’ve ever seen. It was majestic!

Later that afternoon, we made our way up to Kelso, Washington (roughly 45 minutes north of Portland) to have dinner with Rachel’s aunt, uncle and cousins. They ended up cooking a delicious meal for us. It was lovely getting to spend some time with her dad’s side of the family. We don’t get to see them very often. They are wonderful people!

After dinner, we headed back to the condo in Portland for one last night of sleep before making our way to the second part of our trip…Seattle.

All in all, we had a great time in Portland! It is a beautiful city with wonderful people and culture. We definitely want to visit again in the future!