We Went to Portland: Part I

I am always doing my best to stay inspired to bring my best to my life as a husband, a dad, and a leader. One of the ways I do this is by traveling. I get excited packing a bag for a trip, whether for a quick road trip down an Albertan highway or a plane ride to a new city. People who know me will know I am equally excited about encouraging others to travel. There's so much we can learn from others while we're on the road, and I hope I can inspire you to see what's out there.

My wife and I recently spent a few days in Portland, Oregon. Our family stepped up to take care of the kids while we were away, and we had a great time. Why Portland, you ask?

There are many great reasons to visit Portland, but here are the three reasons it made sense for us. Budget, experiences and food. This is a two-part blog and in this first part, I’m going to cover the first two reasons.

Budget. In terms of money and time. When deciding where to go, I'll usually crunch the numbers. Four nights in Portland came in roughly a thousand dollars cheaper than some more conventional cities we would typically enjoy visiting, like Chicago or New York. From Edmonton, it's only about two and a half hours in the air to get to. So we knew we could get more for our dollar and time by choosing Portland. We like to stay in a city's downtown core because it allows us to experience the city by doing a lot of walking. Staying downtown also has a way of saving some money on ground transportation. I'd prefer not to rent a car and put the money towards staying in a nicer hotel. While in Portland, we stayed at the Hyatt Centric Downtown, and it was great. The team was friendly and helpful, and the hotel was beautiful and creatively designed. The hotel's location also put us within walking distance of some notable restaurants, pubs, bakeries, and cafes.

Secondly, we were looking for new experiences. I visited Portland for work about 12-13 years ago, and I remember enjoying my time there and have wanted to return. This would be a brand-new experience for Tammy; we knew we would have fun! I've been telling Tammy about the Japanese Garden in Portland for years, and I was actually afraid that I might have been overhyping the place. However, it's still one of the most beautiful and peaceful experiences. I can't overstate how at ease we felt walking through this space. You could sense the immense attention to detail and care that went into every square inch of the garden. At the time of our visit, there was a special art exhibit featuring a local artist with art made from glass and plant life. When you go, be sure to go in the morning and plan to enjoy traditional Japanese Tea before leaving. We both felt refreshed and inspired after walking through this space, and I’d confidently recommend this as a must for a visit to anyone visiting Portland. I've known this for a while, but it was confirmed again during this visit; everyone loves peace. The Japanese Garden in Portland cultivates peace and generously shares with everyone who visits.

We also paid a visit to Powell's City of Books. When visiting Portland, you must make sure a visit to Powell's City of Books is on your list. It's the world's largest independent bookstore for new and used books. If you like reading, you could easily spend an entire morning or afternoon exploring this fantastic store. I'd even go as far as to suggest that if you're not into reading, a visit to Powell's will inspire you to want to read more. We don't consider ourselves shoppers, but we found it tough to resist picking up some books and gifts on this trip.

Looking forward to both of these!

Another experience I'd like to highlight was a hike and bike tour that we took, the "Hike and Bike: Columbia River Gorge Hidden Waterfalls" tour offered by Around Portland, a local tour company. This tour equipped us with bikes, helmets, snacks, and a guide who took us along the historic Columbia River Highway. While it was cold and raining, it was an unforgettable experience that we would probably do again, even if it were raining! We biked and hiked around Multnomah Falls, Wahkeenah Falls, and others for an entire morning and early afternoon. All of them were spectacular, but the most impressive was Multnomah Falls. Tammy and I both remarked that we felt like we were in a scene from the Lord of the Rings Movies. I can't imagine the thousands of stories inspired by these magnificent falls. The exercise and experience made this time well spent!

If we have to choose between shopping or experiences, we're always going to choose experiences. We're less likely to collect junk that we will no longer be excited about in a month or two, and a good experience will stick with you for life. You can also extend the value of those experiences with good photos. I own a good mirrorless camera for travel photography. I call it my big kid camera, but for this trip, I only used my iPhone 13, and I'm happy with the results. We took lots of photos and have created a photo book as our take-home souvenir and are happy with it. My iPhone is also great at taking photos of what we experience in restaurants. For that, I'll see you in part II, where we will talk about food in Portland.

Thanks for reading!