Playing tourist in Portland

One thing you need to know about Portland is that our summers consist of 3 months.  The remaining 9 months are gloomy and/or rainy.

I'm ok with the rain and gloom - but it  doesn't make for a good time to have visitors.  The hikes are limited.  The outdoor walking is limited.  The coast is chilly.  

But the 3 months that we DO have of summer are amazing.  We always say we put up with the 9 months of rain for the amazing 3 months of summer.

But the hard part about only having 3 months of good weather is that means there's only 3 months where people can visit.  What does that mean for us?  Back-To-Back-To-Back Visitors.

BUT we love having friends and family get to experience our city - so it's a price we pay!

We recently had the hubs' family in town for 4 days, and then the next day my Aunt and Cousin came to town for 5 days.  

We.

Did.

Everything.

I got super sick (of course) so I was more focused on trying to see if I could work in a nap time with my head cold, but I still put my big girl pants on and played tourist in Portland.

We hit up the coast, the gorge, Hood River, berry picking, and all of Portland (did a West side day, an East side day, and a West + East side day).

Cannon Beach

Crepes!  

Our berry picking view of Hood

Salt and Straw

While I love my city - I learned that I'm a horrible tour guide

I loathe driving, parallel parking, and navigating new neighborhoods.  I was probably more stressed than I needed to be and couldn't quite enjoy the time.  But we got to hit up all of Portland's finest (Salt and Straw, Food Carts, Pittock Mansion!) so I'm not complaining one bit.

January Girl Trip - Oregon Coast (Cannon Beach)

Because I went on a blogging hiatus, I thought I'd post a quick trip recap.

In January a girlfriend and I took a quick weekend trip down to the coast.  She has a friend who has a beach house and let us use it for the weekend.  Saweeeet!

There's something about the Oregon coast.  The smell.  The air.  I love it all.  LOVE.

So we packed up our hiking gear and headed to the coast for a weekend of diet-breaking, hiking, beach-exploring, and crepes.

We seriously lucked out, as the weather was gorgeous considering it was January.  No rain the entire trip and blue skies - mega win.

On Sunday we went on a hike (that I can't remember the name of…) that made us work for the views.  While the hike itself wasn't too terribly difficult, the mud factor was at an all time high.  But hey - it made for fun photos and a fun story :-)