beautiful portland, or, usa

I had an AWESOME weekend last weekend and have been dying to tell you about it. My favorite part? I would consider it: “The Ultimate On-A-Budget Vacation.” As part of my reminiscing, I’m happy to share some secrets to my success, so you can replicate in your respective necks-of-the-woods.

Me and the Shanester took a final hurrah vacation to Portland, probably the last time we’ll be able to get away as just the two of us. We’ve, sadly, hardly been anywhere, so Portland was “baby steps” in the direction of venturing out of our normal bubble and relaxing while experiencing something new.

So, to plan, Shane gave me a budget. I chose to spend the VAST MAJORITY of my budget on accommodations at a bed and breakfast. I found said-bed and breakfast by first toying with the idea of doing a Vacation Rental By Owner, but then balking at the minimum night-stay requirements and cleaning fees. I finally lucked out and found a Web site that featured a bunch of Northwest bed and breakfasts and decided to give it a try,

If you’ve never been to a bed and breakfast, then you’re missing out. MAN, it was cool. We stayed at this place called Portland’s White House, which was quite appropriate as you can see:


It had eight rooms; we stayed in the Rose Room. When we walked in, there was soothing music playing in the foyer, the sun was shining, and it even smelled of "perfect old house." Our room was gorgeous. Our bed (a king!) was very feathery and had eight – EIGHT! – pillows (many of which I used as a retaining wall to support my pregnant self during the night). The bathroom had a classic claw-foot tub, and the liquid hand soap was the most amazing liquid hand soap I have ever used or smelled or experienced. (Note to self: Self, look up hand soap brand “Molton Brown” and see if it costs more than Chanel No. 5.) We took a walk around the grounds and there were water features and plants, and the whole place smelled like freesia or lilac or lavender or something else complete divine.

The point being, there was little budget left for entertainment. But it was worth it!

In preparation for the adventure, I checked a bunch of online calendars, including Craigslist, for events (I recommend this) and talked to a bunch of friends who had been there before (I highly recommend this). I made a large Word document with possible entertainment ideas, their dates and times, their costs, associated Web sites, phone numbers, etc. A lot of the online event sites include things like exhibits at local museums that run for several months, as well as date-specific things like sports events or concerts, so we had a wide variety of things to choose from.

NOTE! If you're going to take phone numbers with you (which I recommend, in the event you get lost, which will be discussed later), make sure they are numbers where someone will be there to talk to you on non-working days! I got a lot of recordings on Saturday and was quite bummed.

Back to planning. I initially wanted to do this downtown Portland chocolate-shop walking tour. Doesn’t that sound FABULOUS? You walk 1.5 miles in a couple hours, stop every few minutes at various chocolate shops, gorge yourself on dark chocolate truffles or other even more superb delicacies, and have a memorable experience. But, the price was out of this world. ($42 a PERSON for out-of-towners.) My Portland-savvy friends suggested I google chocolate shops myself and just get a really nice dinner instead.

The main goal was to not stress ourselves out. I didn’t really want to do anything that started at a specific time, since if we were in the moseying mood, I wanted to not feel rushed and continue being in a moseying mood. It’s fun to mosey. Another strike against the chocolate tour. Oh well, I have oodles of chocolate at home anyway.

In the end, this was the awesome agenda, and associated prices:

• Left Seattle around noon. Got to Portland around 3.
• Got lost. Dang you Mapquest, you’ve always been so reliable. But I guess you don’t know a thing about Portland. [free]
• Parked. [$4]
• Went to the Portland Saturday Market. Saw a guy dressed like Jimi Hendrix. Heard a live band or two. Smelled a LOT of B.O. Mistook a Planned Pregnancy clinic (“Women Only” on the door) for a bathroom. Ate some pizza and drank some stellar strawberry lemonade. [Free! Food was ~$10]
• Got lost again. Ended up on the other side of the Columbia River. Heaven bless my sweet Shane who drove the speed limit and didn’t freak out. [free]
• Parked at the Oregon University of Science and Health. [$2]
• Rode the Portland Aerial Tram. This was very cool. It was a clear day and the view was amazing. It kind of swung back and forth like an enclosed, silver ferris wheel pod. I loved it! [Two round-trip tickets, $8]
• Went to a Catholic Sanctuary, aka “The Grotto,” a Forest Preserve and Rose Garden. However, the rose gardens were on the “upper campus” while the greenery and chapel and candles and stuff were on the lower, and the elevator to the upper campus was closed. So that was too bad. It was cool (in the sense of temperature) and serene, and we walked around for a bit. [Free]
• Checked into our hecka cool B&B!

After that, we lounged around and then went out to dinner. We found a FREE parking space in the Pearl District and then walked to the restaurant. Just driving around trying to find a parking space was even fun. There was this really cool spot with like a water fountain and grass and some cool totem-pole kind of statues and I said to Shane “I want to hang out there! Let’s hang out there!” but of course we couldn’t find it when we were done with dinner. Anyone know what that place was? It was so cool!

Dinner was at Oba, a "nuevo Latino" restaurant. The Portland Dining Guide said it was “$$” on a scale of $ to $$$$ but I think that was an understatement. So that was where the vast majority of this month's "eating out food budget" went. But it was great! I really enjoyed the bathrooms; they were very romantic. Our waiter thanks Ms. Whimsy for the recommendation.

Sunday was even better than Saturday. We had a gourmet breakfast in the dining room and met some other people staying at the B&B. Gourmet breakfast just does it for me. I challenged Shane to a game of chess on this very sophisticated historic-looking chess set in the White House’s living room, but he was a chicken and wouldn’t take me on. That's right, fool, someone is scared!

After checking out, we went to Multnomah Falls. Specifically, we traveled the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway and stopped at a few of the scenic views, the Crown Point lookout, Latournelle Falls, and Multnomah Falls. ALL FREE! It was SO COOL. Windy, relaxing roads perfect for a Sunday drive. Amazing, scenic views of the Columbia River. Fun hikes in nature. Waterfalls spraying in my face. I just loved it.


The only cost? The $3 magnet and $4 keychain we got in the souvenir shop. YAY!

So, dear readers, my entertainment cost for one of the funnest weekends of the year (minus food, gas, and lodging): $21!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my mom and dad, for always taking us kids places when we were little. Now that I'm older and realize the extent of our travels, I recognize we are pretty cultured, thanks to them! I've been to DC's Smithsonian, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, Niagra Falls, Monticello, etc. Not everyone can say that! I hope I can also give my kids the experiences they gave me, and that we can have all kinds of fun, while not spending TOO much money, but enjoying each other as a family. And undoubtedly, that was the best part of the weekend: quality time with my sweetie.

Yay for vacations! Boo for back at work!