I remember at one of my summer trainings, a person said the phrase was originally "Keep Austin Weird." It's not. It's "Keep Portland Weird." That was the first thing I thought about when my husband and I decided to make our way down to Portland.

  Portland is very... eccentric, but I love it. I don't think I'd ever see myself living there, but it is definitely one of those cities that I love to visit. We originally were planning a trip to Portland to view the LAIKA museum that featured films such as Coraline, Boxtrolls, and Kubo. Unfortunately, they were closed on the day we decided to go and my husband didn't want to push the trip off any longer. I kind of wish we did though, because I loved the movie Kubo.

  We ended up just walking around Portland eating at every restaurant we pinned on Google Maps. We started at Brunch Box. They serve a bunch of different sandwiches and burgers, loaded fries, and drinks. It was pretty easy to find because it's located on Alder Street next to all the Food Trucks. It's a pretty small restaurant that seated probably no more than 25-30 guest. The menu wasn't overwhelming, and the first thing that caught my eye was the Monte Cristo. My husband on the other hand, ordered a rather filling burger, which the name has escaped me, but it had 3-4 different types of meat in it. For the price that we paid, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't say that it was my favorite meal that day, because after eating I just felt super greasy and heavy. Also, I think it's because I was disappointed that my Monte Cristo didn't come with powdered sugar, aka, my favorite part of the sandwich...

  We made our way down to the "Keep Portland Weird" building next to Voodoo donuts, and even though I was craving donuts for the longest, I did not think the line for Voodoo was ever worth it. (I know it seems like I'm being such a hater with all of the food so far, but it gets better.) Voodoo donuts is notorious for having sugar-loaded toppings on all of their donuts, and I'm pretty cautious about how much simple sugars I take in because it never makes me feel good afterwards. So as the line grew, we just watched from a distance while we took photos of the sign.

  We made our way through Chinatown because my husband was playing Pokémon and he asked me if he could fight at this gym down the street. Luckily for him, this gym was right next to Deadstock Coffee. I was immediately drawn in by the "Coffee Should Be Dope" spray paint on the wall and wanted to see what the rest of the café looked like. This café was really cool because it had a shoe cleaning service as well, and was decorated with a breakdown of different Nike shoes. My husband is a big Sneakerhead, so I think he was pretty excited to learn about their service. The staff there was really down-to-earth, and told us about different stores in the area. Unfortunately we weren't able to go to any of them, but there's always next time.

  Side story: We made our way down to the water where all of the cherry blossom trees were, but on our way there, Michael and I walked between two hobos that just started pissing in the street, just as we walked by them... Oh, my, god. I tried to hide the horrific look on my face, but I just made Michael walk faster. Portland, you are indeed, very weird.

  We spent most of our day taking photos of the cherry blossoms, because let's be real, they're too beautiful to pass up!  Plus, I was feeling like Mulan with my long black hair, thinking that I was the last blossom to bloom, haha. After that, we made our way to eat pre-dinner dessert at the Cookie Dough Cafe. I'm not usually a big fan of raw cookie dough, but it was delicious! This was the point where I had to say no to eating it all because of all the sugar I had already.

  For dinner, we made reservations at Bamboo Sushi. Our friend from college, Nino, works here, but unfortunately he was not working that night. The sushi was delicious, and the best part is they tell you that their fish is from sustainable resources. So I definitely did not feel bad tasting a lot on their new Spring menu. Before heading back to Washington, we stopped for bubble tea at the Tea Bar. They serve you boba in a mason jar, which was nice for the photo but that was about it.

  I'd have to say, our day in Portland was a success. Especially because I walked away with my new Microsoft Surface Laptop, even after having 3 different debates in Best Buy as it closed down for the day... :) Thanks for the lovely trip, bub.