Portland – Let’s keep it weird

If you ever wonder if the sketch comedy Portlandia is a good representation of Portland, well you will have to discover it for yourself.  Although it is not rare to find free range organic chickens in people’s backyard or bearded hipster tech worker on a fixie bike or a tattooed gluten-free master beer brewer in the city.  Reality is probably much more interesting than fiction.

Portland is a place where academics (one of highest per capita with college education), nude cyclists (well established tradition), alt musician (The Dandy Warhols, Everclear, Pink Martini, Sleater-Kinney, The Shins, Blitzen Trapper, The Decemberists), environmentalist (top 5 greenest cities), craft brewers (more than 60 breweries), and food cart (over 700) purveyors can live together in harmony.  Blend that with the beauty of the Northwest and intimacy of a small friendly city, Portland is a hard place to beat.  It is one of our favorite places in the world.

We are spending most of our 3 weeks off before we head to Europe in the Portland area.  We both essentially spent most of our formative years in Oregon and we both lived in Portland after college.  Portland is a special place for us not because it amazing, but also that so many of our family and friends live in the area.

So what do we like to do while we are in Portland?  It’s hard, as the city is constantly growing and evolving, to make absolute recommendations, but there’s a lot of great things.  Here are our top things to explore when we are in Portland:

1. Wander one of the eclectic and eccentric Portland neighborhoods.  They are all charming and weird.  Top neighborhoods.
2. Dine at some of the best (and underrated) restaurants in the world.  Top restaurants.
3. Happy hour at one of many breweries.  All breweries.  Top breweries.
4. Grab food at one of the several food cart locations.  All food carts.  Top food carts.
5. Watch a concert in one of the more intimate venues.  Top venues.
6. Walk around in one of the many in-city park (highest number of parks per capita, I think).  Top parks.

We hope that helps.  The links we provided represent some of the quintessential things to check out while in Portland.  Come visit Portland and don’t forget to be weird!

-Vu

Grocery Beer Price Index: $1.85 for 12oz (355ml) Deschutes Mirror Pond