weekend trips to oregon

so while this doesn’t pertain to seattle exactly, it is about vicinity. leslie was in town from austin for the week and had never been to washington or oregon so we split up our time in each amazingly beautiful state. i am very much use to driving three hours for weekend trips from all those years in texas making the drive from dallas to austin for river floating, sxsw, or just a change of scenery. texas does have some beautiful scenery. but getting back up to the sweet pacific northwest…oregon…yes! we ventured out for a night of camping in the mt hood national forest and hiking around lake trillium. a short 40-minute drive back to portland and we grabbed dinner at le bistro montage with killer mac-n-cheese dishes and ended the night at good foot, where i purchased an original art piece from local artist, tony morgan. i am stoked about it and can’t wait to go pick it up at the end of the month (photos to come!). we checked out the japanese gardens and mt tabor, a really cool park that overlooks the city. of course, you can’t go to portland without getting some donuts at the wildly famous voodoo doughnut.

tip: don’t leave seattle heading for portland after 2pm on a friday…

…3 hours turns into 5 hours

mount hood!

at lake trillium. i love her goofy grin.

i would live here! so cozy.

japanese garden of portland.

voodoo! i shared with the roommates.

i had to pop in a photo of seattle. taken during our drive around the lovely queen anne district.