Perfect Day in Portland

My lovely friend Brittany Jarman asked me to be a guest writer for her adorable blog (link to her blog is here). Go check it out; she's fantastic. She is doing a series of favorite things to do in cities or the perfect day in...name your city. When Brittany asked me to write about the perfect day in Portland, I couldn’t resist! I love the City of Roses! Here is what I wrote for her blog:

Portland is the most unique city that I’ve ever been in. Whenever someone finds out that I live in Portland, they ask me if I’ve seen the TV show “Portlandia,” to which I respond: “Yes. And it is 100% accurate.” The writers for that show just need to walk around downtown and they will have plenty of material. There are lots of weirdness, but that means that there is so much character. Plus, there is plenty to do and are lots of hot spots for foodies. I describe the atmosphere as being a big neighborhood. It’s a big city, but it still feels like a neighborhood where people still say hi to each other on the street and the house was quaint.

A Perfect Day in Portland.

1. If the weather is nice, take a bike ride along the waterfront. Or, like a native Oregonian, you go even if it is raining. You get a great view of the city and the waterfront trail is lovely. I would start on the west side, where you can rent a bike, and make your way north across the Steel Bridge, then down the east side so you can see the west side.

view from the steel bridge

2. Saturday Market. This is my favorite things about the city. They have local farmers selling their produce and stands of people selling their art and other crafts. There are also food carts and street performers. I always recommend the market to the place to experience Portland and have a fun Saturday morning. It’s the first thing I do whenever I come back to the city.

3. Go to brunch. Portland is a city that brunches. You can’t go wrong with brunch, so find a place based on your breakfast preferences.

This blurry picture was taken at Slappy Cakes, where you can make your own pancakes on a griddle!

 4. Browse Powell’s City of Books. This is block-long bookstore in SW that is a main attraction in the city. And it gets the attention it deserves, in my opinion. It is Disneyland for bookies, I tell ya. It is so big, they have maps and directories. So many books! Love it!

 5. Lunch at the food carts. There are a few hubs of food carts downtown on both sides of the river. They have everything and the food is delicious. I like Pyro Pizza on and PBJ’s Grilled on the east side.

My other friend Britanee at a late-night Pyro run

6. Explore OMSI. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a fun museum with a permanent exhibit hall that’s all hands-on and pretty cool temporary exhibits. You could spend a solid amount of time here, so plan accordingly. Maybe this is for day two of the Perfect Day in Portland series. Either way, you can conduct your own experiments and see dinosaur bones and experience what it would be like to be in an earthquake.

7. Pioneer Square. There is always something going on in Pioneer Square on the weekends, like festivals and movies on big screens. It’s a central meeting spot in the city by the historical Pioneer Court. Some of my favorite street performers set-up around here. It is also by the Pioneer Place Mall, where there is good shopping.

during the Portland Rose Festival

street performers

 8. Dinner/happy hour at Portland City Grill. The grill is on the 30th floor, so you get a commanding view of the city. If you go at a certain time you can get happy hour specials so it’s not too crazy expensive. Also, if you go at a certain time, you can get the sunset and the city lights at night.

9. See a show. My love of going to concerts stemmed from the music in the city and its venues. My favorite venue is the Crystal Ballroom in SW. There is a good mix of hip local bands that you’ve probably never heard of along with big names.

10. Voodoo Donuts. Probably the most popular food place in Portland, it is the collection of pure Portland spirit in one place. This place has it all: hip cashiers, post-modern art haphazardly tacked to the wall, puns, and owners that are authorized to officiate weddings. Oh, and there are donuts. Coco Puff donuts, donuts in the shape of Texas, voodoo dolls with raspberry filling. If you go at night, take a friend because you will run into…characters. It’s open late, so it’s a good place to go for post-show munchies.

I hope you are now motivated to visit this lovely city! There are so many more things that I want to add to this list, but this should easily cover a solid weekend. Come on by; I’ll show you a good time. :)

My Life in Pictures: The White Room [dun dun DUN!]

Lucky for us, I've got a story to draw about today! It is short and sweet and sure to make you believe that I am a dork.

The time when I legitimately thought I was going to die.

My family owns a beach house here along the Oregon coast. It is a place of refuge from the drudgery of daily life and the noises of suburbia/city life. The Ericksen's Beach Abode houses family reunion, birthday celebrations, and even a Christmas morning or two. We have created many memories and look forward to all of the memories our family will make in the future. People come from all around America to also take refuge and enjoy what our little beach home has to offer.

However, I am slightly scared of sleeping there.

My life is such so that I had to get used to sleeping in noisy situations. Oldest child, roommates, traveling, living next to a busy road, etc. In fact, I now can only sleep with background noise. I can't be the last person to go to bed because it's too quiet in my apartment/house. I sleep with the window open so that I hear the cars/dogs/nature noises. I take comfort in people snoring in the next room over. This is my problem with our peaceful beach house. It's a little too quiet for this city girl. No cars. Well-insulated walls. Quiet neighbors. Even with the window open at night, it is silent. That gets into my head and I can't sleep at the beach house. I look forward to big family reunions because I get to share a room with someone. Get the picture? If not, I drew some for us.

A couple of trips ago, I begged my sister and mom to let me sleep with them, but they are those weird people who like the solitude and silence of sleeping in the beach house. Weirdos.
So I sucked it up and charged my iPod, ready to create noise and sleep like a big girl all by myself in the White Room (it's called that because white people like to name everything).  The White Room is the second scariest room in the beach house, next to the Red Room, which is freaky just in its name, but that's for another post.
Here is what normal people see when they see the White Room:

And here's how I see it: 

The first night, I'm delaying my sleepless night by reading and following my family around as they get ready for bed, which is their favorite activity to do with me. I finally decide that it's time for bed and should stop annoying hanging out with my family, so I get ready for bed, which includes making a sweep of the room to make sure there are no murderers. You know, like every normal adult does. I'm half-bracing myself to see something in one of the nooks of the room, so you can imagine what would happen if I were to actually see something. 

Well while I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, my loving mom and sister, who know of my fears and heighten them by forcing me to sleep by myself, decide to not only make me sleep in the White Room, but then think it would be funny to hide in my closet. So I come back from the bathroom, make my sweep, then get to the closet. I open the closet, and this is what I see:

I scream bloody murder, scramble like a skittish cat who can't get traction on the wooden floors, and bolt out of the room. I collapse onto my mom's bed, in tears, heart racing. My grandpa stumbles into the room, still working on his pants, ready to kill the person who could possibly make me scream like that. By now, I realize that the two demons in my closet were actually my super supportive mother and sister and so I start to calm down. 

This is what they claimed they did:

..but we all know how it really went down.

Needless to say, I slept in my sister's room that night.

End of the Best Weekend in New York with the Coolest Person Before I Moved Back West

I miss the east coast sometimes. Writing these posts about my great weekend in NYC just makes me miss it more. I just love NYC!
Tuesday it was rainy and cold and I walked everywhere in it, but it didn't dampen my spirits! I walked from UES through Central Park to LES and the MoMA before it started pouring.

Bethesda Fountain

Boat House

The MoMA was...Modern Art. I wanted to go since I haven't before, even though I am not a modern art fan.

Some of Monet's "Water Lilies"

"Starry Night," Van Gogh -- I had no idea it was here until I walked in the room!

Andy Warhol

Pollock from far away since they were unfortunately doing renovations to its room

It was pouring rain by then, so I didn't really want to walk around anymore. Instead, I picked up some cupcakes at the Plaza for Sarah and I. My childhood friend, Jessica, is all hip and working in the NYC financial district, now. We met up for dinner at a British Tea Shop, Alice's Tea Cup. It was so so cute and yummy and it was so great to catch up with Jessica!

Then up early the next day for the bus back to DC! Which broke down in the middle of Jersey and we had to wait in 90+ degree weather for an hour until another bus gets us. Then I went home, packed, and left two days later. Whirlwind! 

Monday in the Big Apple

I'm so behind. But I am still thinking about this trip, so I must do it justice with a blog post. 

Warning: This post may contain a picture of a certain "Naked Cowboy."

Monday morning, I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Sarah to check out the museum I've heard so much about! I love this museum and I can't wait to wander around the Met again someday.

We had a lunch break at Shake Shack (surprise surprise) and then I tackled the museum solo for the rest of the afternoon. 

The Assyrian Royal Court

I can't wrap my mind around the intricacy of this ceiling carving

Crossing the Delaware

Inside the Temple of Perneb

Temple of Dendur - A temple that we saved from an overflowing river in Egypt and now gets its own room

Frank Lloyd Wright room - I am fascinated by FLW as an architect and as a person, so this was a delightful, accidental find.

Armory

old piano

What an awesome museum.

Sarah and I applied for the lottery for "Newsies." I don't have any luck when it comes to winning things, so I was thrilled that Sarah was there with her luck, especially since she won the lottery! The boys were adorable.

c/o Sarah

While we were waiting for the show to start, we wandered around Times Square. 

The Naked Cowgirl was...gross

Love this girl!

We got these cupcakes and sat on the tckts bleachers and people watched.

My mom's only request was that I eat street vendor roasted nuts for her. Can't complain.

We were starving after the show, so we headed to Serendipity 3 by way of Radio City/Rockefeller/NBC Studios. I had to try their frozen hot chocolate (howww does that work?), which DOES live up to the hype. Late night dinner in the city with Sarah? I'm all over that.

Rockefeller

"Prometheus, Teacher in Every Art, Brought the Fire That Hath Proved to Mortals a Means to Mighty Ends." If you ever want multiple explanations on what that might mean, I've read multiple papers on this statue, so let me know.

Trump Tower

This restaurant in a word? Fabulous.

c/o Sarah

But wait, there's more! Stay tuned.