En and I just hosted our friends Phia, Jo, and Cas: lifelong Washingtonians getting the Portland treatment for the first time ever. I get it. If I lived in Seattle, there’s not much that would get me to come down to Portland. Seattle has everything, and by comparison, Portland is a small town. That’s what I love about Portland, though, and it has managed to retain that charm for me since I moved here at age 22.
It’s a true honor to be the tour guide for someone’s first time in a city! This sort of thing is a very rare life event. Hosting friends from out of town is a great way to see your city in a new light and have a bit of a staycation. Hosting out of towners is also a great way to make them go to all your favorite spots.
The drawback is that there is so little time! As we went through the weekend, I kept thinking of places to go and fun things to do, stuff we ultimately wouldn’t have time for given our initial itinerary. Each section of this list will have honorable mentions, places I would have gone if we had infinite time and energy. The following list has been edited for variety, aspirations, privacy, and brevity. Ask another local, they’ll give you a completely different list of things to do. This is just what I like :)
What to do for three days in Portland, OR
Day 1 - Southeast
For my friends, thrifting in Southeast was the obvious first activity. Hawthorne is full of excellent shops to choose from. En and I did this for my birthday this year, and it can be an all day activity. This was our sunniest day with the nicest weather, so we stopped in quite a few shops and cafes.
We went to Division next, which is a neighborhood not far from Hawthorne, with the explicit intent of going to Secret Room. We ended up in a few more thrift shops along the way. After lunch at Harlow, we hit up Secret Room for books and zines. We got super inspired and had to double back to Collage to pick up some art supplies.
We ended the day with a movie (Project Hail Mary), and this is where I would recommend going to Laurelhurst Theater. She’s my personal favorite theater in all of Portland :^)
Honorable SE mentions: Sonny’s House, Outlet, Field Day, Laurelhurst Park, Hollywood Theater (ok these are technically all NE, but Kerns and Hollywood are close enough)
Day 2 - The Perfect Day Trifecta
Perfect days can come in many forms, depending on the circumstance. The following series of events is the perfect day for me no matter the circumstance.
First up, En and our guests went to the cafe for breakfast while I slept in. En brought me back arepas to eat in bed before we headed out to the gym. Gym with the bros, where we lift together in a parallel play setting, is awesome. After the gym, I caught up on emails and did some drawing while we had quiet reading time and took turns showering off.
Then we went to Common Ground for a leisurely 90 minutes of soak and sauna. It was my first time going, but I’ll definitely be back! The soak is outdoors, and since it was a little drizzly, the hot water felt really nice.
We wrapped the day by heading to 82nd Ave for KBBQ at K-Town, where Carly and Eli met up with us. Portland/Beaverton has some of the best AYCE KBBQ options outside of LA. Great price, great quality, great atmosphere, can handle large groups easily. Sorry to Seattle/Chicago/NYC, you guys are getting smoked. I will only hear your arguments to the contrary if you sign up for my Patreon. For $2/mo you can tell me I’m wrong. Just about any KBBQ restaurant in the Portland metro is going to be delicious, but I have a preference for the corn cheese and diabolical cocktails at K-Town. After dinner, we went back to Carly and Eli’s apartment with ice cream and chilled out on their big comfy couch under the lava lamp glow.
Honorable perfect day mentions: instead of gym, one could go on a hike in Forest Park or take a walk around St Johns and Cathedral Park; our back up for the sauna/soak would have been a day on Sauvie Island if the weather had been much warmer, either on the beach or picking fruit; if I was by myself trying to have a perfect day, I would be getting tattooed at Lombard Street Tattoo in St Johns; and our other dinner option up for consideration was Happy Lamb Hot Pot in Beaverton
Day 3 - A Portland Classic Day
If your out-of-town guests have never been to Portland before, you’ve gotta do at least some traditional Portland sight seeing. After an at-home pancake breakfast, we took the max downtown to Powell’s, with an intermission at Screen Door for brunch. Can you believe I’ve only been to Screen Door in the airport? I’m just not into waiting forever for brunch, but since it was a Tuesday at the tail end of their brunch hours, we didn’t have to wait long. After a little window shopping, we returned to Powell’s for us each to buy 3+ books and drink coffee in the cafe.
We had to head home that afternoon for an appointment, but if I had rewritten this day, it would include some additional window shopping in a few spots downtown. Our last act for this long weekend was getting An An for dinner, my personal fave restaurant in North Portland or quite possibly the whole of Portland.
Honorable Portland-classic mentions: NW 23rd, Japanese Garden, Washington Park generally, OMSI special exhibits, Floating World, shopping on Mississippi/Williams
Shout out to Cas and Phia for having digi cams and influencing me to get one. Next time we hang out, I will have one!!!