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    Portland Travel Diary

    April 25, 2015
    Photos of me taken by Candace Kita and Kelsey Yocum
    Last week/weekend I had the opportunity to visit Portland for a couple of days. I mostly spent my time there learning more about my graduate program, but I did have some free time in the evenings and on the weekend to explore the city with my friends Kelsey and Candace.  My main goal during this trip was to get a better sense of the layout of the city so that I could begin exploring housing options. Kelsey and Candace were kind enough to give me a tour of the city and introduce me to new places (to me) in Portland, and I am now super excited about moving up there later this year! I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to share some photos from my trip and talk about a few of the places I visited.
     
    FOOD AND COFFEE
     
    Just as always, I did my fair share of eating during this trip to Portland. While I didn’t go crazy and drink all the coffee I possibly could like I have in the past, I did get to visit some cool new places that I really enjoyed. Here is a list of some restaurants and coffee shops I visited during this trip:
    Prettyman’s General: Brunch is probably my favorite meal, so I was really counting on my friends to to deliver an awesome brunch experience. They did just that when they took me to Prettyman’s General, which has a variety of mouth-watering options all served on Tabor Bread toast. I had the Ace in the Hole from their menu, and it was very satisfying and delicious!
    The Sudra: My friends and I went to dinner at the Sudra, which  seems to be quite popular and was packed for dinner. I had the Poori Plate which was really good. This place was also had an amazing playlist (they played Geographer!), and I liked that they projected Bollywood movies on one of the walls.
    Blue Star Donuts: When I posted that I was planning a trip to Portland, Tina from Just A Tina Bit recommended in the comments that I try Blue Star; since I love dessert, especially donuts, it obviously didn’t take much to convince me that I had to visit this local donut shop while I was in town. I had a carrot cake donut and it was the best donut that I’ve ever had. I have to say that I’m really looking forward to frequenting this place once I’m settled in Portland. It’s my goal to try out all of their donut options. Haha!
    Courier Coffee: This small and cozy coffee shop was my first stop during this trip to Portland. Kelsey and I got there bright and early so we didn’t have to wait too long for our drinks. However, Kelsey informed me that this tends to be a popular spot and is packed with people later in the day.
    Either/Or: This place has coffee soda and it’s as good as it sounds! I actually didn’t have the coffee soda, but my friend let me try hers and I immediately regretted purchasing an iced latte (even as delicious as it was). This shop is located around some cute antique shops, so it’s a good place to grab a snack or something to drink if you’re spending a day antiquing. Also, I just have to mention that the baristas working here are extremely friendly.
    Palio Dessert and Espresso House: This coffee shop was discretely hidden inside a very cute house on a very large roundabout. My friends and I made our way over here for a late night cup of coffee after dinner on Friday night. If you can believe it, I was asleep by 11:00 PM despite enjoying a delicious latte around 9:30 PM; if that’s not a sign that I’m a true coffee addict lover, I don’t know what is! This place looks like it would make a great study spot, so you’ll probably see me camping out here next fall.
    While Kelsey, Candace and I were exploring the Sellwood Neighborhood of Portland, we happened to walk into a cute home goods shop that had chickens and goats in the back. I wish I could say more about this magical moment, but I think the pictures pretty much some up how awesome it was to make new animal friends.
    THE OUTDOORS
     
    One of the things that I’m most excited about taking advantage of when I move to Portland is all the wonderful outdoor spaces around the city. As much as I love living in the LA area, our parks do not compare to those in Portland. During this trip I visited Laurelhurst Park (also seen here), which was a great place to spend the afternoon lounging. During one of the days I was in town, my friend Kelsey and I also made our way to Council Crest Park for a picnic dinner; it was such a gorgeous place, especially during this time of the year when all the magnolia trees surrounding the park are blooming.

     

     

    Since I had to leave early Sunday morning and didn’t have time to do much more exploring, Kelsey and I decided to take a walk around her neighborhood. I actually love exploring places on foot because it gives me time to appreciate my surroundings, unlike when I’m driving around, and I’m glad that Portland has a great public transit system so that I can have the opportunity to do more of that when I move there next fall. I hope you enjoyed these photos from my trip. Until next time!
    xoxo,
    Helen

     

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    Food & DIY, Outfit

    Downtown Adventure

    January 7, 2015
    Photos by Carly Stevens and Me
    My friend Carly who lives in Austin is in town for the month, and on one of the first few days that she was here we decided to go on a metro adventure to Downtown L.A. We had originally planned to spend a day hopping from one coffee shop to another, but we didn’t want to deal with parking and LA traffic. Instead, we decided to take it easy and take the metro gold line into Downtown. During our outing, I got to try out a couple of places that I had been wanting to visit for a while and also had the opportunity to visit some old favorites, all which I’m sharing with you today.

     

    GRAND CENTRAL MARKET
    The first stop for Carly and I was Grand Central Market in Downtown LA. I used to work only a couple of blocks away from Grand Central Market, and I’m so astonished at how much it has changed in just two years. There are so many new restaurants and shops that have opened alongside establishments that have been there for years. On this particular day, Carly and I were on a mission to get egg sandwiches from Eggslut. The restaurant is very popular, so we had to wait in a very long line before we ordered our sandwiches, but they were well worth the wait. Carly and I both got the Fairfax which I have to say was really, really delicious, if you can’t already tell from the picture. We also ordered lattes at G&B Coffee at the other end of the market. G&B was less busy than Eggslut, and I felt awkward taking pictures of the baristas while they were trying to do their job. But, trust me when I say that you don’t need a photo for me to prove how delicious the coffee is. You have to stop by G&B if you’re ever in the mood for a caffeinated drink while at Grand Central Market.

    THE LAST BOOKSTORE
    Since Carly had never been to the Last Book Store and it is only a couple of blocks from Grand Central Market, we made our way over there. The bookstore is my favorite place to take friends who are visiting from out of town because it’s such a sight to see. If you’re a book lover, such as myself, you’ll appreciate the nice selection of new and used books available in the store. If you’re not that into books, you’ll still enjoy just walking around. Every corner of the bookstore is decorated in a fun way, and the second floor is also home to other shops and art studios which are usually open during the day. In addition, the bookstore also hosts several events, so you should check their calendar if you’re in town.

     

    ARTS DISTRICT
    Lastly, Carly and I headed down to the Arts District, which I won’t talk too much about since I already shared some of my favorites in the area here and here. Poketo is one of Carly’s favorite shops, but they were closed on that particular day due to the holidays. Since it was closed, Carly and I walked over to Blacktop and enjoyed another cup of delicious coffee–do you all notice a pattern here? It wasn’t too busy, probably because it was a Friday, but we did manage to catch a glimpse of Skrillex. Neither Carly nor I are necessarily fans, but it was still a fun sighting. I have to say that even though I visit the Arts District often, it’s always a cute place to walk around. It’s also nice that this area is easily accessible through metro and other forms of public transportation. The metro gold line is only about two blocks away.
    Carly and I found this cute scene outside a hidden vintage shop in the Arts District. While we didn’t check out the vintage shop, we couldn’t resist taking photos of this area.

     

    Outfit Details:
    Madewell Shirt (Similar) | Urban Outfitters Sweater (Similar) | Madewell Skinny Skinny Crop Jeans in Tempest Wash | Piperlime Suede
    Booties (Similar) | Crocheted Bag (Handmade by my Grandmother)

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    I hope you enjoyed this post. As you may already have read in my last post, one of my resolutions is to put together more travel/adventure posts. Even though I don’t see myself traveling out of the state this year, I do want to try to explore more places in California that are outside of Los Angeles. Even though I visited some new places during this Downtown outing, I realize that I need to get out of my bubble. I have a list of places that I want to visit, so we’ll see where I actually end up going in 2015.

    xoxo,
    Helen