Fabulous first day in Portland! After working on east coast time I had a free afternoon and evening to adventure! First thing on the agenda? Pine State Biscuits! Perhaps my very favorite place to eat in Portland! thank you Kathy for introducing me to all that is heavenly goodness. Today I got the McIsley, which is a biscuit, fried chicken, honey, mustard, and pickles. One of my favorites! The next time you are near Portland ADD THIS TO YOUR LIST! You won’t regret it. They opened a new location in Alberta too that is so cute and much, much larger than the one on Belmont. All you need to know is it’s pure amazingness and once you have one you will be dreaming about them until you have another one- true story. Anyways, I took a couple of my friends who live in Portland that actually hadn’t been yet yesterday so I have created new ambassadors and set them free.

After getting some Pine State we headed into the city and went to my old Safeway I worked at! It was so crazy to be back. After being in New York for 10 months everyone’s houses and stores all seem huge! Yes, your house has just been upgraded to mansion status in my mind! Maybe it was just that touch of reality of how small things are in New York, ie. my room has officially been downgraded to the size of a shoebox. It was great to see the old crew though and they are keeping the place up to par. They could work on their apple stacking though.. I’m the best apple stacker on the west side though so I couldn’t expect complete perfection now that I’m not working there.

From there we walked all over Portland. After living in New York everything seems very walkable! I pretty much walked the entire downtown of Portland last night too. Another observation is how clean and nice Portland is. They always say you don’t really appreciate things until they’re gone and I can kind of understand that now. I love New York don’t get me wrong, but it was fantastic not seeing garbage bags on the sidewalks and everything so well maintained.

One of the first places we walked to was the Portland University of Oregon campus! Throw back! I had some very necessary business to take care of there though. Stock up on Oregon gear! My school spirit clothes were getting a little worn out so I stocked up on some t-shirts on clearance so I am ready to go for Football season in a couple of months! Like I said, totally necessary.

Next I was off to the waterfront, Pioneer Place, back to the Pearl, and then up to NW Portland to meet up with friends for dinner and drinks.

I mentioned in another post I was wondering how it would feel to be back. It was kind of an interesting feeling to be honest. On one hand I know I haven’t been here for 10 months and it kind of feels like a long time, but then again it feels like I was just here yesterday. When we pulled up to my friend Jacob’s house I just walked in like I always did and said, “What’s up Homie” like I was just there the day before. It was great being back with all of my friends and catching up. You know you’re really good friends when you can go 10 months without seeing each other and everything is the same as it’s always been.

I really love Portland, I love my friends, the city, and I look forward to one day being closer so I can visit more regularly. I’m still very happy with my decision to move to New York though and feel like it’s the right place for me right now.

Doing Portland Right