I love being back in the PNW for mannyyy reasons that's for sure, but one of my favs is being able to hop in my car and drive whereverrrr the road may take me. Now don't get me, weekend getaways are totally possible in NYC and something I did take advantage of quite a bit, but being able to hop in your own car and just drive?! That feels dang near magical to me after so many years without a car -- 7 to be exact. So now that I'm back on the west coast I'm basically a born-again 16-year-old who just got her license and I'm still loving every second of it even a year later.

One of my favorite places to adventure to over the years has always been Portland, and now that it's a mere 2.5 hours away (traffic cooperating) you will certainly find me roaming my old hood quite a bit more. And can I please tell you... I swear every time I visit, the city gets a little cooler. Now I know some of the lifers might disagree with all of the growth Portland has had in the last decade, but personally, I love it. So much so, that if I didn't promise my Mom that I'd never move out of state again that I def wouldn't rule out moving south again. 😜#realtalk

So what is it about Portland that is so great? To me, it's a great sized city that has the amenities of big-city living, while still not feeling overwhelming and not being totally terrifying to drive in if you don't know where you're going. Plus it has an amazing food scene (you know me!), arts, culture, and it's still very walkable and accessible. I also happen to know some super awesome people down there so it always gets some extra bonus points for that too! The vibe in Portland is just really great and I only think it has gotten better with time. So that being said, what the heck are my fav places to visit when I'm there? Well today I'm sharing some of my must-visit spots no matter how short of a trip I'm on, which this weekend was less than 36 hours. 

Pine State Biscuits

If there is one place I pretty much always visit when I'm in town (and take everyone I'm visiting with to) it's Pine State Biscuits. Truly this place is heaven on a biscuit and the onlyyyy place around that I would wait an hour in the rain for. And trust me, when I lived in NYC we didn't wait on places and I've liked to stick to that mentality, but Pine State.. Oh I'll wait. Kathy originally introduced me to Pine State at least 10 years ago after seeing it featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives when they just had a little hole in the wall spot off of SE Belmont and I've been ordering everything off the menu ever since at their now 3 larger locations + their spot at the Farmers Market. At this point I have a few go-tos, although occasionally I'll branch out, or let's be real, someone I'm with will order something else and I'll sneak a bite or two. It's hard to venture from my favs though because they're just THAT good. So what are my go-to's? I'm talking about the McIsley, the Pine State Fried Club and the Reggie Deluxe when I'm feeling real indulgent.

Powell's Books

Is it even a Portland trip if you don't stop by Powell's? Not in my books. Get it?! I'm a funny one... I, along with a million other people, have such a soft spot for this bookstore. It hails that it is the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world and even if it wasn't I'd still love it. The bookshelves in here just go on and on and on and I love everything about it. One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Portland (and now when I visit) is to wander the halls and find a little corner in the astrology section and check out alllll of the books. Seriously.. I used to spend hours here. It doesn't matter what kind of book you're looking for either, they're going to have it and the best selection at that. Plus they have some really awesome events take place there and all and all it's just a rad place to spend an afternoon.

Voodoo Doughnuts

Now back to food, because, well you know who's writing this right!? Another one of my favorite places to stop when I'm in Portland (or Eugene if I'm catching a Ducks game) is VooDoo Doughnuts. You can find a lot of good donuts on the west coast, sorry east coast but we win at this... and VooDoo sits at the top of my list. If you're interested in some of the other great options locally as well, Little Duck did an awesome Portland Donut Crawl blog post that's worth a read too! Personally though, if I had to only pick one, VooDoo it is. I just love the novelty and the just delicious, fun and not overly fancy flavored donuts. Solid deliciousness. Insider tip too, if you want to stand in line foreves hit up the location downtown, but if you want to get in and out with a box full of your favs and a cute Instagrammable wall then you need to hit up their NE Davis VooDoo Doughnut Too location.

NW 23rd Ave in the Alphabet District

Awww my old neighborhood! I mean I don't want to brag, actually yes I will brag for a sec, I've been pretty darn lucky to live in some of the best neighborhoods in the cities I've lived in. NW Portland, The Upper East Side in NYC, and the Stadium District in Tacoma. Heck yes! And this neighborhood, well it's truly one of my favs because it is just so stinking cute! I lived off of NW 23rd Avenue in the Alphabet District and it's one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon. When I moved there my mom called it her "happy place" and it's def still makes my list as well. Adorable shops, delicious food, and bars galore.. like what more do you need?

NW 21st Ave is a close second too being just a few avenues over too. A greattt option for nightlife too. So many fun memories and truly something for everyone! Some places I definitely always love to stop at are Saint Cupcake -- their mini cupcakes are to die for! One of the McMenamins locations for some cajun tots and Ruby beer and maybe even an extra stop at their bottle shop that's now open at the end of the ave to grab some Ruby to go too! Pssttt, we're actually getting our own McMenamins in Tacoma in 2019 and this girl is PUMPED to have one of my favorite Oregon spots so close! Wherever you go over here you really can't go wrong!

Pearl District

Last but not least, another one of my favorite neighborhoods to wander is the Pearl District. After a trip to Powell's of course! (It's nearby) I'm such a sucker for repurposed factories and industrial vibes mixed with new construction and the Pearl combines all of that. Pair that with great options for Happy Hour, art galleries and some seriously amazing food and it has me feeling a little fancy! I worked at the neighborhood Safeway while finishing up college and just fell in love with the neighborhood from day 1 and it has only expanded and grown since. So many fun places to visit and it's just a cool pocket of the city.

Now of course, there are SO many more incredible things to do, see and eat in Portland that I could write for dayssss about but these are just a few of my favs that I always try to make it to. If you have some other recs or places you think I'd like definitely drop a comment below!

Since I decided to move home, something I have been really looking forward to going to is the Puyallup Fair aka the Washington State Fair! I honestly can't tell you the last time I went, but I know it's been at least 10 years! Going to the fair was always one of my favorite memories growing up, so I was really looking forward to a day filled with a little nostalgia. 

While I was excited for a lot of different things, I definitely went into the day with two top missions... To see alllll of the animals and also eat allll of the food. Clearly, my priorities are in check! Ha! We kicked off the day getting a jumpstart on one of those missions by starting with a fresh scone! A fair must-have. So simple, and yet so delicious. 

After we were fueled up on scones it was time to get a little bit of the lay of the land. A lot of the buildings definitely have had a little facelift since the last time I was there. Since when has there been a beer garden and multiple bars too?! Things have definitely grown up a bit since the last time I was there. We started the day off by making the rounds through the 4-H, hobby and vendor halls. Checking out all of the goods in each of those! After that, we also stumbled upon a pretty hilarious variety show by the Stooge Dudes, which was fun.

Once we went through most of the halls it was back to my missions. On the food end, realistically, I needed like 4 or 5 visits to be able to try everything I wanted to. Occasionally, I watch the show Carnival Eats so being at an actual fair again with all of the ridiculous food options was AWESOME! Since I was only there for one day though, I decided to stay true to my classic favorites I haven't had in awhile. 

I'm all about getting as many options in as possible so having someone who is down to share is key when doing fair food! Something I had to have once I saw was a blooming onion. I first fell in love with them at the 9th Avenue Food Festival in NYC. It was the only street fair of the year that had them and was something I'd look forward to. Until a few years ago when the booth was nowhere to be found! And yes, I know you can get them other places... but there's just something about getting them at a fair that makes them so much better so I was PUMPED to see them at the Puyallup!

Beyond our scones and blooming onion, we also had another fair classic -- a crusty pup. There are just some fair classics that are hard to beat! Then we closed things out at their DIY slushie stand -- which I also love. 

I have to be honest, it was really hard saying no to some of the other options! A girl can only eat so much though.. So here's a look at some of the options! Some of which I'll definitely be trying next year and others that I'll save for some other brave people.

The delicious...

• Elephant ears: Another one of my absolute favorites at the fair are elephant ears! Cinnamon and sugar for me!
• Curly fries: These were another one of my picks as a kid. They come in a huge block which is kind of insane, but dang are they good.
• Turkey legs: The turkey legs were looking on point! If I didn't just have one at the Renaissance Fair, I may have had to pick one of these up!
• Chicken and waffles and Nashville hot chicken: Two things I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong with.
• Apple fries with caramel: Is there anything more perfect for Fall? These sounded delicious!

The ridiculous...

• Everything at Totally Fried: Which was you guessed it... totally fried. The stand had fried classics like deep fried pickles, oreos and mac and cheese. Then they also had deep fried pop tarts, cinnamon rolls, hand pies and cosmic brownies
• Funnel cake with bacon, maple syrup, and whipped cream: While totallyyyy ridiculous and over the top, I would 100% try this.
• Fire Cheeto fries: Also ridiculous, but also probably delicious!

The downright cray cray... 

• Deep Fried Butter: I've seen this on carnival shows so I shouldn't have been surprised, but something about seeing it in person just seemed crazy to me. 😱 Like guys... they were eating deep-fried butter. Like who decided that was going to be a thing?! Despite what I think though, people were lined up like crazy so it's certainly a hit.
• Everything in the exotic food stand: Python, alligator, bugs, and Kangaroo were all on the menu here. None of which sound like things I'd personally want to try.

Needless to say, the fair food options were popping! And I may be eating all vegetables for the next 3 days to make up for all of the food we ate.. totally worth it though! Besides, calories don't count at the fair right?!

Now onto the second mission for the day... seeing all of the animals! [Insert little kid squeal here] Okay, I may be 28... but I was definitely more like 28 going on 8 during my visit. I don't know why but I was so excited to hang out with some of the farm animals. I have also been obsessed with goats as of lately. So you can imagine my excitement that it was goat weekend in the barns!

If you follow me on Instagram, I half apologize for all of my goat Instagram Stories for the day. Only half though because I still thought they were pretty adorable! 

Needless to say, I was in goat heaven and even made a few new furry friends. The goat above and I were totally having a bonding moment. Ha!

After going through barn after barn of goats (and not getting sick of it) we also saw some other cuties.

This furry little (ok kind of big) guy's name was Finnegan, which I thought was super adorable.

Unsurprising, I also could not get enough of Piglet Palace with all of the baby piggies! There were reallyyyyy tiny piglets and then these little striped ones that are just too cute. That one up on the right was my absolute favorite too 😍. He woke up from a nap and decided he was hungry and then one by one the other piggies woke up too. They were really funny to watch! 

And just like that both of my missions were complete! It was such a fun day and I have to say it even surpassed my expectations for what I was hoping for. I already can't wait for next year!

Normally this time of the year I'm working on my NYC anniversary post, but this year is a little bit different. Life sure has a funny way of throwing you curveballs doesn't it?! They joke you're not a real New Yorker until you've lived in the city for 7 years so I guess I justtt missed that cut-off. So instead of hitting that milestone this week, I'm celebrating a different anniversary.. my first full month of being a Washington resident again! 👈🏻 Woh, that still feels weird to say! 

So how's it going?! Now that I've gotten through some of the logistics of the move -- like sorting out health insurance, figuring out how to buy a car, and actually getting all of my stuff to the west coast.. all of that fun stuff -- I'm starting to adjust to my new normal. You can't get much further apart on the spectrum moving from New York back to my little hometown so I was a little worried about that, but for the most part, it's felt pretty great to get back to my roots. So what have been some of the biggest adjustments?! A lot! I like to joke that living in the city was like living on another planet and in a lot of ways it's true. There have certainly been a lot of changes on the flip side. Driving, having full sized appliances and a wholeee lot more space, less humidity, whole aisles of ice cream at the grocery store (I'm ok with this change), seeing sunsets, super-friendly people, allll of the outdoors... Some have been easier to adjust to (like the ice cream haha) and others that have been a little tougher like changing my work schedule! I think it's going to take a bit longer to adjust to that 5 a.m. wake-up time. 🙈

Generally, I'm someone who enjoys some downtime, but that is the one thing I haven't had much of this summer since being back. This girl has been busyyyyy. Like, can I have a free weekend to stay in my pjs all weekend soon?! I think staying busy has actually been one of the best things for getting adjusted, but I'm not going to lie it has been kind of exhausting. My life here is pretty different than my life in NYC though so it has kept me moving forward. So what have I been up to? Here are some of the major things!

Reconnecting with Fam & Friends

This has been the single best thing about being home again! Of course, now I'm missing all of my NYC friends, but it has been so great to reconnect with everyone here. I've been lucky to have been able to spend a lot more time home over the last year, but really being home is a totally different experience. When you live cross-country most of the time you see your family it's for an occasion, so it's great to be able to just hang out without any agenda. Being able to meet up with my Dad for an afternoon hike or spend an evening with my Mom has been so nice. It's little things like that, that you totally take for granted when you live near your parents so I've been trying to make up for the last 10 years of living out of state!

Getting My Outdoors On

This summer has been beau-ti-ful!!! Seattle broke a record from 1951 this year for 52 days without rain and boy have I been enjoying it. I've spent a lot of time this summer taking advantage of all of the outdoors Washington has to offer. In the mountains.. time at the lake.. walking along the beaches.. #Gimmealloftheoutdoors. While I'm staying back in my hometown, I've also taken up a hiking at a local spot during the week. There's something kind of therapeutic about getting your butt kicked climbing a mountain when you're starting over too.

Something I have also really come to appreciate about Washington since being back is the diversity of activities the state has. While I grew up here, I left the state when I was 18 so I never really fully appreciated that. You can go hiking one day, to the beach the next, and kayaking the next. I can. not. get. enough! I know there was a million things to do in NYC too, but it's been nice having a different set of options and a lot more that involve getting some fresh air. There's just something about being able to hop in your own car (more on that later) that is so freeing and I've been loving that.

Squeezing in some City Time

Along with spending a lotttt of times outdoors, I've also been getting my city fix in! I've always had such a love affair with Seattle, even though truthfully I know very little about it, so I have been loving the city adventures I've had so far. I've made it to two Mariners games this summer, enjoyed some time at Alki Beach, and also went to my first Seafair party and watched the Blue Angels!

It's interesting being back too because, in NYC, that's really the hub on the city side... Back here though, we also have a lot of smaller cities where there's still a ton of things to check out even if you're not in Seattle. Needless to say I have a lotttt of adventuring left to do. With more cities, my brain has kind of exploded for thinking about where I want to move next too. So many options... That decision can wait for another day though. For now I'm just enjoying checking out different things and fun events going on around the state.

Doing all of the Driving

Driving.. Guys, I bought a car and I'm not going to lie.. I'm kind of obsessed with it. I was lucky enough to have the best car buying partner EVER too! We walked into our first dealership to take a look at some of the options and I ended up driving out a brand new car right out of the showroom and I am in LOVE! Well maybe not with having a car payment, but the car... I LOVE!

HOLY MOLY! Let me tell you, cars are definitely a little more high tech than the last time I owned one.. I mean the last time I was driving my car still had a cassette player in it.. 🙈 If I'm being honest, it's going to take a bit for me to really figure it all out haha. 3 backup cams (kind of essential after my incident earlier this summer), lane departure warning, automatic braking.. the car can almost drive itself and those are just the ones I've kind of figured out so far. 

So needless to say it has been quite the month! There are definitely a lot of things about NYC I miss already, but it has been such an awesome start to this new chapter so far and I can't wait to see what comes next!