Portland OR

Lizzie always makes my birthday an absolutely amazing. This year she surprised me with a trip to Portland OR, a place I've always heard about and always wanted to go. We stayed at a hotel with a river view, immediately got a drink and headed out for the night. We ended up at the Kennedy School which is an old school where the classrooms had been converted to separate bars. We even got to see the end of the Seahawks football game and I have to say being around the excitement was pretty cool.

Ok... The Kennedy School is absolutely awesome! They have their own brewery and each room has a sort of theme that went along with what kind of classroom it once was. For instance, The Detention Room was a tiny place that could hold maybe twelve people and is one of two places left in Portland where you can purchase and smoke cigars indoors. The Honors Room was my personal favorite, another tiny room with a wood burning stove and each bartender made absolutely killer Negronis! We ended up having dinner in The Boiler Room which is exactly what you think it was but much cooler with old plumbing made into gates and decoration.

The bar at Vivant

Dessert at Vivant

The next day we slept in then had a couple's massage at the hotel then off we went to find some food. We wanted to soak in as much Portland culture as we could so we went to two small plate places for dinner. The first was Bar Vivant, a Spanish Tapas slash in house dessert maker run by a few bearded awesome guys. Talk about authentic! The bacon wrapped dates are to die for. From there we went to the dark and secluded Expatriate which is run by Top Chef Masters alumni Naomi Pomeroy. The Drinks were to die for as were the lobster rangoon. From there we visited the small but nice Blush club for the remainder of the evening. 

The entire trip was so great! I'm sorry we didn't get as many quality pictures as we hoped but we're already looking forward to getting back to Portland as soon as possible.