Portland, Oregon Weekend Trip
July 22-25, 2022
Written By: H.Couch
It’s time to wander into the weekend, destination Portland Oregon. Portland is our home away from home since moving to Colorado, but still holds many important connections like family and friends. With the availability to fly standby we are able to go back and forth fairly easily thus allowing us to keep a few connections to the metro area. This trip back was mostly because of pre-scheduled dentist appointments. Since we really like our dentists, we’ve had for more years than we can count, why not just stay with them and plan accordingly? The bonus is a weekend trip and to see family and friends.
However, this weekend we had a plan, a vegan food field trip. We have only become plant based in the last year and a half so all the wonderful vegan food spots Portland has to offer are new to us. No time like the present to check some out. Stop one, Doe Donuts, we saw the donut shop featured on a Netflix episode of “Someone Feed Phil”, we love watching this show because the host, Phil. He is a quirky and entertaining guy who loves to travel, eat and meet people. Stop two, La Taquiza Vegana, an all-vegan Mexican food cart, I mean who doesn’t love a good taco. La Taquiza Vegana was spotted on a random Instagram feed that caught our eye so we had to check it out.
Portland mornings often start off cool and cloudy due to a marine layer that drifts in during the late evenings. Once, that morning cloud cover rolls out of town, the afternoon sun glows and heats up the day. The mountains glow in the distance and the green hills shine around town. Time to venture off for the day, off to Doe Donuts. Arriving to Doe Donuts in the Hollywood district of Portland, you find the shop tucked into a corner between cross streets. A small line had formed but thankfully moved quick, everything is to go, but they do offer a few outside picnic tables to enjoy your freshly made treats on a beautiful July day. The donut plan was to pick up some for Sunday breakfast so we could head out to the Oregon Coast and not have to worry about cooking a big Sunday breakfast. Doe recommends eating them the day of, but we thought they were just as good the next day. Check out that food blog here.
Lunch time! La Taquiza Vegana, a small food cart located within the new food cart group called Hinterland Bar and Food Carts. Food carts are not new to Portland but Hinterland just opened in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood January of 2022. They offer a choice of 5 different food options for everyone’s taste buds, not just us vegans. We were lucky enough to have our daughter and son-in-law join us for lunch, that’s a bonus of travelling back to Oregon! While we enjoyed sampling the vegan food truck (and eating way too much) Lauren and David tried the chicken sandwich from Third Culture Kitchen. Check out more about that food blog here.
Now with full bellies and a little more time to visit with Lauren and David we drove over to their house in Washougal, Washington. Lauren and David have been working hard to fix up a 1930’s house they bought close to the Washougal River. They have a little bit more work ahead of them but day by day, project to project they are building a beautiful home and life together. But it’s summer and that means a garden in full bloom. Lauren has been hard at work growing all kinds of delicious summer vegetables and we wanted to check it out. Cucumbers, squash, bell peppers, lettuce, jalapenos, even an artichoke. It was great to visit their house and see all the progress being made. Even though it was a quick visit between Lauren’s work schedule we enjoyed catching up with the two of them. I even made progress with Lauren’s shy dog Percy (the grey one), he came up and licked me on the face, shock!
Approaching the early Saturday evening we headed back to the house with a plan for music in Downtown Oregon City and a light dinner or appetizer. During the summer on Historic Main Street, musical artists set up along a small street corner and sing their songs for local patrons of neighboring restaurants. The warm summer evening was a great chance to sit outside and dine while listening to some tunes. The only downfall was that the city doesn’t close this section of the street off and the cars driving by distract from the music. Settling down at a corner restaurant, Mesa Fresca was a refreshing find. They had a nice selection of vegan menu options, we decided on sharing the Mesa Beyond nachos. They were pretty good but we wish for someone to make a better vegan cheese, one that actually melted like real cheese for dishes like nachos and pizza.
With a good night’s sleep and a busy Saturday in the books, it was time to have those donuts and coffee and head out the beach. We love the ocean and with the city weather reaching a blazing 90+ degrees the beach was going to be a beautiful. There is nothing like the Oregon Coast, small little towns dotted on the map between sprawling highway 101 vistas, grassy sand drifts that lead into sandy beaches and an endless ocean sky. Today’s stop Cannon Beach, about a two-hour car ride from the city you find a charming little town filled with beach side shops, restaurants and art galleries. The highlight to a beach walk is the famous Haystack Rock, a soaring volcanic monolithic rock. A top tourist destination that can be accessed during low tide, Haystack Rock is popular spot to go wading thru tide pools and looking for fun ocean creatures. Sea urchins, starfish, even Tufted Puffin.
Arriving into Cannon Beach we decided to walk around town first and check out a few shops. We could see that pesky marine layer still hanging over the beach and was hoping if we looked around a little bit first maybe it would burn off. No such luck, but we were determined to put our feet in the sand. With a howling wind along the ocean front, we were forced to make this beach walk quick. Shoes off, sand in our toes and a few pictures later our sandy adventure was over. Oh, how we hate wind, it was such a beautiful day but the darn wind kept us from our beloved beach walk. However, we were getting hungry and was time to figure out some lunch. Being plant based sometimes makes food options a little more difficult but we are generally able to figure something out, but we are at the beach and that means some fresh seafood options. Maybe today’s our flexitarian day, pescatarian style, we shared a halibut fish and chips at the local seafood market. I still eat fish from time to time as I have had a very difficult time giving up my sushi.
With our pearly whites all shined up, it’s time to head back to Denver. Having the benefit of flying standby has its advantages, you can make last minute plans or cancel plans without incurring any fees, but it also has its disadvantages. Like any paying passenger we are subject to delays, mechanical issues, crew shortages and any of these situations could pose a real nightmare for a standby traveler. For instance, our non-stop flight back to Denver was broken causing a change in aircraft that resulted in the company having to use a smaller plane and not enough seats for all. Now we had to think fast and hope the changes in flights worked, thankfully it did and we made it back home intime to be at work on time the next day.
We had a very quick and fun filled Portland weekend visiting with some dear friends and much-loved family members but now back to reality. Up next on our weekend wandering, camping in Nebraska!
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
