twenty eight :: portland!

An alarm at 4am can be an incredibly confusing time in your life, yes?  Had it not been for Hunter who mumbled "I knew we should have packed last nighttttttt." I would have forgotten the alarm wasn't a mistake rather a swift kick in the bum to get out of bed, pack and make the 4:50a ferry.  Hunter and I still get every bit as giddy stepping on the ferry as we did the first time we took it over to Bremerton.  I don't know how you could get on a boat of that magnitude and not be in awe of the water and views that surround you for 55 minutes.  H always insists we sit outside of the main part of the ferry aka the main part where all the daily commuters claim their bench and are good 10 minutes into their morning snooze. The ferry has little benches in the front where it's still blocked by a wall of windows, but the sides are for the most part open.  I wanted to throw a little small lil baby fit about sitting outside because it was pretty damn cold/windy this particular morning, but seeing this HUGE gigantic shooting star { i'm still not unconvinced it wasn't a meteor of some sort }, a dolphin swimming along side the boat and of course the sunrise over the seattle skyline made it more than worth the few dozen goosebumps we had for the 55 minute ride.

Once we got to Seattle, we had about an hour+ to kill before our train left at 7:30a.  For anyone who might be wondering, there are more coffee/deli shops that aren't open at 5:50am than are open at that hour.  We did some { a lot of } walking around before finding this really great little coffee shop only a block from the Amtrak station.  After we finished up our morning nibbles of breakfast sandwiches { him } and dill scones { her }, it was time to get to the station and check in for our trip!  I clearly was still half asleep half zombie at this point because I took next to no photos, and the ones I did take certainly weren't quality photos.  Sooo let's just pretend I took tons of detail shots of the gold plated clocks, older than old benches and high glorious ceilings, ok?  Ok.

Once on the train, I had a smile plastered on my face.  Hunter gave me the window seat which I sat in until I abused my privilege one too many times { aka fell asleep and missed the views } and handed it over to H for the last part of the train ride.  I really loved our trip there.  It felt very similar to flying, but with more freedom and slower paced.  It was so fun to see all the different views and landscapes.  From farms, to cities to endless water.  The ride to Portland was about 30 minutes shy of what it would have taken to drive there, so this was really a no brainer way to travel to Portland.  If the price was right, I truly think I would travel exclusively by train.   I loved it that much!

When we made it, both of us had finally gained an extra skip in our step and forgot all about our early morning wake up call.  It was so perfect because the Amtrak station was downtown and within walking distance to our hotel!  I didn't take nearly enough { aka none } photos of downtown, so you'll have to trust me when I say the buildings downtown Portland were swoonworthy to the max.  They were original and aged while still looking modern and charming.  Hunter and I compared it a lot to Denver, but their downtown buildings reminded me so much of Denver's Cap Hill area vs Denver's downtown which feels more modern and updated to me.  Our first stop was to check into our hotel at The Nines to drop off our luggage and enjoy { obsess over } our gorg room. 

::via because the photo i took looks no where as good as this one does::

After a minute or two of relaxing, were off!....to the breweries.  Naturally.  We made it to two; Rogue and Tugboat with a stop or two at antique stores and local shops in between.  

When we were finished with our afternoon/early evening tour of Portland, the intention was to freshen up at the hotel and scan through dinner restaurants that came highly recommended by my friend Kori.  Emphasis on the phrase the intention was to.  The sun, few hours of sleep, walking and walking and walking, hours of public transportation and beers caught up to us.  It was clear within the first :30 of stepping foot into the hotel room, that we were there to stay.  We ended up ordering in pizza and watching the Discovery Channel in our cozies all. night. long.    Full disclosure: It was one of my most favorite parts of the entire trip!  I know we missed out on some amazing eats in Portland, but we were able to enjoy our stunning hotel room, relax to the max and veg out eating in bed { gasp! } while watching tv { double gasp! } which is a total treat for two people who prefer tv's out of the bedroom.  But!...it is a fun treat a few times a year.  It's an even bigger treat if you don't have to worry about washing the crumbs out of the bedding the morning after.  

The next morning we slept in, said goodbye to The Nines and popped in and out of different coffee shops, markets, more local shops.  We walked up and down the river, weaved throughout the Pearl District and stuck to our agenda...which was not having an agenda.  

We stopped at Whole Foods to stock up on grapes, heirloom tomato salads and hummus + pitas for our train ride home.  We decided to sit in the observation deck for majority of the ride back to fully soak in the views and learn a little about what we were seeing from the guides.  Next time you see Hunter, ask him about the worlds largest egg.  He can't stop talking about it!  We had a really incredible sunset over the Puget Sound on our ride home.  I probably have close to 2 dozen photos of the sunset in my phone - it was amazing.

Within about 60 seconds of getting back to Seattle, I almost broke Hunter's hand { the train brakes released themselves and we were still standing pretty close to the train and I 100% thought we were in the war }, got hazed by the homeless { one second Hunter gave some money to a homeless vet {{ awww }} and literally the next second we were getting blamed by another homeless man for giving the vet all our weed and not saving any for him.  Apparently on the streets "buck" means dollar AND drugs?  I have no idea. }  We were rather pooped, but still on vacation high.

I loved every. single. second of the trip.  It was so unstructured, go with the flow and relaxing.  It was so us.  

Perfect, indeed.