pnw road trip | portland.

some weeks ago now, we welcomed november in the pacific northwest as a little tribe of three to celebrate our anniversary and carve a quiet space together at the start of what has proven to be a hustling-bustling month. i wrote back when it was still summer that chris' american dream has long been portland (maine), while mine has been portland (oregon). and so it feels right, then, that we could spin those dreams into lived days inside the very year we two became three. because when i think of my christopher and think about us, i see starry eyes chasing babies and dreams, lassoing the whole world, bringing it right to our door. 

and so, portland. there was nothing for us in these hours but bundled walks, let's-get-lost drives, lingering lattes, shared meals, a whole lot of family snuggles under the covers. we wandered in and out of pottery shops and bookshops and coffeeshops, and warmed up after with hot buttered rums. we shared time and coffee with friends, cuddling pudgy babies as we talked. we settled into our neighborhood and walked to the bakery and swingset, along the way making friends with other young families, admiring rows and rows of darling craftsman homes, and playing peek-a-boo with leaves bigger than baby. we lived days to a drumbeat that was all our own, and we couldn't believe our eyes: autumn in the pacific northwest, coming up rose-hued leaves and fog and pine. 

a few favorites from our time in portland:

+ brunch at tasty n alder (chocolate potato doughnuts, korean fried chicken, radicchio, polenta n sugo)

+ lattes from stumptown coffee & a turn in the photobooth at the ace hotel

+ hours & hours lost in powell's books

+ olive oil ice cream cones at salt & straw

+ drip coffee and still-hot sticky buns at bushel and peck bakeshop

+ blue star donuts (orange olive oil, blueberry bourbon basil, buttermilk old fashioned)

+ lemongrass chicken and rice vermicelli with prawn gravy at pok pok

+ spicy al pastor and carnitas tacos from ¿por qué no?

had we more hours, we would've gone to see the view from pittock mansion, wandered the international rose test garden, and poked around schoolhouse electric, but then, that's what next times are for, you know?