3 Days in Portland, Eugene, and Medford, Oregon
Day 1: Portland
We’re officially one state away from California and only 4 days until we get back to The Bay. We got to Portland around 1pm and stopped by a barefoot shoe store and Trader Joe’s since we had time before checking into our Airbnb. We didn’t know it until we walked in, but we’d come full circle because this was the same Trader Joe’s that we were in almost 4 months ago when we were shopping for flowers for our wedding.
We spent the evening watching some Thursday Night Football and eating the food we picked up earlier. We also booked a few more things for our upcoming Japan trip. Since we only have 2 weeks in San Jose with our family and friends, we don’t want to spend the entire time on our laptops figuring things out, so we’ll try to do a lot of it over the next few days.
After the game, we checked out some line dancing nearby but it wasn’t the vibe we were looking for so we ended up not dancing and just going back to our Airbnb. We ate a little more while watching some TV.
We saw a huge spider in the bathroom while getting ready for bed and took some time to catch it and flush it down the toilet. It was a whole thing and just when we thought that was it, we saw another one around 5 am when I went to the bathroom. It was gnarly and none come back tomorrow night.
Day 2: Portland
I didn’t sleep too well last night and spent an hour between 4-5 am looking at Airbnbs in Japan on my phone. This meant I didn’t actually wake up until 9:30 am and got out of bed shortly after that. We lounged around a little bit more before going to get some ramen for lunch. I chose this place because it had a lot of spicy options, which I don’t usually see on ramen menus. We stopped by Pinolo Gelato after lunch to get some dessert and it was a fun feeling being back there. The first time we tried it was in March when we were in town to scope our vendors. The second time we had it was when they catered our wedding. Today would be the third time we’ve eaten their gelato and it was as delicious as ever.
We went to REI to pick up an order we placed a few days ago and then went to the REI Re/Supply store nearby. It’s the first Re/Supply store we’ve been to and it was pretty cool because it was like a thrift shop for outdoor gear. Typically REI stores will have a small section for these items, but this was its own store location with a lot of inventory.
We went back to chill in the afternoon and caught up on some blogging and booking before heading back out for dinner and another attempt at line dancing. Dinner was at a place called Grassa, which we ate at during our very first trip to Portland and just loved. We also considered getting them to cater our wedding but that didn’t work (pizza was the better choice, anyway). The bar we went to tonight for line dancing was much better than the one we went to the day before. We got a few songs in before they started playing more and more that we weren’t familiar with. That is often our cue to leave.
Day 3: Eugene and Medford
This is it: our last full day before heading back to San Jose. At this point, we are officially starting out drive back and only stopping by Medford for the night to break up the drive.
Before we did that, though, we stopped in Eugene along the way. The University of Oregon had a football game today against the trending Colorado team (thanks to the celebrity of their new head coach, Deion Sanders) so we thought it would be fun to watch the game at a local spot. We decided on a brewery and got some comfortable seats in front of a couple TVs to watch the multiple games going on. There were a lot of Oregon fans, but not nearly as many as I thought there would be. I thought that every place in town would be packed, but perhaps many folks actually attended the game. It ended up being a huge blowout so we left during the second half and drove to Medford. We did stop at a Costco on the way to fill up on gas and get some soft serve.
Our last night on the road was as chill as many other nights, but I’m sure with much heavier eye bags and slightly achier bodies. We lazed around, Keon napped, snuck in a quick gym workout, and booked a few more things. Some version of this night will be a common occurrence during our time abroad because there will always be a need to relax, work out, and plan what’s next. But it’s exciting and we can’t wait to hit the road—or the skies, this time—after a few weeks of being home with our families.