Califriendcation Part 3: To Portland!

I'm finally sharing part three of my summer trip to the West Coast!  After spending four days in San Francisco, we spent a full day driving up the beautiful coast, through the Redwoods (literally, through them!) to Portland, Oregon. We stayed the night in a fun-looking vintage hotel. 

 The next morning, we went to Blue Star Donuts (one of our friends who is originally from Portland recommended it and said it definitely beats Voodoo Donuts).  We couldn't choose just one donut, so the four of us shared a buffet of them!  Our favorites were the buttermilk, lemon poppy, and blueberry bourbon basil.  After having donuts, we visited the International Rose Test Garden, which is the home of over 7,000 roses.  This rose garden was set up during World War I to preserve the species of European roses that might have been decimated by the bombings.  It was beautiful and smelled heavenly.  Also, did you know that Portland is actually known as the City of Roses? 

 After visiting the International Rose Test Garden, we decided to get a more substantial breakfast at the Woodsman Tavern, followed by coffee next door at the famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters.  We then visited Powell's City of Books.  This is an independent new & used bookstore that takes up an entire city block!  Its so big inside that you need a map to find your way around.  Lastly, we got flights of ice cream at Salt & Straw, which is everything I dreamed it to be!  The flavors we got were: goat cheese marionberry habanero, strawberry with cilantro lime cheesecake, summer cucumber & raspberry sorbet, and Stumptown coffee & burnside bourbon.  

Califriendcation Part 2: San Francisco Continued

While we were in San Francisco, we decided to drive outside of town to visit Beringer Vineyards in Napa Valley!  It was such a neat experience and we learned so much!  On the drive back we stopped at Hawk Hill to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Once we got to the top of Hawk Hill, the fog was too thick to be able to see the bridge, but it was very pretty so we explored the peak for a while, found Battery 129, and then drove back down the hill in time for the fog to clear enough to give us a view of the Golden Gate after all.  This is one of the main reasons I wanted to visit San Francisco - it was just as beautiful as I thought it would be.

Last, but definitely not least, I wanted to show some of the photos I took in China Town!  China Town was bursting with color.  We stopped by one of the many tea shops for a tea tasting.  We also stumbled upon Jack Kerouac Alley right outside of China Town!

Califriendcation Part 1: San Francisco

As promised, here are some photos of my recent trip to the west coast!  There are far too many photos to fit into one post, so I will be splitting the photos up into separate entries. 

The photos below are from our first morning in San Francisco when we visited the Ferry Building, which is both a terminal for ferries and a marketplace.  One of my friends that lives near San Francisco told me that going to Blue Bottle Coffee for their New Orleans Iced Coffee was a must.  Since Jeremy and I love (and can't live without!) coffee, we made it the first stop.  We also perused some of the other shops like Heath Ceramics and Stonehouse Olive Oil.  

We walked everywhere while we were in San Francisco, which gave us some really unique views of the city.  I love being on vacation and not feeling rushed to get somewhere.  We took as much time as we wanted to wander through used bookstores, record stores and other shops to rummage through interesting things.  We also stopped for baked treats at the famous Tartine Bakery!