Portland, OR, alone?
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Anonymous
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A friend is getting married in Portland, OR, in September. Mainly for cost reasons, but also the fact that we'd need either overnight babysitting here or stranger babysitting there (neither good possibilities in our situation), I'm not taking DH or DS, who will be almost 2 years. We could technically do lap flying, but for that distance and for safety, I don't like that idea. We could probably manage without a car seat there, though. DS's name wasn't on the invitation, plus the wedding is at 6:30. DH doesn't mind if I go alone since he is more my friend than DH's. I guess we could all go and DH could sit out the wedding, but that seems kind of sad to me, too.
I'm worried that a, I will only know my friend and his (probably pre-occupied) immediate family, since all his family/friends are on the East Coast and b, I'll feel lame traveling around the city by myself. I've traveled alone before, but it was always somewhere I know people or had a professional agenda. I'm still on the fence about whether I should even go. It's also a busy time at work, but I think I can work around that if I decide it's worth it. Would I, an extrovert, enjoy touring around Portland for a day or two by myself? I've always wanted to visit, but didn't really envision it being a solo trip. |
Anonymous
| It's been a few years since I've been there, but I think Portland is a great city to visit, alone or otherwise. It's a very manageable size, walkable, cool things to see. I'd do it in a heartbeat. |
Anonymous
| Yes! I was in Portland for about a week by myself, not for vacation, and loved it. It's very easy to get around the city with its excellent public transportation system, which was free in the downtown section when I was there. I also walked a lot. I'm trying to remember what I did: Powell's bookstore (a bookstore? yes, not many are like Powell's!), Voodoo Doughnuts (eh, not sure I'd make the trek there), the aerial commuter tram, the rose garden. I'll post back if I think of any others. |
Anonymous
| PP again. Here are some more ideas: http://www.travelportland.com/article/top-sights-in-portland/ |
Anonymous
| Still me. Another alternative would be to all go and then have DH sit out the wedding or, if possible, switch off during the reception. It's too bad it's such a long flight away. |
Anonymous
Thanks! Ugh...just makes me want to take DH and DS along.  If we weren't already doing two trips (one in August, one in October, both already planned and with others), I'd probably take them.
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Anonymous
That's a thought, too. Maybe if we can get a hotel room close enough to the reception site. I think they're doing shuttles to the reception from the hotel, so I'm not sure it's close enough to do that. |
Anonymous
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Yes. Go by yourself. Tell your friend getting married that you're coming alone and if he has anyone else who'll be in PDX for a few days that you'd be happy to have someone to explore the city with.
You can rent a bike (my friend Todd has a bike shop there called Clever Cycles and you can rent from his store) and go all around exploring. Acropolis is really good. Check out VooDoo Donuts. Also, people are really warm and friendly there, so you'll get chatted up everywhere you go. |
Anonymous
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My inlaws live in Portland we took out then just over 2 year old twin boys to Portland for Thanksgiving week last year and they LOVED it.
I would recommend that all three of you go. There are plenty of things that DH and DS to do even on the day of the wedding and then you can spend time together. Some of the things we love: - Powell's bookstore is fantastic (the main one). Also, Wednesday afternoons they have a book reading that's fun. My kids LOVE books (punishment for them is not having books read to them throughout the day). - If you have rental car, take a drive out to Multnomah Falls and/or other lookout spots in the Columbia River Gorge. Multnomah falls is about 30-45 minutes drive east of town and beautiful. And there are plenty of safe off-road paths to run along for the little guy. We didn't make it last year due to a busy schedule, but our kids love waterfalls, so we hope to get back out to take them to see Multnomah Falls. We took one day and drove out the Columbia River Gorge to Hood River (just over an hour from Portland), stopped by a farm where we got fresh homemade jam and picked some fresh fruit, had lunch and then drove back on the scenic route stopping to see the various scenic overlooks (several breathtaking views of the river gorge), waterfalls, and beautiful nature. (http://traveloregon.com/trip-ideas/scenic-byways/the-historic-columbia-river-highway/) - If you bring your son, Portland's Children's Museum is a lot of fun for the young ones. We spent about 2.5-3 hours there and they did NOT want to leave and go home for nap, but we had to. We did appease them by having lunch in the little cafe there and then letting them go back and play for 15 more minutes before going home. The worst part about this was trying to get them out of the building. - Portland Zoo is nice, but unfortunately right now, one of the attractions for our kids, the train, is not operating. They're rebuilding the zoo and track and it won't be open until November. - Visit the International Rose Garden or the Lan Su garden. My father's family is originally from SuZhou and I visited once when I was a teen and this really feels like a SuZhou garden. Lovely. - It's a little out of the way, but if you like Aquariums, Portland has a fantastic aquarium including places where they have plexiglass tunnels built under the big tanks and you can walk down looking at the marine life swimming around you. - If you're a beer drinker they have a ton of local micro-breweries and a number of good places where you can sample the Oregon brews. - Another day trip option is to go West out to Seaside. We loved visiting Seaside, had a great lunch out there, visited the little mall with the historic carousel (our kids loved that). There is also a little beach-side Aquarium where you can buy a little dish of sardines and feed seals. At first they didn't like it, but they LOVED watching the seals swim and jump for the fish. Just a few of the things that we've done with and without kids. - For you t |
Anonymous
| Portland is an extremely easy city to do (on your own or as a family). You would be fine either way. |
Anonymous
| I'll only add that the food truck scene is a lot of fun and so very delicious. If you can rent a car to get out of town (Mt Hood, Columbia Gorge), that would be perfect. If not, there is plenty in town to keep a person happy. |