One to Portland

What!? MacKensie came to Portland this weekend?

It's true, it happened. My long time blogger crush sent me a text last week wanting to know when was a good time to visit. I started to look out into September for weekends that made sense, but then said "this weekend is great, but it's probably not the cheapest way." Looking at flights, I was right - but when we figured out how much it would cost to drive AND that miss Ziggy could come along we planned a three day whirlwind trip of all the Portland fun.

I wanted to show miss Mary Mack just enough to make her love it, but hold back that much more to make her want to come back and/or consider moving here. She's been flirting with the idea for a little while now. 

The just enough meant hipster bars, the best sushi in town, voodoo donuts, the accidental walk-in to a strip club because we needed to use the restroom - then the non-accidental stay at the strip club because... Portland. 

The things I kept from her were my paleo cooking skills, my love for lazy Saturdays at cute coffee shops, the hottest brunch spots on the weekend with fried okra and of course the music scene. A girl has to keep some cards up her sleeve. 

Saturday evening Brooke was finally able to squeeze us into her busy schedule (kidding, this girl is busy and killing it right now) so we went out to dinner with her college friends and made a mess of some tasty thai food and craft beers. 

Sunday we slept in like champions and rolled out of bed around noon to get our butts up a mountain. We declared that Sunday was "Ziggy Day!" so we let the little bundle of cuddles lead us all the way up Angel's Rest (2.3 miles and 1500 feet elevation). 

We reached the breathtaking views in under and hour and spent our time at the top overlooking the Columbia river below while Ziggy searched for some shade in the shrubs. 

We made it down the mountain, cleaned up and met Brooke & Brad for dinner in the cutest part of town, NW 23rd. After some sangria, grilled stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos and way too much good food, we lined up for our "blogger bestie" photo and turned it to black/white to mask our sleepy weary weekend faces.

To finish off the evening we went home to get Ziggy and took her to the Lucky Lab - a bar where furry friends are welcome and encouraged! We had to finish off Ziggy day with a bang! She thanked us by prancing around on the tabletop to show us that she could get wild and crazy too. I think she liked her visit. 

Sadly, MacKensie drove all the way back to San Francisco (close to 700 miles) and I'm sitting here hoping and wishing that she and Ziggy come home to Portland soon <3

...Or at least come back and try a donut with some bacon on it!