Happy 1 year Anniversary Jilly and Jakey! We are currently enjoying the delicious voodoo donuts in our amazing hotel overlooking the most beautiful city I’ve been to…Portland, OR.

We had a really long day Friday as we were in the music studio until 2am and had an 8am flight…although we did finish our last song off of the new album so that is awesome! We should have our album pressed and ready to go in the next two weeks! The airport was pretty effortless excursion, and the flight was even less-so. Nothing of note other than the flight attendant making Jake do a shot of scotch before we land, since he is a veteran of the Marine Corps (semper fi!). Oh and did I mention it was only 10AM…not a bad start to the trip.

We got here about 1030a and of course…it was raining. Our first order of business was to hit up voodoo donuts…the place of our “official nuptial ceremony” (well actually the one closer to downtown, but still all the same). We got on the lite-rail and headed for downtown. We actually navigated the city without any issue, except that when we got there, the location had closed for renovations (and the other one was way across town). Oh I also forgot to mention that we were STARVING, since we hadn’t had anything to eat since 6am, so that did not help matters…and of course…it was still raining (though we did come prepared).

Because we couldn’t get our sugar fix, we decided to eat at an old favorite: The Original, which is a modern twist of classic diner food, and super-delicious. Thank god it was only 3 blocks from where we were, because we were getting desperate. After enjoying our yummy lunch, we walked around getting reacquainted with our favorite city. We discovered a gorgeous area right on the water front with beautiful views, boutique shopping and gourmet food (which is kind of the theme of our trip). We are going to be staying in this posh area next time we grace Portland with our presence. After a few hours of shopping, we checked into our hotel (which incidentally is the same hotel we stayed at our first time to Portland, the Hilton. The room was nothing special, but the view was gorgeous! We had the 19th floor overlooking the city and the mountains, so really, couldn’t ask for a better view. Because we were pretty much wrecked since we had barely slept in the past 24 hours, we needed emergency nappage, so that we could make it through the rest of the evening (as we had plans spanning until the early hours of the next morning).

We decided to eat at The Portland City Grill, which happens to be on the 30th floor of a really nice office building. It has 360 degree views of the entire city. Plus, the food is pretty darn awesome. We had sushi for appetizers, probably the best crab bisque ever, and shared duck (which was the greatest tasting thing I had ever had up to this point). Our booth was really cool since it was raised, and really big for only 2 people, we felt like we were in our own little bubble. Plus our waiter was really fun and flamboyant and awesome, which made the experience even more fun.

After our 2 hours of eating and enjoying ourselves, we went back to the hotel to rest up before our night of debauchery. At about 11pm our friend from Wizard Boots took us on a mini-bar crawl and then to the glorious Portland food carts (which are actually a pretty happening place at 2 in the morning!). Again, the food was off the hook. We had stone-fired pizza and some hand made french fries (which had over 20 different kinds of dipping sauce from classics to things like spicy curry). Then he chauffeured us back to our hotel, where we promptly passed out since we were exhausted.

Not a bad ending to our first day in Portland.

Read More › Day 2 Portland