I am never one to shy away from a bucket list or reading list of any sort or really.. anything numbered.
Food and Drink
180 Donuts. Their Instagram looks fabulous.
180 Xurros
Apizza Scholls – our fave pizza spot so far
Ava Gene’s
Aviary
Be “that guy” on a distillery tour
Beast
Blue Star Donuts. All I can say is “yaaaaaaas Queen” You so fancy.
Brewery Tour (or try drinking through all the Portland Breweries)
Castagna
Coco Donuts
Delicious Donuts
Do a bar hop
Do a food cart hop
Drink a flight of whiskey at Multnomah Whiskey Bar
Eat at a food cart
Eat Dirty Fries at Lardos
Eat ice cream at Salt and Straw
Eat Pigeon at Le Pigeon
Eat two dozen wings at Whiskey Soda Lounge while waiting for a table at Pok Pok… and drink about half a dozen whiskey sours.
Eat Voodoo Donuts at 2am
Farm Spirit
Hair of the Dog Brewing Co – Beer Advocate’s Top 50 American Breweries
Have a Spanish coffee at Huber’s
Have an after-hours shot of fernet
Heart Coffee (other local favorites: Good Coffee, Barista, Water Ave, Coava)
McMenamins Bagdad Theater (BrewPub Movie Theater)
Multnomah Whiskey Library (only Mondays are open to the public)
Nong’s Khao Man Gai’s Chicken and Rice (regular spot)
Donut World
Old Dirty Bastard at Voodoo Donuts.
Olympia Provisions (Portlandia was filmed here)
Pancakes at slappy cakes
Park Kitchen
PDX Sliders
Pine State Biscuit
Pip’s Original – get the flight of chai tea.
Pok Pok (want to try making their famous wings at home?)
Portland Distillery Row Tour (get the passport!)
Screen Door (brunch: chicken + waffles are good, but the praline bacon – mouthwatering!)
Smith Teamaker Tea Flights
Stumptown Coffee Roasters Flagship Cafe (SE 45th and Division
Tacos at Por Que no
Tasty n Alder or Tasty n Sons
Toro Bravo
try worlds largest pancake
Visit Detention Liquor
Activities
Get caught in a downpour on your way home.
Float the river
Try worlds hottest fritter.
Swim in the Willamette
Swim across the Willamette
Hike to the top of Multnomah Falls
Hike to the bridge at the falls
Go skiing in the summer
Watch the sunset from the Bluffs
Get lost in the corn maze on Sauvie Island
Pick berries at sauvie island
Wake up hoarse from all the yelling and screaming at a concert.
Understand, conceptually, how to make beer
Complain about gentrification
See the Vaux’s Swifts fly into Chapman School
See the West Coast’s oldest drag queen
Have your “art” featured in a coffee shop
See a local comedy show
Judge the people in line at Voodoo Doughnut
Get a tattoo.
Watch porn with a crowdSure, Hump! Film Festival.
Watch the Naked Bike Ride
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
Read an entire book on the floor of Powell’s
Smell the roses At the International Rose Test Garden.
Poke around the Shanghai Tunnels
Buy pot. Legally.
Highland Stillhouse
Visit the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Visit the largest park in city limits: Forest Park
Visit the ZooLights
Visit Sunshine lights thing
Visit the street of decorations
Watch the sunrise from Mount Tabor
Visit Pittock Mansion
Visit the Japanese Garden
Starks Vacuum Museum
Go to a brewpub Movie Theater
See the smallest park in the world
Take a picture under the keep Portland weird sign
Visit the Witches castle in Forest Park
See the Jetliner in the woods
Visit the Towering Redwood Grove
Take a photo in the photo booth at Ace Hotel
Get a picture of the Paul Bunyan Statue
Visit the set of the Goonies House
Get Pictures of Castle Rock
Ride the Aerial Tram
High five the Unipiper
The Ace Hotel – take your photo at the photo booth
The Belmont Goats
Visit the Freakybutttrue Peculiarium
Tiki Putt
The Grotto (Christmas lights during the holidays)
International Rose Test Garden, Washington Park (best month: generally June)
Lan Su Chinese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden, Washington Park
Mill Ends Park (World’s Smallest Park)
McMenamins Kennedy School – Wach a movie or stay overnight
Oregon Zoo, Washington Park
The Shanghai Tunnels of Portland
MUSEUMS + MEMORIALS
First Thursday Art Walk (or Last Thursday on Alberta Art Walk)
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (on the Vancouver WA side)
The Hat Museum
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
Portland’s Children Museum, Washington Park
Portland Art Museum
URBAN PARKS + OUTDOORS
Cathedral Park (St John’s Bridge)
Council Crest Park
Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden
Eastbank Esplanade
Elk Rock Garden
Hoyt Arboretum, Washington Park
Ira Keller Forecourt Fountain Park
Mount Tabor Park
Portland Rock Gym – try indoor rock climbing or join one of their outdoor field trips
Rent a bike – the easiest ones to find all over are Biketown.
Rocky Butte Park – Joseph Wood Hill Park at Rocky Butte is the highest point
Skidmore Bluffs (Mocks Crest Park)
Tom McCall Waterfront Park (best during cherry blossom season)
SHOPPING
Pick Fruit at Columbia Farms (or Hood River Fruit Loop Day Trip)
Portland Farmers Market at PSU (locals)
Portland Saturday Market (more touristy)
New Seasons Market – Like Whole Foods but on a new level.
EVENTS + SHOWS + VENUES
Aladdin Theater
Dive-in Movies
Evergreen Curling Club – Take curling lessons
Festival of Balloons in Tigard
McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
The Naked Bike Ride (June)
Oregon Brewers Festival (next one: July 26–30, 2017)
PDX Adult Soap Box Derby (Aug)
Portland Meadows (horse racing)
Providence Park – Watch a Timbers Game
Rose City Rollers
Rose Quarter Moda Center
Top Down: Rooftop Cinema
Excursions
Clackamas River Trail (13 miles / 25 mins)
Oregon Lavender Farm (21 miles / 34 mins away)
Oneonta Gorge Hike (30 miles / 35 mins away)
Angel’s Rest Hike (26.7 miles / 25 mins away)
Multnomah Falls (30 miles / 35 mins away)
Latourell Falls (30 miles / 35 mins away)
Elowah Falls Hike (36 miles / 36 mins away)
Horsetail Falls and Ponytail Falls (36 miles / 38 mins away)
Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (36 miles / 45 mins away, next festival: Mar 23-Apr 29, 2018)
Wahclella Falls (39 miles / 40 mins away)
Silver Falls State Park Trail of Ten Falls (56 miles / 1 hr 10 mins away)
Trillium Lake (59.6 mi / 1 hr 19 min away)
Rowena Crest (75 mi / 1 hr 20 min away)
Cannon Beach (80 mi / 1 hr 30 min away)
Kelly’s Brighton Marina, Oregon Coast Crabbing (89 mi / 1 h 51 min away)
Timberline Lodge + Timberline Trail (62 mi / 1 hr 25 min away) – Also, best time to summit Hood: May – Mid-July
Excerpts of the above list were taken from a few different sources and collated into something that works for me. All credit given to the original authors:
https://www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/portland/portland-bucket-list
https://localadventurer.com/things-to-do-in-portland-oregon-bucket-list/
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