Portland, Oregon is only a few hours drive from where I was in Washington. I decided to meet up with some friends in Portland one weekend. It was pretty much everything I expected it to be – interesting, hippie, and weird. I would definitely rather live in Seattle any day over Portland, but it was still a fun experience.
Right off the highway, we got to see the Multnomah Falls. It was a beautiful site with yellow and orange fall colored leaves surrounding it. As we got closer, mists from the falls quickly started covering us. We hiked up a bit to the bridge which brought us closer to the sounds of greatness.
I have to admit that my favorite part of Portland were the “Powell Book Stores”. It’s incredible how vast a book store can be, with several editions of all types of books, both used and new. It is pretty much a nice book exchange program, where you can sell your lightly used books, and easily purchase other used or new books. There is a book I have been eyeing at Barnes and Nobles that costs almost $20. I bought it at Powell’s Book Store for less than $5. I wish I could have taken this book store with me back home.
We stopped over to the Portland Art Museum which I truly enjoyed. They have a good variety of cultural art such as Native American, Asian, European, and American works. My favorite item was a large Native American canoe that had multiple little canoes in it.
Food-wise, we lucked out one morning at Voodoo Donuts. We only had to wait in line for 10 minutes compared to the usual 1 hour or so wait. I tried two different donuts that were good, especially the oreo/cookies and cream one. We bought a dozen donuts in between the 3 of us because it seemed like the right thing to do. Yet, we didn’t even finish half of it.
Overall, I had such a fun weekend! Would I drive through those curvy roads at night on my way to Portland ever again? Probably not. Oregon is a great option for nurse practitioners looking to begin locum tenens work. There is always a need in Oregon and it’s a pretty cool place.
