I really love traveling — being able to see how other people live and understand their perspective. The views and food are great too. Last week I went to visit one of my wonderful friends Sam who lives in Portland, OR and works at Adidas [YAS I had to plug because she hooked this girl up ; )]. We met through CHAARG when we were both selected to be Ambassadors at the same time and we texted, talked nonstop through the process and saw each other a few times each year if we were lucky. We’ve managed to stay friends for the last four years and she is honestly one of the kindest and funniest people I know.
Here I’ve collected the highlights of the trip, so read on to get some ideas if you ever visit Portland!
One of the main goals of this trip was to try lots of coffee. We started with a trip to a local coffee shop called Arrow and I ordered a cappucino – it was SO GOOD. Then we went to Blue Star to get donuts and I got a Pear Fritter (also great!). Sam is allergic to dairy so she tried two different flavors.
Sam’s tradition is to eat a PB&J when she gets to the summit of a hike, so we packed PB&J’s for lunch and were on our way to our first hike of the day – a quick one in Mosier, Oregon. The drive was incredible and the hike had some amazing views.
We managed to meet a furry friend along the way!
After Sam realized that hike was shorter than she anticipated, she decided to take us to Dog Mountain – on the Washington State side so we had a view of Portland. Though it was a little longer (and rainier!) than we expected, the views were breathtaking. Literally still can’t believe them.
Sammi and I went to Jam on Hawthorne late in the morning for brunch and we both happened to order the same thing: Eggs Benedict + Bacon + Toast and we shared a chai pancake (didn’t know those were a thing, but here we are). Of course it was all delicious. 
I spent the majority of the afternoon being a tourist at the Adidas corporate campus and then the employee store. Everyone was SO nice and everything in the store was 50% off, so I got 1 pair of shoes, 1 lightweight running jacket and 1 tank top. We also had the opportunity to go to the Columbia employee store and I got a pair of Sorel rain boots 50% off! 
We stopped for a late lunch at Moberi and enjoyed acai.
We started the morning with a bagel and headed out to Silver Falls State Park to hike around for the late morning/early afternoon. It was a different type of hike – this was kind of a giant loop with 12 different waterfalls!
Then we went to get acai at another place. At night we went to the Portland Night Market and ate korean tacos, fries and shared a pina colada. We ended the night at Radio Room, which is a pretty hipster bar but it was really fun! I didn’t get pictures of every single thing we did or saw and it was really nice to just enjoy the moment without having to photograph it all.
We started the morning with a quick run to Pip’s Original Donuts + Chai — the line was so long, but the donuts were delicious. They were tiny, so we each chose four — I chose 2 cinnamon sugar, 1 nutella & 1 honey as my flavors. (Also forgot to take a pic — oops).
Shortly after, I went to the 10am church service for a church I have been following for a few months now: Bridgetown Church. It just so happened that Sam lived about 15 mins away and was nice enough to drop me off + pick me up. The lead pastor’s name is John Mark Comer and I’ve read a few of his books — Loveology + Garden City (HIGHLY recommend both!).
Then we went to Sauvie Island, which is an island along the Columbia River. It wasn’t too far from Sam’s apartment in Portland, which was super cool. We relaxed all day – we really needed it from all the movement we had done the past few days. Then we enjoyed homemade kabobs with Sam’s mom and hung out the rest of the night.
On the topic of swimming/being outdoors in a bathing suit, I think it’s important to note that it’s very possible that our expectations of how we feel or look influence how we actually feel. As someone who has been open with her struggles of body image / eating disorder, I’m not going to lie and say I never have a negative thought come up in my mind. That’s just not true, and you (99% of the time) shouldn’t expect those thoughts to never surface. But what you can do is reframe how you process those thoughts and evaluate trade-offs.
Thought –> “I expect to look ugly in my bathing suit because I did (or didn’t do) X, Y, or Z this week.”
Reframe –> “My body is not the most important thing about me and it’s likely that I’m being irrational about this situation.”
Trade-off –> I can either let this thought take over all my mental energy & ruin my experience OR I can decide that while I may not always LOVE my body, I can engage in conversation, enjoy the weather and company and recognize that my friendships and experiences are more important than my body size or shape.
For my last day we went back to Arrow because we loved it so much + got coffee and an everything bagel with avocado + egg (that I forgot to take a picture of) and drove to the coast! It was BEAUTIFUL. We stopped at a few places along the way and snapped lots of pics. We also took a long walk around the beach town right next to the coast. When we got back to Portland, we stopped at Stella Tacos and they were great. Ended with ice cream!
Along the way, I asked several people I met to describe Portland in three words. These were the answers:
Overly friendly / weird
Trendy / nice / hungry
Evergreen / bridges / trendsetting
Green / rain / weird
Passive aggressive / environmentally friendly / foodie
Bikes / beer / babes
Weird / wet / tasty
I came to realize all of these descriptions were pretty accurate in describing the culture and people in Portland. Overall, it was one of the most fun trips I’ve been on and I’m so grateful for my friendship with Sammi <3