After a short 10 hours at home following my weekend trip to Rome, GA with the kids, I was at the airport heading to Portland, OR. To say I was a little tired was an understatement. Sitting in the blazing sun at a tennis tournament all weekend will seriously drain the life out of you. But when you have a job to do, you suck it up, get up early, and head to the airport!
This trip to Portland was to attend the MESC Conference, which is a conference dedicated to the Medicaid and government healthcare industry. The company I work for sponsors the event each year, and I had the pleasure of managing our conference presence this year. In addition to the standard booth presence at the conference, we try to add additional events for our clients and employees to participate in. This year I planned two great events…a 5k walk/run through Portland for our employees Sunday night and a community service project benefiting the kids in Oregon’s foster care program Tuesday night. Two events I am very passionate about!
The 5k was a little rough coming off a busy weekend and a cross-country flight, but just 3 hours after landing in Portland, I met up with 8 of my coworkers for our walk. One of my dear friends and coworkers who lives in Portland plotted out an awesome route that took us by several of Portland’s must see points of interest. We started in front of the AC Hotel, which is my FAVORITE hotel in Portland! Not only is the AC Hotel a Marriott property, it’s located in a great part of the city that is convenient to tons of restaurants, points of interest, and the MAX light rail transportation. One of my favorite things about this hotel is the Hydration Station located on every floor. You can get glasses and decanters of ice water to take to your room or fill up your water bottles before heading out for the day. Such a cool and unexpected extra amenity to offer! Oh, and their morning coffee shop, called “The Slab” makes the best hot chocolate! I am seriously addicted to it. It reminds me to the hot chocolate I got in the coffee shops in Switzerland. I didn’t think I would ever find anything close to theirs.
Sorry, I digress…back to the 5k. So we started at the AC Hotel and made our way towards the university. We passed several parks and saw a statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback before turning towards Pioneer Courthouse Square. This one block square is home to several community events and festivals. On this day in particular, there was an Indian Festival taking place. Several of my coworkers explained that August 15th is India’s Independence Day and that was the reason for the festival. It was such a great experience! There were tons of tents and booths set up to sell Indian clothing and food. Plus there was a group of young Indian girls performing in a traditional dance performance in the middle of the square. I wish we had been able to stay longer, but we needed to continue along our walk.
We continued on to Chinatown and two of my favorite Portland landmarks….the “Keep Portland Weird” sign and Voodoo Doughnuts! They are located just across the street from each other and are a must see on any trip to Portland. Just be prepared to wait in line at Voodoo Doughnuts and make sure you bring cash. They do not accept cards. From there we made our way to the riverfront and walked by the many fountains. As we neared the World Trade Center building, we found the most unique stop on our tour, Mills End Park. This park is literally located in the middle of a busy street. It is only about 3 feet in diameter and situated in the median of the street. It is officially registered as the smallest park in the country. Sometimes if you are lucky, they will even have small festivals or protests going on in the park. People will make small tents and picket signs to place in the park. It always makes me laugh to visit this tiny park!
Let’s talk about Portland food for a minute. I won’t bore you with every meal I ate, but there are several that should definitely be noted. Mamma Mia’s is an old authentic Italian restaurant that has the best lasagna I have ever eaten. It cost about $20 for the lasagna, but it was so big I couldn’t even eat it all. “Q” is a nice little restaurant just around the corner from the AC Hotel that serves bacon wrapped dates. I did not expect to like them as much as I did, but they were delicious! Finally, Nel Centro is a cool little restaurant at the corner of 6th and Clay. They have a great patio area for dining al fresco. My friend insisted we had to go there to try this new pizza they have. It was about the size of a large dinner plate, so the perfect size for two people to share. This pizza had prosciutto, Brie cheese, and fresh sliced peaches. Oh my goodness, it was incredible! (They really had me at Brie.) Last on the list is the Departure’s Restaurant & Lounge at the top of the Nine’s Hotel. This rooftop bar has spectacular views of the city and their food is delicious! We stopped by for a party where they served yummy sushi and freshly grilled steak and shrimp kabobs…that the chefs actually grilled out on the patio.
So another really great thing about Portland is their mass transit system called Tri-Met. It includes the MAX light rail, buses, and trolleys. You should definitely look into using it if you are staying downtown. For just $5, you can buy an all day pass to ride the MAX and the buses. Starting at the airport, you can find the MAX just 100 yards or so from Baggage Claim. Grab your bags, buy your ticket, and hop onboard. It leaves every 15 minutes or so and takes you straight into downtown. I have used it many times on various trips and always found it to be clean, safe, and reliable….even as a woman traveling alone. However you should always use precautions and be aware of your surroundings!
Finally, my favorite thing about this particular trip was our client event Tuesday night. Our event was held at the AC Hotel and had a duel purpose as both a client appreciation event and a community service project. This was the first time we ever included the community service aspect into one of our client events and were a little worried about how it would go over. To the surprise of some (but not me!), it was a HUGE success!! It just goes to show you that people really do want to do something good for the community.
For this event, we partnered with a local charity called Embrace Oregon. This organization works in conjunction with the local Department of Human Services to help children transition in and out of the foster care program. They provide every child entering the program with a Welcome Box that contains toiletries, toys, art supplies, and snacks to help them transition into their new homes. During our event we worked with our clients to build 40 Welcome Boxes for the kids in addition to presenting Embrace Oregon with a donation check. It was such an amazing event, and we all left feeling good afterwards!
Even though my trip to Portland was only 3 days this time around, I think it’s safe to say that I made the most of every minute! If you get the chance, you should definitely head out west for a visit.
