**This post was updated April 12th, 2026** If you’re planning your first trip to Portland and looking for the best restaurants, you’re in the right place. It’s very easy to waste meals here if you’re not careful; there are so many restaurants, food carts, coffee shops, brunch spots, and bakeries that narrowing it down can…
Camping in Oregon sounds magical right up until you are pitching a tent in the rain, your socks are damp, your hair has given up, and you are questioning every choice that led you to this muddy patch of earth. That is exactly why I love camping yurts in Oregon. After staying in Oregon yurts…
**This post was updated June 5, 2026** If you’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest long enough, you start to appreciate the places that feel like a real getaway without requiring a packed suitcase, a five-page itinerary, or a spiritual commitment to I-5 traffic. That’s exactly why I loved spending a day on Vashon Island. As…
The Pacific Northwest looks deceptively “doable” on a map. Like… surely you can knock out Seattle, Olympic National Park, Portland, the Oregon Coast, and a quick detour to Crater Lake in one week, right? And then reality shows up wearing a rain jacket and holding a ferry schedule. Between mountain passes, microclimates, winding coastal highways,…
As a kid, my desert imagination was basically a Sahara screensaver: endless dunes, heat-haze mirages, and a sky so blue it looked aggressive. If there were camels and pyramids, even better. Deserts felt far away—exotic, overseas, and definitely made of sand. Then I grew up and realized the American West has deserts too… and most…
Looking for the best coffee places in Portland? You’re in the right spot — and this isn’t one of those copy-paste lists that names the “popular” cafés and calls it a day. I’m a Portland local and genuinely coffee-obsessed (as in: I judge a place by the cappuccino texture, the espresso balance, and whether the…
