Reverend Nat's

Both Nancy and I enjoy visiting Portland, Oregon. In December, just before Christmas, we took a non-stop flight from Fresno to Portland. It was a mid-morning flight and arrived in Portland in the early afternoon. Since we have visited Portland before, we knew that there was no reason to rent a car. You can go almost anywhere in Portland using their public transportation system, the Tri-Met. We usually stay in a hotel outside of the downtown area and use the Tri-Met to travel between our hotel and the downtown area.

One of our favorite activities while in Portland is to shop at all the different sporting goods stores. Columbia has their flagship store in Portland and we usually vacation in Portland when they are having their end of season sale, but not this year. It is the holiday season and very little was on sale. Mountain Hardware, The North Face, Patagonia and REI all have stores in Portland. We ended up spending at least one day of our vacation going window shopping. We added some items to our Christmas list, hoping Santa would know that we had been good most of the year.

Portland is also known for their craft beer breweries. Some of the best craft beers that we have tasted were from the Portland area. We also enjoy having a meal at some of these brewpubs. Since I am gluten intolerant, I no longer drink beer unless it is gluten-free. Instead, I have developed a taste for hard cider and Portland is known for their hard cider houses. One of my favorites is Reverend Nat’s and I sure enjoy just sitting down and enjoying a glass of good hard apple cider. The photo on this blog post was taken at Reverend Nat’s.

Our trip to Portland was very enjoyable. We usually visit Portland in the summer, but this time we chose the early winter. The weather was nice, not too cold and not too rainy. It was good to get away, even if it was just for a couple of days.