Oregon

In this travel video tour of Portland, Oregon, I travel to Portland, one of the most unique cities in the United States. I started my trip off by hopping off a plane and then immediately hopping onto a bus. But not just any bus, a bus operated by Brewvana Brewery Tours, the mostly women-run craft beer brewery tour company. Portland, or know as Beervana to some, is home to 55 breweries within its borders, and is truly a beer-lover's paradise. On my tour we made stops at Rogue Ales & Spirits, Laurelwood Pubic House & Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewery and Sidecar Bar, where I had the chance to sit down over a pint with the founder and owner of Brewvana, Ashley Rose Salvitti. While in Portland, I stayed at the Tiny House Hotel, a hotel made up of, you guessed it, tiny houses. In the next portion of my video guide I give a tour of my "crib" to show what it's like to live and stay in a tiny house. Then, in an effort to get a chance to experience the famed brunch scene in Portland, I stopped in at The Tin Shed Garden Cafe, located down the street from where I was staying in the New Alberta Arts District. In the interest of learning more about food, I headed to the downtown location of the Portland Farmers Market, located in a beautiful stretch of downtown Portland. Here, I got a tour of the grounds with Mona Johnson, then had the opportunity to meet up with some of the vendors, including Matt Choi of Choi's Kimchi Company, and famed chef and artisanal pickle impresario, David Barber of Picklopolis and Bingo! Sandwiches. In need of a little peace and serenity, I then visited the Lan Su Chinese Garden, a peaceful and beautiful oasis in an otherwise busy and hectic part of downtown. When visiting Portland, there's no reason to spend all your time in the city, especially with so much to do outside the city limits. The next day I took a road trip with local Matthew Domingo to explore the Columbia River Gorge and the numerous trails and waterfalls just off the road you can check out. Then, to wrap things up, we stopped in at Hood River Organic near the riverside town of Hood River, an organic orchard and farm run by East Coast ex-pat Dan Thall, who gave us a tour of his land. Once the day ended we then headed out to happy hour at Solera Brewery in the imposing shadow of Mount Hood and then into town for a dinner featuring mushroom pizza with mushrooms Dan had grown and recently delivered to the restaurant.

• published: 26 Jun 2014
• views: 236861