It's safe to say mini-getaways are probably my favorite way to travel. I mean, who doesn't love a short road trip, and BOOM you are somewhere completely new and different from where you live. Spoken from a true homebody, getting me to leave my house takes tearing me away from the doorframe kicking and screaming. I'd rather be in my comforts but if there's one thing the past couple of years taught me is to get out there and
do the things and live your life.
So here we go- husband, and two dogs in tow and this is what I did, ate and wore on our trip to Portland, Oregon.
Dress by Free People, thrifted
The first thing on the agenda was check-in to our Air B&B. We stayed at a place called The Tuscan Villa. If I can ever overcome my incredible fear of flying overseas, I hope to one day see Italy- it's on the bucket. For now, a rando Tuscan-themed Villa in Portland's Mt. Tabor neighborhood will have to suffice. I was actually quite excited about just hanging out there all weekend. I imagined reading by the fountain at the bistro tables in the morning with coffee and could care less if we did anything else. I'd almost prefer to just hang at the hotel, maybe go for a few walks and eat like a Queen. If I could find a place with an on-site spa and bistro, I'd be in my idea of the perfect vacation. This is why I think remote island-style trips are right up my alley. I don't need a party, I don't go to bars, but give me a coffee and my laptop to write a blog from my suite with ocean views and I'm happy as a clam.
Anyway back to the Villa. It's a unique building reminiscent of a lavish old mansion transformed into a hotel, so there are multiple rooms throughout the property. There's a koi pond, bamboo forest, and banana palms everywhere. Even though our window faced the busy street, it was far away enough that we didn't hear it at all, and at night the walls are so insulated as if the place was made of stones as old as castle's- we couldn't hear a thing outside of our room. At one point I was walking back toward the room and my dogs could see me through the door, they were barking their heads off but I couldn't even hear them. Impressive.
We were in a neighborhood within walking distance of coffee, bakeries, and a few shops. The houses nearby offered a peaceful walkable area for us to take our two pups to admire all the beautiful old homes and garden features. That is my true happy place, our dogs getting their wiggles out and admiring how well other people maintain their yards.
Both mornings, we walked to a coffee shop. The first one was Fressen which had some amazing baked goods. My husband hated his sandwich though and rightfully so, the ham was incredibly marbled and fatty...BIG ick.
I got the veggie quiche (which was delicious) and a regular drip coffee as well as the Nutella roll, also absolutely delish.
The highlight of the trip for me, was while my dude was getting tattooed I went thrifting.
I went to the Arc Thriftway which was just about a mile and a half from where we were and a pleasant walk through nooks of mid-century homes and craftsmens. I could walk through beautiful neighborhoods all day. I love to feel the energy from the joy people put into their homesteads- how they decorate, what their yard looks like, wafts of the gardens, sometimes you can even smell them cooking dinner or the clank of doing dishes. It gives me butterfly feels.
This particular thrift store is a non-profit helping people with disabilities and offers prices at a flat rate i.e. shirts $4, dresses $7, and so forth. It makes shopping so much easier when it's like that, my favorite kind of thrifting and I love to support their cause.
I found this forward-backward linen dress shirt there, and it's honestly my favorite piece of clothing I think I've ever thrifted. If this doesn't say "Seanna" I don't know what does. It's weird, it's kind of cool, it's luxurious- eh-hem ME.
It still had the tags and the label says 100% linen which just solidified my confidence in identifying good fabrics based on quick digging and feel. I'm keeping this gem for myself, it's meant to be. If you want to see the rest of the items I scored at Arc, head over to my Youtube for the video of this trip and a few will end up for sale on my webshop!
Perhaps because it's classified as "vintage" Wink did not show up on my search for thrift in this area so I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this store on my walk back. It's one of the most eye-candy, jaw-dropping, full of treasures Vintage boutiques I've ever seen. They had such a beautifully decorated store, I was actually on sensory overload when I walked in. If I was able to, I'd buy it all.
I hope to be back soon with more cash in hand to spend here. It puts my vintage to shame and lit a fire under my ass to stock the store with more. I will say it put into perspective what I want for my store's aesthetic. I realize I'm going for a bohemian minimalist look for my store so the clothes I look for to stock, will reflect that.
I just need to stay on the track I've naturally been going down. Keep up the ruffles, keep searching for the flowy maxi-dresses, the linens, the fine cottons and fabrics...this is Paper Dolls Beautique.
Witchy farm woman frolics in wheat fields, that's it, that's the idea.
Thrifted dress, brand unknown, Sunglasses Dior/The RealReal, shoes Rebecca Minkoff
We had the pleasure of walking around Mt. Tabor a couple of times on our trip, it was less than a mile and spans such a huge part of the neighborhood you can split up the sections to visit if you so desire, and that's what we did.
We got to see the reservoirs and the epic views of downtown Portland this area provides. It took me moving from Portland to Seattle, to come back as a "visitor" to actually Google the story behind Mt. Tabor. It's a 300,000-year-old dormant volcanic cinder field turned water source for city water. I was yesterday years old when I learned that.
The only things I'd say we'd do differently with this trip would be that we missed a couple of amazing food spots that I wanted to try, one of those being Proud Mary's, the place with the most insane-looking avocado toast I've ever seen. We also never made it to the next thrift store, somehow our GPS spun us off target when heading there and we ended up back on the interstate. When we saw signs saying "Seattle this way" we took it as a literal sign to just go home
And to that, we tipped our hats and did.
The goal here isn't to highlight my anxiety but lately, especially in this sobriety journey (I hit 10 months today!), I am no longer hiding behind a buzz and am having to face my anxiety head-on. It is becoming the forefront of my journey at the moment. It's sitting there, right in front of me, to figure out. My choice to speak about it more isn't to exploit anxiousness or poke fun, it's to put it out there so it can no longer hide. I'm taking the power back when I get to speak about how it affects me in so many ways, including something as simple as traveling. It's something that takes a lot of work to get through- panic attacks, phobias, fear of things most people would consider "normal activities". Going on a "simple trip" for me is moment after moment of having to take deep breaths, meditation, down-time, and considering how too many things planned might send me into complete exhaustion. I'm learning to say yes to more opportunities while establishing my own healthy limits.
And that's ok to do-
XoXo
Seanna
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