Happy week nine, everyone! This past weekend was an adventurous trip to Portland. Although it wasn’t a spontaneous trip, it was a fun Saturday with the UO Hui ‘O Hawaii club. For me, it was about doing activities with friends outside of the college atmosphere. Plus, without stress from academics, it was super important to get some treat yourself time in.
We started the day at six in the morning, which by the way, was really rough. I am not a morning person, and being someone from California, freezing cold is 60 degrees. Considering it was about forty, I wanted to stay in bed with my warm blankets and comfortable pillows. Despite the weather, my roommate was waking up too for this trip. I also had an alarm that was set to play music from Spotify that represented all of my favorite songs to get me motivated and in the mood of waking up. Walking to our meet up area was definitely a wakeup call; it was super foggy and when waiting for the cars to drive us, we could see our breathe in the air so much so that we looked like dragons standing in a group.
When we arrive in Portland after a two-hour drive, we went straight to the Portland Saturday Market, which had booths that showcased a variety of things you could buy like bath salts, bags, artwork, and much more. They also sold food. Regardless of passing by the food trucks on a hungry stomach, a few of my friends wanted to get donuts for breakfast and to take cute pictures with them. So, we decided to walk up to VooDoo Donuts to get some luscious voodoo themed donuts. Most of my friends got ones that were covered in Oreos or cereal. I, as my basic self, got an old fashioned donut, which honestly was one of the most delicious donuts I had in a while. After that, we left to go a few blocks up and split into two groups: the people who were hungry for lunch and the people who wanted to go to the bookstore. Being a 24/7 foodie, I went with the group that wanted food; upon dozens of searches on Yelp and Google Maps, we found a sushi place called Sushi Ichiban. It was a hole-in-the-wall sushi restaurant that was really easy to spot since it was pink and the food is served mostly by round-table style. Meaning it had a mini conveyor belt train pulling plates of sushi and appetizers on a giant table. Food would come around and you would pick what you wanted off the tiny train carrying it. The food was super delicious and a really unique way to be presented. They even had a selection if you wanted specific types of sushi or noodle soups. I ordered the tuna roll, creamy scallop, and calamari on a stick.
After food, we needed to walk off some of the calories of our food babies, so we went to Powell’s Bookstore. It’s like the IKEA of book stores; they had different organized levels and the stacks of books were very aesthetically pleasing. We then all met back as a group at Wailua Shaved Ice. Given that many of the people in the club were from Hawaii, many of them were a little homesick from missing shaved ice back in Hawaii. Something about eating shaved ice made it feel lucky to taste Hawaii and their “home.” My roommate and I shared an Orange Dream cup of shaved ice that was honestly too pretty to eat. It had orange flavored shaved ice with a cloud-like coconut cream topped with some tangerine. It was super tasty, like sunshine in a bowl. Afterward, we made a stop to Uwajimaya Asian Market, which really made me miss home because of all the snacks they had that I always eat back home and many other Asian grocery items and delicacies. Of course, I had to get my favorite chips that I had been craving. They are Calbee Seaweed Chips in a yellow bag that I 100% recommend trying if you like seaweed as much as I do.
Since we passed by a Chick-Fil-A on the way to the market, we had to stop there for some chicken and fries before proceeding to our last stop, the Woodburn Outlets. Shopping is super fun when there are early bird black Friday sales. Especially since it’s getting colder and needed some clothes to prepare for winter term. I planned to buy a long sleeve shirt to layer for winter term. However, I had left my wallet in the car. I was bummed, but my roommate got me a Cinnabon. She definitely knows the way to make to smile, my stomach! At the end of the day, although I did not have my wallet, I would optimisctly say that at least I had not splurged on clothes and spent all my money shopping. On trips like these, when you have the opportunity to spend money on food and clothing, the so-called “Freshman 15” will definitely gain upon you. Nevertheless, I was grateful to spend a trip away from schoolwork by reminiscing memories of home, hanging out with friends and naturally…eating food!