Greetings from Portland, OR, AKA Rip City AKA Stumptown AKA City of Roses AKA 🚴🚴🚴🚴! A much anticipated cross-country vacation has finally arrived and I am here with my mom where the weather is fine and the biking is fierce. Here is a sneak peak of our first stop of the trip (surprise, surprise…)

  
Blue Star Donuts is yet another TV-bucket-wish-list location that my mom and I spotted when watching an episode of Unique Sweets. Though our list of things to do is not bare, and includes beautiful things that Portland has to offer besides food, this place just happened to make it to the top of our list today – and for good reason. I think we made some excellent choices at the shop, where they were friendly and fast, and one of the dough-pros let me take his photo with a huge mound of delicious brioche-ness (more on that to come).

  
In the meantime, here’s a sample of the city from the largest independently owned bookstore in the country:

  

Stay tuned for a full account of the trip. Any recos? Feel free to share them below!