When I found out Twiddle was heading to the northwest I knew I had to figure out how to get there! Two of my cousins live in the Seattle area and I haven't seen them since our wedding! Ryan and I were given the opportunity to stay at the Jupiter NEXT Hotel in Portland for two nights and experience all that the city has to offer - which is A LOT! I took a super early flight into Portland and, unfortunately, our day started off pretty hectic. We were supposed to rent a car, but the only credit cards I had were in Ryan's name so they wouldn't allow it! Why is renting a car harder than anything else in the world? I swear I ALWAYS have issues! Anyways, we finally figured out a loophole and were able to get our wheels and head to the Jupiter NEXT. I'm so glad we stayed at this hotel because from the second we arrived the staff made me completely forget about the morning's woes! The hotel is absolutely gorgeous and a short walk or Uber ride from some of the main attractions around Portland (at least the one's that I wanted to see!). We even had sweeping views of the Central Eastside, the Tilikum Bridge and the Historic Portland White Stag sign from the oversized windows in our room! We were able to enjoy drinks at the new Hey Love Restaurant + Bar on the first floor, and they also left us with coffee cups to refill whenever we wanted! Check out these beautiful photos of the hotel:
I knew after doing research of the tour route that I wanted to do a "sweets tour" so our first stop was obviously the famous Voodoo Doughnut. We ate our donuts as we walked around, checking out the Keep Portland Weird sign and the White Stag sign, before heading over to Powell's Books. OMG! Powell's is a book-lovers paradise! You could probably sit there for hours before looking up and realizing that it's dark outside HAHA!
Luckily for us it wasn't dark quite yet, but it was time to head back to the Jupiter NEXT and get ready for Twiddle's show with Iya Terra at Wonder Ballroom. We met up with our good friend, Ollie, who gave us this AWESOME artwork that he created of Oscar (HOW COOL! and if you want to check out more of his art here is his instagram and website!), and headed to the show - which was probably my favorite show of the whole tour, though at this point I didn't know it yet ;)
The next "morning" we headed to OUI Bar + KTCHN for some waffles on a stick, but I guess Ryan and I think that breakfast should be served all day and others don't HAHA! Unfortunately for us it was "lunch," BUT the food was still so amazing and the decor of the restaurant, which is in the Radisson RED, was so cool and a great photo-op. Then we were on our way to Eugene for another night of Twiddle!
Eugene was a quick trip because we were going to head back to the Jupiter NEXT directly following the show. Two major things happened on our trip to Eugene - I discovered a great Thai food truck outside of the venue and Ryan fell of the stage when someone moved his chair without him realizing. UHOH! Luckily, he wasn't too hurt and we got a lot of rest after the show! We woke up early, said our goodbyes to the Jupiter NEXT and Portland and headed to Seattle for the next part of our journey. We still had time for a few more sight-seeing stops so we went to Pittock Mansion, which has the best views of the city, and Cathedral City Park. Oh - and of course - we had to hit one more sweets stop on the sweets tour, Blue Star Donuts!
My cousin, Stephanie, lives right by the venue in Seattle so I immediately met up with her while Ryan did soundcheck with the band and we got to wander the city a bunch! We walked the Capitol Hill Rainbow Crosswalks, went to Unicorn Bar and had an amazing Mexican dinner at Poquitos. We also got a major surprise when our friends, the Teers, showed up for Ryan's birthday! We hung out all night after the show and got to experience some funky Seattle nightlife at Comet Tavern.
The next morning, before heading to Bellingham, Ryan and I made two more stops on our sweets tour - General Porpoise Doughnuts and Frankie & Jo's, which serves up some delicious gluten-free and vegan ice cream. Then we headed down to the Pike Place Market for one last Seattle experience!
We drove up to Bellingham for Twiddle's last show before having two days off in a row YAY! and got to meet up with my cousin Stephanie as well as her older brother Jason for dinner and drinks. It's always so great mixing business and pleasure, but when you also get to see family and friends that you have been missing for a long time it is EVEN BETTER! For our days off I travelled in the bus with the band, which was actually so much fun! We stopped in Spokane, Washington, where Ryan and I did some wandering and found an awesome sushi restaurant, and then headed to Missoula. Lucky for us we were able to check out Citizen Cope at the Wilma, which was SO INCREDIBLE! Not only is the Wilma a historic venue in Missoula, but I was so excited to get to see Cope and it was a great show! The best part of our off days, in my opinion, had to be watching Temptation Island on the bus - YOU'RE NOT GONNA TEMPT ME! If you don't watch it, you definitely should!
My days in Montana were not as long as I had hoped them to be and we didn't get to do a lot of sight seeing because our schedules were so busy and filled with driving, BUT we did get to see our great friends The Kitchen Dwellers, which made extending my trip so worth it! I can't wait to head out to Montana again and experience it in all of its glory!
xoxo. Alexandra
PS: Of all of the sweets we tried on our "sweets tour" the winner by far was Blue Star Donuts! Coming in second (for donuts) was General Porpoise, followed by Voodoo Doughnut in third. While they were all delicious, Blue Star was just AMAZING and we wanted to go back and get more! Hopefully, next time we will get to try a lot more sweets and report back to you guys!
Our stay at Jupiter NEXT was comped in exchange for the blog and social media coverage we provided for the hotel. However, I am not being compensated for this post. Thank you to Jupiter NEXT for hosting us!
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