A Portland Hotel Birthday
A few years ago, we inadvertently started a new family tradition: the hotel birthday. Instead of a gift, we decided to spend a night at a hotel and have a fun Oregon adventure for Harrison’s birthday. Because this was a couple weeks after his actual birthday and birthday party, Harrison called it his “hotel birthday.” And thus, yet another excuse for me to book a night at a hotel was born. Often, we book trips instead of exchanging gifts anyway, but even if we are not taking a big birthday trip, we try to at least have a one night adventure in lieu of physical gifts.
This was the perfect hotel birthday in Portland to celebrate our favorite 5-year-old.
Where To Stay
Portland has so many great hotels and I am slowly working my way through staying at all of them. For this trip, we used a Hyatt free night certificate to stay at the ideally located Hyatt Centric in downtown Portland. Things we loved: the fun and colorful design, the walkable location, comfortable and clean rooms, and the friendly and helpful staff. This was a perfect use of a free night certificate, but the cash rates are also reasonable.
What To Do
There is no shortage of fun, family-friendly activities in Portland, but we planned this weekend around a visit to OMSI. This was Harrison’s first visit and it was so fun. He especially loved the feature exhibit on dinosaurs and the many interactive learning activities. This was the central activity of the weekend and we spent hours here. We also got tickets to see one of the available shows in The Planetarium. Keeping with the dinosaur theme, it explored the life of dinosaurs on this planet. This is a must-do in Portland with kids.
As a fun side quest, we sought out one of the Thomas Dambo trolls. Scattered across the world, there are six in the PNW. Ole Bolle is located on the Nordic Northwest campus among the trees and recreations of historical Scandinavian style buildings. It was an easy and interesting addition to our weekend.
Where To Eat
One of the hardest decisions to make when in Portland is where to eat. There are incredible and award wining restaurants throughout the city. This time, we revisited two favorites: LeChon for dinner and HunnyMilk for brunch.
LeChon is our very favorite spot. It opened around the time that Brandon and I started dating and we ate here our first weekend in Portland together and we’ve been going here ever since. This South American cuisine is delicious and we love sharing the many small plates. This was our first time taking Harrison here and it was so special. My main caveat is that it’s not necessarily what I would consider “kid friendly,” so it will likely depend on your kid. For Harrison, who loves “fancy drinks” and who has been dragged to multiple nice restaurants, it was fine and he is generally willing to try new or different foods with some encouragement. Between the very delicious fancy drink they made for him, the aquarium, and being able to see some of the kitchen activity from our table, we had a lovely and delicous meal. But we brought his tablet, just in case.
Another Portland favorite is HunnyMilk and it is quite kid friendly - colorful with plenty of board games available to play while waiting on a table or for food, not to mention the sweet and savory donut based dishes. Everything here is so yummy. The prix fixe menu includes one drink (get the hot chocolate!), one savory dish, and one sweet dish from a small menu of options. I’ve literally never had anything bad here. Boozy drinks are available at an additional cost. It’s so good.
That was our weekend! If, like us, you don’t always feel great about purchasing more unneeded gifts, I can definitely recommend a hotel birthday as the perfect gift alternative. And this weekend in Portland was a pretty perfect way to celebrate.