Krislam Travels!

Hello world! It's been awhile!  I finally have some downtime to blog about my recent travel to Portland, Seattle & Chicago! It's only been two weeks since I've been back but it feels like it's already been a month, time flies! I'd like to preface this post with the fact that I haven't been outside of California other than Las Vegas (but, that doesn't count, haha). Oh, I've also been to the Philippines, but that's when I was a kid and I barely remember anything. Long story short, it's been awhile since I've traveled and this was a MUCH needed get away. 

First stop, Portland! My first impression of Portland was that it was FREEZING. Being from SoCal and having very little tolerance for cold weather, this was a huge shock for me. For the first couple of days, Jay and I stayed at the Sheraton in Downtown. I had quite the culture shock as their Downtown wasn't anywhere near as busy at DTLA and it was so eerie for me. The rest of the week we stayed at Jamie's place! She is Jay's friend from college who was kind enough to open her home to me and Jay! <3 

A few memorable things about Portland in bullet form!

• Food was pretty spot on! s/o to Natasha for recommending most of the places we ate at.
• There was so many freakin trees and the air felt so good to breathe in. 
• It rained 95% of the time we were there. 
• Hipster vibe was so real and again, on point. 
• NO TAX. 
• Beer at Deschutes was delicious (and I'm not usually a beer person.) 
• I went from wearing two layers of clothes to pretty much 6, not including the beanie and scarf. 
• Coffee? Yes. 
• Lots of walking, so much walking. 
• Downtown at night was so safe that it was eerie, if that's even possible. Not a soul in sight by 9PM. 
• Went to my first NBA playoffs game. I STOOD at the very top. Trail Blazers, lost, womp.
• Waffle Window, twice. Hahahaha. 
• Rode bikes around the river, crossed my first bridge on bike. It was a beautiful scenery!! Sad that we only had the bikes rented for an hour :( 
• Saturday Market which is like a farmers market was slightly underwhelming, but we had delicious garlic "fries".
• Jay bought THE LAST MacBook Pro in the state, yep. 
• Multnomah Falls. Oh. My. Goodness. I loved everything about it. Touched my first waterfall!
• Went into a lot of cute stores! But everything was so expensive :( 
• Oh and there was a running water fountain at almost every corner in Downtown, talk about not being in drought. Must be nice LOL. 
• We did all of the touristy things, Powells, Blue Star, ACE, you name it. 
• Rented a car! It was a cute white Sentra. I felt young again (shut up) cause I'm still not able to rent a car, woo! Haha. 
• People here are so nice. They drive at like 65 mph and everyone is...totally...okay with it. (mind...blown)

Overall, Portland was a beautiful city. I really needed to step away from Los Angeles and just soak in some solace (and some rain, LOL.) Would I go back again? Yes of course. Any time soon? Maybe not. It seemed too calm for me (if that makes sense) that it was giving me anxiety. I'm so used to how busy LA is that it totally threw me off guard. Jay loves it though, but we're opposite people in that matter and I totally see him living there at some point in his life! But yes, I will go back and hit up all the foodie places again! (Rating: 6/10)

Seattle!! We only spent a day up in Seattle :( If I was going to plan this trip again I would have flown in Portland, stayed there for about 3 days and drive up to Seattle and fly out of there. Felt like we spent too much at Portland that we ran out of things to do, haha. Seattle was also beautiful!! More busy, which was good. Cold & windy. GREY'S ANATOMY, enough said. First impression of Seattle was me letting out a relieved sigh that I saw sky scrapers, LOL. 

A few memorable things about Seattle in bullet form!

• Rainy, rainy, rainy! Gloomy, gloomy, gloomy!
• Food was okay, but then again we didn't really hit up a lot of spots :/ womp! But I'm sure it's just as delicious here. 
• First Starbucks! It was a lot smaller than I had anticipated. 
• Pike Place! Super cute place, love places that support small business. 
• Speaking of which, a cup of fresh lobster, correction...a SMALL cup of fresh lobster legs, $14. Mhm, haha.
• Construction caused a 5 min drive into a 30-40 min one to the Space Needle -.- 
• Space Needle!!!! GREY'S ANATOMY. MC DREAMY. 
• The view from the space needle was ridiculously beautiful and it wasn't as scary since there was so much keeping you from falling over. 
• Lots of walking here too, although we stayed within a small area of the city cause we were tired. 
• Shout out to Jay for being such an amazing trooper and driving to and from. We took a nap in the middle of the day to recharge, haha. 
• Chihuly Garden and Glass, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. 
• The drive back included lots of singing and McFlurries.

Overall, Seattle was my favorite between it and Portland. I definitely want to come back at some point and visit more touristy spots. I missed the infamous gum wall, but it's okay! There will be next time. Loving Jay more and more cause he was able to tolerate a whole week of me being hangry and cold. LOL.  (Rating: 7/10)

Within 48 hours I was in LA and back on a plane to IL! ERMERGHERD, CHICAGO!!! I will be the first to say that I love this city, very much and I definitely see myself living here or staying for an extended period of time. First impression of Chicago was...HOLY CRAP, the weather. The weather? Don't even get me started. I flew into Chicago thinking it was going to be freezing. So here I am with like 4 layers on (thinking I was short of layers), I step out of the airport and it was like 75 but pouring. 0_0 I didn't know what to do. Then the following days were 50 degrees, raining and the wind was literally knives jabbing into your body. (I might be a little over dramatic, but I'm also from SoCal, so deal.) THEN...the next day is was 85, and I got sun burned. THEN... back down to 50. Oy. Apart from that, I went to Chicago on a business trip! I attended the HOW Conference!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went with my co-worker, Lisette who is literally my other half at the office and I loved spending so much time with her and exploring Chicago...and freezing...and getting fat :) 

A few memorable things about Chicago in bullet form!

• I was tired for the majority of the trip cause of the quick turn around, ay! 
• Got sick from the flight, ugh... slept a lot on the first day, haha. 
• Our cab driver almost killed us with his stupid ass driving skills and later called me a name under his breath because I only topped him $1. Ugh. Uber forever. Welcome to Chicago much?
• ONLY walking and Uber. We didn't have a car, so we did a lot of walking, which is good cause we ate a lot. 
• Met up with Kathy and Crystal! 
• PIZZA ON THE FIRST NIGHT, yes. Lou Malnati's DEEP DISH! Yum! Although, I prefer te thin crust!
• HOW conference was literally the epitome of my trip there. I learned so much and met so many talented and like minded people and I had the time of my life there. My brain was ready to explode at some point with all the information I was taking in. I also met Michael Bierut and nearly lost my shit. I would never trade my experience at the HOW conference with anything in the world, I highly recommend that every designer saves up or gets their job to fly them out there. Thank you JF for supporting the arts! 
• THE BEAN!! I don't know what is so special about this bean (I have yet to read about it) but... I jumped in front of it. I did a lot of jumping. I also ruined my shoes :/ but its okay! Totally worth it!
• The buildings are so beautiful !! the streets are so clean... I could cry. 
• Portillo hotdogs!! It was, and don't kill me, okay. Sorry Chicago, I get it, you're like famous for hotdogs, but LA style is where its at LOL. 
• I spent $30 on breakfast, like an idiot. 
• I bought so many freakin books, I don't know when I'm going to have the time to read them all, but I'll make it a thing. 
• Met up with Natasha <3 had pizza at Giordano's OH MY GOD SO GOOD. Much better than Malnati's...sorry. 
• John Hancock Tower where I felt vertigo staring into the horizon, but totally worth it. Also it was 96 floors up, eek! 
• Did I mention it was cold? Lisette and I were basically frozen the entire trip. 
• We went to the Skydeck! Willis Tower... 103 floors and totally worth the fear of the platform possibly cracking beneath me and completely falling apart. 
• The architecture tour was everything and it only made me realize how weak sauce LA is with our sky scraper.
• I saw the Michael Jordan statue! That was an adventure. But I did it for my dad! <3
• Met up with Hamsa and Alysia! EEK, FIREBALL. Enough said. 
• WAFFLES CAFE. Yes :) 
• Navy Pier... IT WAS FREEZING. I couldn't feel my fingers, my nose, my eyeballs, my teeth, my everything. 
• It was also foggy...to the point where you couldn't see the base of the skyscapers. 
• Also, how is Chicago built? Cause I felt like the city was on 3 different levels. 
• And the drivers? More aggressive than LA, yea I said it. 

Overall, Chicago was hands down my favorite city. I could definitely see myself being there for awhile. There was just so much to take in...ugh. Closing my eyes wishing I was there again. Mmm :) I really want to bring my family here (or well, anywhere really.) Jay too and Jourel, that would love it! (Rating 9.9/10) -.1 cause of the knife-stabbing-wind that I may never get used to. 

So there you have it! A rather "quick" run down of my trip. I left out a lot of details, but I can seriously go on forever and I don't want to bore future self or anyone that actually takes the time to read this. I can't wait to travel more! Ugh, I didn't realize how much I needed to be away from work and LA, but this was an amazing experience and a wonderful get away!

Until next time, world! :)

P.S. Took these photos on my phone and wrote on top of them using a brush pen!

- Krislam