24 Hours in Portland, Oregon

I have found in traveling with my kids, the two-year-old in particular, that sometimes breaking up long trips can make a BIG difference in my exhaustion and stress levels. Particularly between ages 1-2, flying could go well or it could go VERY poorly. So this past trip we took, I decided to break in Portland, partly because Portland has some super kid-friendly things to do. 

We started at Slappy Cakes for breakfast, which is a restaurant where you make your own pancakes. They let you pick your batter and your toppings, and my kids absolutely love it. You can also choose pre-made breakfasts if cooking yourself isn’t your thing, and they have fun drinks to choose from. I didn’t try any alcoholic drinks, but they also looked good. One note is they only serve drip coffee, so if you’re more of a latte kinda person, there is a really good coffee shop across the street.

Then we hopped over to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), which is one of our favorites. They have a smaller room upstairs for kids ages 0-6, and then a huge downstairs with all sorts of neat things to play with. My kids particularly like the exhibits on wind and sound, but generally they love to learn through play throughout the museum. We stayed for a couple of hours without anyone getting bored, and we ended up eating a quick bite there. I would not recommend the café for food – it’s mostly sweets anyway – but that’s just what we did for convenience. We also hit one of their shows in the planetarium for the first time which everyone really liked! It was a short 30 minutes on dinosaurs, and they play a variety of options throughout the day. I saw they have an ice skating rink, which was not open this day, but basically you could spend a whole day here if you really wanted.

After the museum, we headed to the Japanese Garden which is one of my personal favorite things to do. It’s absolutely beautiful and green and tranquil. They offer a scavenger hunt for kiddos so it is also enjoyable for them, though admittedly it is their least favorite of the things we did that day. There are a lot of stairs to get to the garden and it does require a fair amount of walking, so if you have a child who can still fit in a carrier, this would be a good place to use it. It is not stroller-friendly. You CAN bring one, but there are a few areas where you are required to leave them behind anyway. 

Finally, we decided to go see the holiday zoo lights, which we had never done. I find the Oregon Zoo to be manageable and great for kids. We have been to many zoos at this point, and I think this one lets you see a lot of animals in a well-laid-out manner. The lights were so beautiful and creative, but there were not a lot of animals to see. I didn’t really know what to expect in that regard, but I think we only saw seals and elephants among the lights. 

For dinner, we tried The Heist, which is a new food cart pod located on an old US Bank site. It is a bit far from downtown Portland, but we wanted to try something new. I love trying food cart pods because they allow for everyone to get something different if you have people with differing tastes, and this one is unique in that it has a large indoor space with a bar, so on a colder evening it still is enjoyable. It also has a fun vault space for kids to explore/play, which allowed me to eat in peace for a bit. If you prefer to be more “in town,” we have had luck with many of the restaurants on Division Street being both kid-friendly and in a more “fun” neighborhood.