Like pretty much everyone, I love to travel. I want to see the world, especially since my husband’s grandma lives in France and my dad works in Singapore. These opportunities are too good to pass up. But one vacation I’ve been dreaming about for years is a trip up the Pacific Northwest Coast. Ideally, I’d like to visit Napa, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle (I used to live there!) and Vancouver. But if I only had the chance to see one of these cities, I’d choose Portland.

I’ve never been there, but I just get a certain vibe about it. It seems like a big city with a small town mentality. Very green, with lots of buses and biking, fabulous gardens, a great arts scene, tons of outdoor activities…it just seems cool.

Travel Portland has a lot of great information about the town, including lodging info, the shopping scoop, and details about the arts scene. Portland is also home to four amazing gardens: the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, The Oregon Garden, the Portland Japanese Garden, and the International Rose Test Garden.

The site also breaks down the various arts neighborhoods, has dining suggestions, and even offers multicultural and gay/lesbian information. I know that I’m going to love living in Austin, but I hope that once I’m all done with school I get to live in Portland for awhile. In the meantime, I’ll be saving up for a vacation!

Photos courtesy of Flickr:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleeker/126738485/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericappel/289854997/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/cassidy/8583635