Last weekend saw a number of the ladies in my family gathered in Portland, Ore., for our more-or-less annual Girls’ Weekend. Usually these gatherings are held down at the beach or up in the mountains for a resort-like getaway, but this year we decided to make it an urban adventure. Sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins, moms and daughters met up on Friday night for cocktails and dinner on the hottest night Portland had seen all year (98 degrees). We then moved on to Darcelle XV Showplace, a Portland institution for decades, where we enjoyed a very campy but entertaining female impersonation revue.

The next day our activities focused on Portland’s Old Town district. We fueled up with breakfast at the Morning Star Café — wonderful food — before strolling over to the Portland Saturday Market. The largest continually operating outdoor arts and crafts market in the nation, the Market sprawls over several blocks and features everything from tie-dyed clothing to art glass, leather goods to carniverous plants. After spending the morning wandering the booths and getting in plenty of people-watching, a few of us headed to another famous Portland institution: Powell’s City of Books.

Powell’s claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world, with this downtown location taking up an entire city block and housing more than a million books. We only spent an hour or so there, but you could take a week and not get through every room at this paradise for bibliophiles. After loading up on a few good reads, we moved on for a quick pick-me-up at Nuvrei Patisserie & Café a few blocks away. Ever since she tasted her first French macaron in Paris on a study abroad trip, daughter Jenny has been on the hunt for a repeat experience in the States. She was delighted to find what she considers a “genuine” macaron at Nuvrei and will be back for more in the future.

We hopped the Portland Streetcar to zip back to our hotel to change before dinner (more on that next week). We took advantage of Portland’s Free Zone on the streetcar and MAX lightrail system to move easily and cheaply throughout the city that weekend, although the city, with plenty of lovely buildings and streetside art installations, provides enjoyable walking opportunities, too. All in all, we agreed our first urban girls’ weekend was a roaring success!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor