#16. stay in the ace hotel in portland.

I think that every time I am in Portland, I discover something new about the city that I absolutely love!  I love the nice people, I love the easy-to-navigate streets, I love the river, I love exploring the different neighborhoods, and overall I love how everything is just a little bit quirky or different than you would expect.
Case in point: The Ace Hotel.
So, typically, when you think of a hotel, you get a picture in your head of a gigantic box-shaped building with rows and rows of comfortable, yet identical, cookie cutter rooms.  And, when you check into a normal hotel and the front desk employee hands you the key card to your room, you have a pretty good idea of what you will find when you open the door.  To the left, there will be a door to the bathroom, which is outfitted with a white shower curtain, white towels, and a beige tiled floor.  The main area will have a bed, four pillows, a bedside table, a lamp, a phone, an alarm clock, a desk, a tv, a remote control, a trash can, and two to three random paintings that are nice, but boring, very boring....
This is NOT what you will find at the Ace Hotel , which is precisely why I wanted to stay here SO badly!  It epitomizes everything that is Portland.  (and if any of you are in P-town, you HAVE to stay here.)  First of all, each of the rooms is unique and has its own theme/design.  Ours had an entire wall covered with indie band posters, which added so much color and cheer!  Also, the Ace is totally affordable if you are on a budget, because you can choose a room with a shared bathroom.  Now, this might sound kind of weird, but we did, and it was totally fine!  Plus, we also had a cute corner sink in our room and the best bath products I've ever used in a hotel (eucalyptus and peppermint, mmm)!  Some other quirky aspects that I fell in love with include:  a sweet mural on the wall of the staircase, a funny embroidered picture in the elevator, a photo booth in the lobby, bikes for rent, real vintage keys for each of the doors, cozy wool blankets on the beds, a gigantic old set of drawers that people left love notes in in the upstairs lobby, and a stumptown cafe right off the lobby (portland's best coffee, in my humble opinion).
I would LOVE to live here if I could.  That would be absolutely amazing.  But, don't worry Ace, I'll be back soon!  I am so excited that I had a reason to stay here.  One more checked off, hooray!