latest on the blog
May you believe that a plan to redeem your story is already in motion.
Happy Tuesday friends! I shared an instagram reel yesterday about some of my musings from our visit to Mount Saint Helens…You can find this reel and thoughts on our visit to Mount Saint Helens on Instagram by clicking HERE!
While we were out west, mom and I had the opportunity to spend time at Mount Saint Helens and I was struck by the beauty of a place that had once been left in total destruction. Our tour guide explained that 46 years ago people were told that nothing would ever grow or bloom there again and yet starting with a small flower the area did bloom and grow once again.
Of all the trips I have taken over the course of my life, this time at Mount Saint Helens reminded me that even out of total destruction there can be hope and beauty found for even the places that we are told are dead to hope.
I hope that this story and reel encourages you that even out of total destruction there is hope.
Have the most beautiful Tuesday!
Image Credit: Unsplash
Your home is so much more than just walls and a roof; it's like a blank canvas for your life. It’s where you kick back, make memories, and really show off who you are. While it's super easy to grab furniture and decor from big stores, making a space that truly feels like yours often means looking past the usual stuff and embracing custom touches. Turning your home into your own personal sanctuary is all about picking out details that tell your story, one thoughtful piece at a time.
The Appeal of Bespoke Elements
There's just something special about owning something made just for you. Whether it's a handcrafted dining table or custom-built shelves, these bespoke items have a lasting quality that mass-produced pieces often miss. They're designed to fit your space and your needs perfectly, so you don't have to settle for anything less than ideal.
Choosing bespoke interior design elements means you're really investing in good craftsmanship and something unique. You're not just buying a piece of furniture; you're commissioning a future family treasure. This way, you get to have a say in the materials, measurements, and finishes, making sure the final product is exactly what you pictured. It’s a shift from temporary trends to timeless pieces, creating a home filled with objects that have their own story and soul.
Adding Personal Flair
Customizing your space doesn't always mean starting from scratch, though. Sometimes, it's just about adding your unique personality to what you already have. This is where you get to play with colors, textures, and your favorite collections. Imagine painting a bold accent wall in a color you love, hanging a gallery of family photos and travel souvenirs, or showing off a collection you've gathered over the years.
These personal touches are what truly turn a house into a home. They spark conversations and remind you daily of what you cherish. Learning how to personalize your home décor means trusting your gut and picking items that make you happy, instead of just following whatever's trendy. Whether it’s a quirky lamp you found at a flea market or a set of pillows made from fabric you adore, these little details make your space undeniably yours.
Custom Touches for Every Room
You can bring personalization into every nook and cranny of your home, sometimes in surprising ways. In the kitchen, that might mean custom-fit drawer organizers or unique cabinet pulls that feel great every time you open a door. In the living room, it could be drapes tailored to the exact height of your windows, giving the room a really polished, elegant vibe.
Even everyday hardware can become a style statement. Swapping out standard plastic light switches and outlets for high-quality metal ones can totally change how a room feels. Choosing premium switches and sockets in a beautiful finish like antique brass adds a touch of warmth and sophistication. It’s a small change that makes a big impact, showing that you've thought about every little detail in your home's design.
Why Small Details Matter
It’s easy to get caught up in the big stuff like sofas and dining tables, but it’s the small details that really pull a space together. These are the things you interact with every day, and their quality can seriously improve how much you enjoy being at home. Think about the satisfying weight of a solid brass doorknob, the soft glow from a well-chosen dimmer switch, or the perfect texture of a linen throw blanket.
These details all work together to create a cohesive and thoughtful environment. They’re subtle hints that speak to quality and care. When every single item in a room has been picked with intention, it creates a powerful overall feeling. Your home feels more luxurious, more comfortable, and more like you. Investing in these small upgrades is a simple way to add a layer of refinement you'll appreciate every single day.
Reflecting Your Unique Style
Ultimately, customizing your home is a way to express yourself. It’s about creating a space that not only works well for your life but also shows off your personal style and what you value. Your home should be a cozy, inspiring place where you feel completely at ease.
Don’t be shy about mixing styles, bending a few "rules," and choosing what you genuinely love. Whether your style is super minimalist, cozy and eclectic, or somewhere in between, your home should be an honest reflection of you. By carefully selecting each element, from the furniture you sit on to the switches you touch, you build a story that is entirely your own.
Your home is your personal escape from the world. Making it truly reflect your personality with thoughtful customization is one of the most rewarding projects you can take on.
*contributed post*
Image Credit: Unsplash
The difference between a nice home and a truly amazing one often comes down to the little things. While big architectural statements and fancy furniture grab your eye right away, it's the careful attention to detail that really leaves a lasting impression of quality and thoughtfulness.
In high-end property design, these subtle touches aren't just afterthoughts; they're key pieces that tie a space together, make it work better, and give you that everyday feeling of quiet luxury. From how heavy a door handle feels to the satisfying click of a light switch, these details matter more than you might think.
First Impressions Count
The moment someone walks into a property, their brain starts forming an opinion. This first feeling is really shaped by what they immediately see, hear, and touch. A consistent, high-quality look and feel sets a positive mood right from the start.
Just think about the first things you interact with: the front door handle, the light switch in the hall, the bannister on the stairs. When these bits feel solid, well-made, and look good together, they send a strong message about the quality of the whole home.
This idea is a big part of design and presentation in new homes, where making things feel premium is super important. A cheap, plastic switch or a flimsy handle can quietly chip away at how valuable an otherwise beautifully designed space seems.
Beyond Surface-Level Aesthetics
A truly sophisticated interior is more than just a pretty picture. It's about creating a harmonious environment where everything works together. This means looking past the obvious and thinking about the items you use every single day.
That's where carefully chosen luxury interior details, like solid metal light switches or custom cabinet handles, lift the space from just looking good to feeling exceptional. Picking a consistent finish, maybe antique brass or polished nickel, for all your hardware creates a unified design language that flows through every room.
This level of detail shows a dedication to quality that goes way beyond surface decoration, weaving a sense of integrity right into the home's very fabric.
Functional Elegance Defined
The best designs effortlessly blend beauty and practicality. In a high-end property, convenience and ease of use should feel natural. This is where thoughtful details really shine. For instance, putting dimmer switches in living areas and bedrooms lets you set the perfect mood lighting, changing a room's vibe with a simple turn. Likewise, adding USB sockets by the bed or in the kitchen island is a small touch that solves a common modern-day annoyance.
Functional elegance means anticipating what residents need and offering solutions that are not only practical but also look great, making sure the home is as enjoyable to live in as it is to look at.
Craftsmanship and Durability
In a world of fast furniture and fleeting trends, choosing quality craftsmanship really makes a statement. High-end design focuses on lasting power, using materials and building methods that are made to endure. A solid brass cabinet knob, for example, not only feels more substantial in your hand than a hollow, plated one, but it will also stand up to years of use without chipping or fading.
Over time, quality materials like bronze and unlacquered brass will develop a unique patina, adding character and a sense of history to the space. This focus on durability means the beautiful details you pick today will keep enriching your home for decades, making them a smart and sustainable investment.
The Seamless User Experience
Ultimately, all these little details come together to create a smooth and satisfying experience for anyone in the home. When every element has been carefully thought through, from the room layout to the finish on the screw heads, you end up with an environment that feels intuitive and harmonious.
This consistency is key to how interior design influences user experience, bringing a sense of calm and order. You might not consciously notice that the light switches in the bedroom match the door handles in the hallway, but your subconscious does. This quiet continuity adds to an overall feeling of quality and care, making the home a truly pleasant and effortless place to be.
Paying attention to the small things isn't about being nitpicky; it's about truly understanding how people interact with a space. It's that final layer of polish that turns a well-designed house into an exceptional home.
*contributed post*
a strong start to personal finance: a complete first week curriculum bundle for high school students
There is something incredibly important about the first week of a Personal Finance course. Before students ever begin talking about checking accounts, credit scores, investing, insurance, taxes, or retirement, there is an opportunity to help them understand something much bigger:
Personal finance is really about the life they want to build.
That idea is at the heart of the newest and significantly expanded resource in the Caravan Sonnet Classroom shoppe—the Personal Finance First Week Curriculum Bundle. This resource has grown into a 22-resource, 748-page bundle created specifically for grades 9–12, adult education, and higher education. It includes complete lessons, PowerPoints, guided notes, activities, instructor pacing guides, bell ringers, classroom resources, and so much more. And while it was designed to make those first days of school easier for teachers and professors, my greater hope is that it helps make those first days meaningful for students.
Why the First Week of Personal Finance Matters
One of the things that I feel strongly about as an educator is that Personal Finance shouldn't begin with students simply memorizing financial vocabulary or immediately filling out a budget worksheet. Those things have their place. But before we ask students to create a budget, shouldn't we help them consider what they are actually budgeting for? Before talking about salaries, shouldn't we talk about the relationship between career, income, lifestyle, and long-term goals? Before teaching students how to manage money, shouldn't we give them space to think about their own beliefs and behaviors surrounding money?
That is exactly what this first week is designed to do.
Instead of beginning with five disconnected introductory lessons, the curriculum intentionally progresses through five larger conversations.
The first day introduces students to the course while beginning the conversation about why financial literacy matters in their actual lives. The complete first-day lesson includes a professionally designed PowerPoint, discussion prompts, teacher directions, student activities, and two activities.
This isn't intended to be a first day filled only with rules, procedures, and paperwork. Instead, students begin thinking about money, goals, decisions, and their financial futures from the very beginning.
This may be one of my favorite topics to introduce early in a Personal Finance course because our financial decisions are rarely about math alone. Money is deeply connected to behavior. Students begin exploring ideas from the psychology of money and behavioral economics, helping them recognize that financial decisions can be influenced by emotions, habits, experiences, social pressures, and personal beliefs.
The Day 2 materials include the complete lesson, professionally designed PowerPoint with speaker notes, student guided notes and answer key, a mini activity, and an instructor pacing guide. I love introducing this conversation early because it lays an important foundation for everything that follows throughout a financial literacy course.
Before building the budget, build the life. That is the heart behind Day 3. Students are invited to step away from individual financial calculations for a moment and consider the bigger picture: What kind of life do I want? What matters to me? What might that life actually cost? What financial decisions could help me move toward it?
The Financial Blueprint lesson includes a PowerPoint, complete Financial Blueprint activity and instructor guide, speaker notes with an instructor pacing guide, and student guided notes with an answer key. The goal isn't for students to predict their entire future as teenagers or college students. Instead, it is to begin helping them understand that financial planning becomes far more meaningful when money is connected to purpose.
Once students have started thinking about the life they want to build, Day 4 naturally moves into the question of how income and career choices fit into that picture. Students begin examining the connection between career decisions, income, and long-term wealth building. Again, the purpose isn't simply to tell students that they should choose the highest-paying career possible.
Personal finance is more nuanced than that.
Instead, students begin considering how career choices can influence income, opportunities, financial flexibility, and long-term goals. The complete lesson includes a professionally designed PowerPoint, mini activity, guided notes and answer key, plus speaker notes with an instructor pacing guide.
The week concludes by bringing many of these ideas together through a lesson on Financial Freedom. And because financial freedom looks different depending on where students are in life, the bundle includes two versions of the Day 5 lesson: one created for teens and one specifically created for college students.
Each version includes a professionally designed PowerPoint, speaker notes with an instructor pacing guide, student guided notes and answer key, and a corresponding reflection activity. By this point in the week, students have moved through a progression:
Why does personal finance matter? → How do I think about money? → What kind of life do I want? → How can career and income support that life? → What could financial freedom look like for me?
That creates a very different foundation for the financial literacy topics that will follow throughout the semester.
But the Bundle Goes FAR Beyond the Five Lessons
One of the reasons this resource has grown so much is because I wanted it to solve more than one back-to-school problem.
Teachers aren't only planning lessons during those first weeks. They are setting up classrooms. Preparing their LMS. Learning about their students. Creating routines. Communicating with families. Planning bell ringers. Looking for activities. Trying to establish classroom culture. And doing approximately 1,000 other things at the same time. So the bundle now includes 22 different resources designed to help with many of those pieces.
This Bundle Currently Includes 22 Resources that you can read about HERE!
In other words, this isn't simply five PowerPoints bundled together. It was created to provide the framework for launching an entire Personal Finance classroom. Although this is called the First Week Curriculum Bundle, several of the included resources extend far
NO Textbook Needed
One of my goals with the Caravan Sonnet Classroom Personal Finance Curriculum has been to create resources that can stand on their own. You don't need to purchase a separate textbook in order to use this first-week curriculum. You don't need to spend hours locating supplementary activities to make the lessons engaging. And you don't need to recreate guided notes, pacing materials, activities, and supporting classroom resources from scratch. The bundle contains PowerPoint, Word, and PDF resources, includes answer keys, and is designed as a complete one-week teaching resource. For educators—especially those entering the classroom for the first time—that can remove an enormous amount of pressure from those first days.
Ready to Use. Minimal Prep. Meaningful Learning.
"No prep" can sometimes mean give students a worksheet and keep them busy. That isn't what I wanted this resource to be. I wanted to create something that reduces teacher preparation without reducing student learning. There is a significant difference. The instructor pacing guides and speaker notes are there so that you don't have to spend hours figuring out what each slide means or how to turn a presentation into an actual class period. The guided notes give students structure. The activities ask students to apply concepts. The discussion questions invite conversation. The exit tickets allow instructors to quickly assess understanding. And the supporting resources give teachers flexibility to adapt the week for their particular students and schedules. The goal is not busywork.
The goal is to make thoughtful financial literacy instruction easier to implement.
What Students Begin Developing During the First Week
By the end of these introductory lessons and activities, students have begun building a foundation in financial literacy, budgeting fundamentals, spending awareness, financial goal setting, responsible decision-making, money management, consumer awareness, career and income planning, critical thinking, and long-term financial planning.
Notice the word foundation. Students will obviously not master personal finance in five days. That's not the goal. The goal is to establish the questions, vocabulary, habits of thinking, and personal connections that allow deeper financial learning to happen throughout the rest of the course.
Twenty-Two Resources. One Strong Start.
There is so much pressure surrounding the beginning of a school year. Teachers are building relationships, learning new systems, meeting students, answering emails, setting expectations, preparing classrooms, creating lessons, and trying to somehow begin the year with energy when they are already exhausted from getting ready for it.
If this bundle can remove even a little of that pressure while also helping students begin Personal Finance with meaningful conversations about their lives, goals, choices, and futures, then it is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.
Because a Personal Finance course isn't ultimately about filling out worksheets. It isn't even ultimately about money. It is about helping students develop the knowledge and confidence to make thoughtful decisions with the resources they have—and helping them understand how those decisions can shape the life they are building.
You can find the complete Personal Finance First Week Curriculum Bundle | Financial Literacy Starter Kit in the Caravan Sonnet Classroom shoppe by clicking HERE!
Happy teaching, friends—and here's to making this an uncommon year!
Milestone gifts tend to fall into two categories: things that get used up and forgotten and things that stick around long enough to become part of someone's story. Diamond stud earrings sit firmly in the second category, which is exactly why they show up again and again for graduations, anniversaries, and birthdays that actually mean something.
Part of what makes them a safe, meaningful choice comes down to how clearly regulated the purchase itself is. According to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022, U.S. imports for consumption of gemstones reached about $24 billion in 2021. Stud earrings become one of the more dependable milestone purchases to get right thanks to that kind of built-in transparency, something gift-givers in New York can rely on.
Why Some Gifts Mark a Moment and Some Just Fill Time
Most gifts are chosen to please someone in the moment, which is a perfectly fine standard for a lot of occasions but falls short when the goal is actually marking something significant. A milestone deserves an object that holds its meaning well past the day it was given, and that's a much narrower category than gifts in general. Plenty of thoughtful gifts still end up in a closet or a drawer within a year, not because they
weren't appreciated, but because they were never built to last as a daily presence.
Diamond stud earrings tend to clear that bar because they're worn constantly rather than saved for special occasions, which means the memory attached to them gets revisited daily instead of gathering dust in a drawer. That daily visibility is exactly what separates a gift that marks a moment from one that simply filled it.
Everyday Wearability Keeps the Memory Present
Unlike a statement necklace or an elaborate cocktail ring, stud earrings work with virtually any outfit and any setting, quietly earning their place in a daily routine rather than being reserved for special occasions. That range shows up across a wide variety of moments, including the following occasions:
● A work meeting: subtle enough to feel appropriate in a professional setting, never competing with the rest of a polished look
● A casual weekend outing: easy to wear without feeling overdressed, whether running errands or meeting friends
● A wedding or formal event: elegant enough to hold up alongside more dressed-up attire, without needing to be swapped for something bigger
● A quiet night at home: simple enough that there's rarely a reason to take them off, even when no one else will see them
That versatility means the gift doesn't get reserved for rare occasions; it becomes a daily habit, which quietly reinforces the memory of who gave it and why every single time they're put on. This everyday presence is a big part of what separates a genuinely meaningful gift from a beautiful one that ends up worn twice a year.
Stud Earrings Eliminate the Guesswork of Sizing
Unlike rings, which need an exact finger measurement, or bracelets, which have to account for wrist size and clasp fit, stud earrings sidestep the whole sizing question entirely. There's no risk of a gift arriving too tight, too loose, or needing an awkward trip back to the store for resizing after the surprise has already been revealed. Even a well- intentioned guess on a ring size can turn a special moment into a logistics problem, something studs never put a giver at risk of.
That simplicity makes stud earrings a genuinely low-risk milestone gift, one that works regardless of how well the giver knows the recipient's exact measurements or how last- minute the purchase ends up being. For a gift meant to mark something meaningful, removing that layer of uncertainty is a quiet but real advantage, letting the moment stay focused on the occasion itself rather than whether the piece will actually fit.
A Classic Design That Doesn't Age Out of Style
Trends in jewelry come and go quickly, but a simple diamond stud has remained essentially unchanged in appeal for generations, which matters enormously for a gift meant to last decades rather than seasons. A piece chosen for its trendiness today risks looking dated within a few years, while a design with no real trend cycle to fall out of simply keeps working regardless of what else is popular at the time. A few classic styles illustrate exactly why this format has held up so consistently:
● The round brilliant stud: the most enduring cut in diamond jewelry, chosen for its maximum sparkle and universal appeal
● The four-prong setting: a minimal, understated mount that keeps the focus entirely on the stone itself
● The martini setting: a slightly more modern take that still reads as timeless rather than trend-driven
● Classic white gold or platinum: metal choices that have never really gone out of style, unlike more fashion-forward finishes
Choosing diamond stud earrings as a milestone gift sidesteps the risk of a trendier piece looking dated a few years down the line, since none of these design choices were ever tied to a passing style in the first place. Giving gift-givers room to choose something distinctive, an option Ritani's range of cuts and settings makes genuinely possible, is exactly what keeps a timeless format from feeling generic.
A Gift That Can Grow in Meaning Over Time
A well-chosen pair of stud earrings can mark one milestone while quietly setting up the next, a graduation gift that later gets worn to a wedding, or an anniversary gift that eventually gets passed down entirely. Few gift categories carry that kind of layered, accumulating significance across multiple life stages.
This is part of why stud earrings frequently become the piece someone reaches for during their own major moments years later, not because they were told to, but because the earrings had already quietly become associated with significant occasions.
Milestones That Deserve a Lasting Gift
Certain moments carry enough weight that a lasting gift feels genuinely appropriate, rather than excessive for the occasion.
● Graduations: marking a major transition into a professional career or the next chapter of life, one worth commemorating with something built to last just as long
● Anniversaries and weddings: highlighting long-term commitment and enduring love, milestones that call for a gift with staying power to match
● Promotions and career goals: celebrating hard work, dedication, and personal success, especially achievements that took years of effort to reach
● Significant birthdays: milestone ages like 30, 40, or 50 mark real personal turning points, deserving something more considered than a typical annual gift
● Personal achievements: completing a major goal, overcoming a challenge, or reaching a hard-won milestone that deserves recognition beyond words alone
Each of these moments shares something in common: they mark genuine turning points, not just passing occasions, which is exactly why a gift meant to last has real meaning here.
Conclusion
The real value of diamond stud earrings as a milestone gift isn't the moment they're unwrapped; it's every ordinary day afterward when they're worn without a second thought, quietly carrying the memory of the occasion forward. Few gifts manage to become part of someone's daily life while still marking something specific and meaningful, which is exactly why stud earrings remain one of the most consistently right choices for a milestone worth remembering. Years later, the memory of the occasion
hasn't faded into the background of a drawer; it's still visible, still worn, still doing exactly what a milestone gift is supposed to do. That's the kind of lasting impact very few gifts manage to achieve.
*contributed post*
This is a girl excited to say hello to the upcoming fall months, but also wanting to hold to summer for as long as possible... *smiles*
Happy Friday friends! I hope that you have had a lovely week! This week has been extremely busy starting my college classes and working on the blog and Caravan Sonnet Classroom. At the same time this has been an incredibly restful week. I have been purposing more and more to guard my time very carefully in the sense that I am not just "busy" doing "all of the things". It can be so easy to fall into that with all of the different seasons that we are each going through to be busier and busier. One of the things this summer that I was determined to do was learn to "rest well". I have been incorporating small moments throughout each day leaning into rest, and leaning into how this truly not only creates more peace, but has allowed me to be creative, more wise with my decisions (since I am not rushing around everywhere) and more fully present for those in front of me.
I look forward to sharing more but these are just some small thoughts on this Friday morning. *smiles*
Here are some of my favorite things from this past week! First of all....
.jpeg "the next four months - fall and the holidays")
I am OVERWHELMED by the response of this reel that I posted earlier this week on Instagram. I am so thankful that the beauty in the reel touched so many people's lives. You can watch, like, comment, and share the reel HERE!
2. Update on Mom
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for mom. She has been doing really well and has been gaining back her energy each day and week here at the cabin. We have some upcoming appointments that are very important and some decisions to make so we continue to ask for prayers for the best next steps forward.
I am so excited that y'all are very excited about the 1% projects that I started sharing about on Instagram. There is so much to share about these projects- but you can watch and learn more on Instagram by clicking HERE!
I am also SO grateful for ALL of your support of this shop. Y'all... THANK YOU. This is something that I work so hard on behind the scenes and your support, reviews, and encouragement are HUGE. This month I have hit some major milestones and I literally cried yesterday out of gratitude!! Thank you so much for all of your support of the shop! If you would like to check out the shop you can find it HERE!
Can I ask 3 HUGE favors?
(1)- If you are not already following the shoppe could you please do so? Even if you are not a teacher or don't plan to purchase things the number of followers does influence potential buyers and this would show incredible support! Simply click HERE!
(2)- If you have purchased something would you please take a moment and leave a review? It doesn't have to be long, but reviews are SO helpful to TPT owners like myself! Simply click HERE!
(3) Can you pass on the shop to those that teach High School History, Personal Finance, Law, Business, and Government so that they can find these resources? Your help in sharing about the shop is a gift that is beyond words. Thank you!
.jpg "Top 10 Must Pack Items for a New England and Canadian Cruise")
With Caravan Sonnet turning 13 years old this year I love sharing on Fridays some of the older but most popular posts on the blog! One of the things that Caravan Sonnet developed into in the early years was a a resource for those looking for cozy luxury travel around the United States and World.
I am so delighted to start sharing about some upcoming adventures for the Fall and Holidays and look forward to sharing all of the details!!!
In the meantime, you can check out all of the travel and cruising adventures HERE!
I hope that you have a wonderful Friday friends! Thank you for making this such an incredible space to come to and connect with every single day. I am so blessed!!
Image is not the property of Caravan Sonnet
Happy Thursday, friends! Today I wanted to share a little bit about our stay at the Courtyard by Marriott Portland Airport during our time in Oregon in July!
As always with these hotel reviews, I want to mention right from the beginning that this stay was not sponsored and we received no discount or compensation in exchange for sharing our experience. I simply love sharing places that we discover in our travels in the hopes that they might be helpful to someone else planning a similar trip!
When I was planning our time in Portland (we were arriving on a Sunday afternoon and had until Tuesday evening), we looked at several different Marriott properties, including options directly downtown. Because we would have a rental car and were going to be exploring several different areas around and outside of Portland, we ultimately decided that staying right downtown wasn't necessary for our trip this time.
I am going to be honest- that decision ended up saving us several hundred dollars for our two-night stay. We chose the Courtyard by Marriott Portland Airport, which is located only about five minutes from Portland International Airport. Despite being so close to the airport, one of the things that surprised us the most was just how quiet our stay was.
This is really important to note because when traveling, a quiet hotel is something that I appreciate tremendously. We never felt like we were staying directly beside a busy airport, and both nights were incredibly quiet despite the hotel being nearly full and the proximity to the airport.
The Location
For us, the location was probably one of the biggest advantages of staying here. We were approximately five minutes from the airport and about twenty minutes from downtown Portland, depending on traffic. Even more importantly, we found it incredibly easy to get from the hotel to the different areas of Portland (and to our adventure to Mt. Hood) that we wanted to explore. Because this trip wasn't centered exclusively around downtown Portland, having easy access to major roads actually worked much better for our itinerary than staying downtown would have.
Another HUGE benefit? Free parking! If you are traveling through Portland with a rental car or your own vehicle, this is definitely something to factor into your hotel decision. Between the significantly lower room rate and not having an additional nightly parking expense, staying outside of downtown saved us a substantial amount of money. As I mentioned above, for a two-night stay, at the end of July, the difference was several hundred dollars compared with another Marriott property we had considered downtown. Sometimes cozy luxury travel isn't about choosing the fanciest or most centrally located hotel. Sometimes it is about finding the place that makes the most sense for the trip you are actually taking—without the added expense and this was absolutely one of those situations for us.
The Hotel and Our Room
There is one important thing that I would want anyone considering this property to know ahead of time: This is definitely an older Courtyard. We have stayed at many Marriott properties over the years, and this was probably one of the most dated Marriott properties that we have encountered in quite some time. The room itself, furnishings, and overall design felt noticeably older compared with the newer generation of Courtyard or Marriott hotels. The television was also an older model and did not have the ability to connect to the internet or easily access our own streaming services, which has become pretty standard at many Marriott properties. The furniture was very dated, the carpet design very old, and the entire room felt like you had stepped back into the 1990s. SO- if having a newly renovated room, contemporary finishes, or updated technology is particularly important to you, this may not be the property that you are going to want to book.
That being said—and I think this distinction is important—dated does not mean dirty or poorly maintained. Our room was extremely clean. Everything was neat, comfortable, and well cared for, and we had absolutely no concerns about the cleanliness of the property. In fact, the mattresses were newer and both mom and I slept incredibly well both nights! I would much rather stay in an older hotel that is exceptionally clean and quiet and restful than a beautiful new property that isn't maintained well, and we found the Courtyard Portland Airport to be very well cared for during our stay.
A Few Additional Things We Appreciated
1. Another little travel detail that can make a surprisingly big difference: DoorDash deliveries were incredibly easy. Because our time in Portland was so short we wanted to make the most of every minute and we were often up very early (our east coast time came in handy!) and gone till well past dinnertime. After long days of exploring, sometimes the last thing we wanted to do is get back into the car and find somewhere for dinner. We were able to order food easily and have it delivered directly to the hotel without any confusion or difficulty.
2. The staff that we interacted with throughout our stay were also very nice and helpful. For people who were also (understandably) very concerned about the wildfires, their concern and attention to their guests was even more appreciated.
I do have to say that the only small hesitation we encountered was when I requested a later checkout. As a Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite member, I asked about the later checkout, and initially there seemed to be some hesitancy about accommodating the request. It was eventually accommodated, which we appreciated, but it was a little surprising compared with some of our other Marriott stays where this was just offered at the beginning of the stay. Still, this was a very minor part of an otherwise easy and pleasant experience.
Also... and for me this was not a big deal at all, but there was a man checking in that I overheard extremely upset about something so I will mention it... there was no "thank you for being a ______ Elite member of Marriott" which is typical for any check in. Now to me this was not even on my radar. It is a very nice thing that Marriott does but it wasn't something that I have to hear so to me it was "missing" when you check in but I never would have thought twice about it... until a man checking in made a big fuss about it. SO again, if you are needing these things - and want to hear this and someone forgets (maybe because they are concerned about their home due to fires) then this may be upsetting to you. *sigh sometimes I think we all need to just give each other a lot of grace as I believe people are truly trying their best*
Would We Stay Here Again?
Absolutely. And I think that is ultimately the most important part of any hotel review. Would I choose this property because I was looking for a luxurious or newly renovated Marriott experience? Probably not. Would I choose it again because I wanted an extremely clean, remarkably quiet, affordable hotel with free parking, easy airport access, and a convenient location for exploring Portland? Absolutely. For our particular trip, it was honestly the perfect find. Being approximately five minutes from the airport made our travel days incredibly convenient. Being only about twenty minutes from downtown meant we weren't sacrificing easy access to Portland. Free parking eliminated another travel expense. The location made exploring different parts of the area simple. And the room rate saved us several hundred dollars over what we would have spent staying downtown. Sometimes a hotel doesn't need to be the newest or most beautiful property to be exactly what you need. For us, the combination of quiet + cleanliness + convenience + affordability outweighed the older décor and technology by far.
We did not come to Portland to stay in our hotel, but to explore the city and the surrounding area so our hotel was important for sleep and a homebase. If you are traveling to Portland and will have a car—especially if you are flying through PDX and don't necessarily need to stay directly downtown—I would definitely recommend putting the Courtyard by Marriott Portland Airport on your list to compare.
Happy Thursday friends! Please let me know if you have any questions!
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