Oregon

Last Thursday Rosalinda and I drove to Oregon to visit my roommate Jeff and do some sight-seeing. It was really very enjoyable. Once again, I will have to post pictures later, though I've posted some from Rosa's camera. Some of them are on film and will need to be developed.

Thursday: The drive took us 12 1/2 hours, including stops, to get to Scappoose, OR where Jeff lives. It is a little town on the outskirts of Portland (about 30 minutes away). After driving down a winding forest road, you need to take a steep gravel road up to his house which is set on a few acres of land. It was nice and secluded and very beautiful.

We got there around 6:30 in the evening and had some time before it got dark, so we decided to go to a nearby waterfall and to look at some of the locations in town where Twilight was filmed (Rosalinda's request). When we got to one of the locations we found that there was some sort of outdoor festival going on at the edge of the Columbia river in a really cool looking neighborhood. Most places we went in Oregon were picturesque and seemed to have their own feel. All the buildings had so much character. I'd never been to places like these that had a particular feeling to them. It really was a photographer's dream. However, it turned out to be my nightmare because I only had one roll of film and I kept "saving" it. Turns out I have 9 shots left- that was dumb.


In Front of Bella's House

Anyway, we walked around the festival where they had live music and food and a fire-twirling man haha. Not to mention the very interesting people in attendance. It was so cool and it was a warm evening at sunset. Beautiful.

Friday: Friday we decided to do some hiking around Multnomah Falls by Mt. Hood. It was very pretty. Other trails took us to other waterfalls nearby. Jeff's sister Amy came along and we all had a fun time. Afterward, we drove into Portland to walk around town. Portland is really a beautiful city. It is nestled in the hills and built next to the Columbia river with all sorts of bridges and trains. The city itself is surprisingly clean. It's streets are full of interesting people (some a little scary looking) and musicians. We also stopped by at a shop that TNT was filming an episode of some series at. It was kind of fun to see all the equipment and know what everything was.



Rosalinda got Ben and Jerrys ice cream which we ate in a kind of events square in the middle of the city. We walked through expensive stores and just kind of got the feel of the city. I think Jeff may have even enjoyed it a little- even though the thought of going into town was disgusting to him.

That night we ate at a little Mexican restaurant in Scappoose before we went to see Transformers 2. The food was better than the movie... but it was still entertaining enough. I think we probably spent the night talking with his family and watching funny youtube videos.

Saturday: Saturday morning we got up early to drive down to Tillamook to visit the cheese factory. It was a two-hour drive, but Rosalinda had been looking forward to the cheese. We got ice cream after sampling the cheeses and then drove to Oceanside which is just a few miles away. Oceanside was worth the drive though. It is a really pretty beach with all sorts of rock formations and caves. Despite the perfect weather that we had down there there was a constant cold wind at the beach. The water was freezing of course, but we had fun looking at starfish and other creatures and exploring rocks and caves.





The town itself was really interesting. The forest comes right to the edge of the beach and so the houses are built among the trees. The design of the houses was a kind of mix somewhere between a beach house and a cabin. It was really interesting- something I've never seen before. In California you pick the beach or the mountains, you can't have both. But this was some kind of hybrid. Still, I think I'd rather have a warm beach.



In the afternoon we went Kayaking on the Columbia. It was a really warm day and it was fun to cruise around on the river for awhile. We spotted bald eagles and basically kayaked right up to some cows. We splashed each other which kept us cool and just kind of enjoyed the afternoon.

Rosalinda and I had decided to make dinner for the family that night and together, with Jeff, decided to do a BBQ since the weather was so nice. We made kabobs with salmon and steak and veggies along with twiced-baked potatoes, corn on the cob (BBQd), watermelon, cantaloupe, and limeaide. It was delicious. We had strawberry food-cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The strawberries were picked from Jeff's garden and were very sweet. Jeff's sister and brother-in-law were visiting with their kids and we all had a nice evening.

Sunday: We slept in, which was really nice, and had a lazy few hours where we played/listened to the piano and read before we left for the singles ward at 1:00 in the afternoon. The ward met in Beaverton and it took about 45 minutes to get there. It met at 2 and it seemed like Jeff and his sister felt almost as out of place as we did since they hardly ever went to the singles ward.

We met Jeff's other Brother and sister-in-law and their two kids and spent the evening talking with them and the rest of the family. We also spent some time laying on the trampoline which we seemed to do a lot- it was relaxing and the weather was perfect. We decided to leave that night however, and drove through until we arrived back in Provo at 11:30am.

Jeff's family was very kind and fun to talk with and get to know. We didn't want to leave. It felt vaguely familiar and I don't know exactly why. Maybe it was because we spent time with the family and that setting is what made it familiar. Life there is definitely a lot different from life where Rosalinda and I grew up. It is a lot more quiet... a lot more serene. It is a place that seems to give time for a person to think and ponder and to have time to himself. It was beautiful.