Category Archives: Oregon 2011

Oregon Day Four

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Today I am heading back home. The previous day my cousin recommended that I have breakfast with his girlfriend’s brother (Sam) who was staying the night at his house to allow my cousin time to pack his lunch and get to work. Because my cousin had work earlier we thought it would be best to eat without him and allow him to have a leisurely morning. We left about the same time as he did so that he could lock the door to the house behind us. While Sam was packing up his suitcase, which he brought over to my cousins house for the two nights I looked up the address of the restaurant where we were to eat for breakfast.

After putting our suitcases into my rental car we headed over to Original Pancake House in the center of Eugene. I was a bit afraid that this restaurant would be crowded today given it was a Sunday but it wasn’t. In fact we found our seats shortly upon arrival. For food I ordered a corned beef scrabble along with a side of bacon, Sam ordered a blueberry waffle. After ordering our food Sam and me discussed movies and bar tendering which he has a great interest in despite his young age. He was telling me he wanted to open a bar eventually in his hometown of Junction City. I encouraged him to follow up on these dreams.

Shortly our meals arrived on our table. Sam’s waffles were adorned will a small hill of whipping cream and blueberries scattered across the plate. My scramble was humongous covering the entire plate with scrambled egg and thickly cut slices of corned beef. I was only able to eat a quarter of this dish since I have recently become accustomed to eater smaller food portions. Frankly I did not enjoy my dish that much, the eggs were a little dry for my liking. Sam on the other hand had no problems finishing his waffle – it only took him a few minutes to devour the entire plate. I was impressed at the speed at which he consumed his waffle.

Sam gave me cash for his portion of the meal and I paid the rest of it on my credit card. Afterwards I drove him to his house in Junction City, which was about thirteen miles away from the restaurant. One long boulevard took us directly to Junction City passing by a mixture of both agrarian and industrial landscapes. Shortly after entering Junction City we turned off the main road and arrived at Sam’s house. I had helped him with his suitcase and brought it into the house and said hello to his family for a few minutes.

After come back into my rental car I had noticed the fuel level was about halfway. I thought I could probably make my way to Portland with the amount of gasoline remaining but I didn’t want to push it. On my way out of Junction City I stopped at a Conoco gas station and waited in line for the station attendant to pump gasoline inside of my vehicle. In Oregon you are not allowed to pump gasoline, so you have to wait for a station employee to fill your car for you. Only one person was manning the entire station so I had to wait quite a long time for him to put gasoline in my vehicle at this apparently popular station.

Once the attendant was finally ready to serve me I told him I wanted $10 of 87 octane and with an under the breath grunt he pulled the pump out and inserted the nozzle into my rental’s gasoline filler to start the filling. Throughout this waiting time a line had formed behind my car so I felt pressured to move quickly even though I was not allowed to do anything at the gas station. The attendant had came back to replace the gasoline filler and complete the transaction. I asked him for the receipt to which he replied, “Give it a second” while he walked away to help another customer.

Taking my receipt out of the gas pump I proceeded my way towards Portland. As it was on Thursday the drive was fairly easy with minimal traffic. The scenery was mostly farming lands with the occasional small town. Even Salem, which is the capital of Oregon that I passed through, looked like a very small town. Crossing into Portland however the traffic had increased slightly but not to a point where it hindered my progress. I was lucky to bring a long GPS navigation because there were many different freeways and off ramps in the city, which I am sure would be quite confusing to new drivers without some guidance. However once I approached the airport it was quite easy to find my way towards the rental car area to drop off my car.

I dropped off my car at Enterprise and after collecting my things from the car I handed the keys to an employee who checked in my car. I proceeded to the airport terminal to check into my flight. I had tried checking in at my cousin’s house earlier but his printer didn’t work, so I had to check in with the attendant again to get my boarding print out. I shown the lady at the check in counter my driver’s license and she quickly handed me my boarding pass, I than headed to security where they screened my carry on baggage. This time nothing was confiscated from my bag unlike last Thursday when a few of my toiletry items were taken from me because of their size.

Arriving into the main terminal where my flight was to leave from I had about an hour before my flight was to board. I passed the time by getting lunch at one of the restaurants in the terminal called “Good Dog/Bad Dog” which specialized in gourmet sausages. I had ordered a Polish Kielbasa with grilled onions and deli mustard. It was good and filling. I than went to a store across the hallway to find local jam for my mother which had requested for me to bring some jam home from Oregon. I found marionberry jam (a variety of blackberry invented by OSU in conjunction with the USDA), which I understand is a local specialty, and purchased that from that store. I headed quickly to the gate which my flight was to leave from, after a few minutes my flight begun the boarding process.

The flight it self was easy and went by fairly quickly. It was a clear day and I even caught a glimpse of Yosemite from above through the plane window. I made out Half Dome and the waterfall that is inside the park. Though no meal was provided on the plane ride the attendant came by several times to deliver a variety of beverages. I ordered water both times. One of the ones sitting next to me had fallen asleep and was snoring. Because the seating was so close together I found it difficult to make even the slightest move without accidentally bumping him and disrupting his slumber.

The plane arrived in Santa Ana and took a few minutes to taxi to the gate. Once the doors of the airplane were open everyone seemingly was in a mad dash to gather their belongings and depart the airplane. My father was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and took me home.

Oregon Day Three

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Today we went to the Oregon coast. Our drive took us through Corvallis than to Newport, which was our final destination. On our way through Corvallis my cousin drove us through a part of Oregon State by the football stadium just to give us a taste of the campus. Getting out of Corvallis we went through twisting roads lined with evergreen trees. The road was also very hilly. It was immediately apparent once we were near the coast. The salty air was noticeable in the air along with the extra traffic in the area. Corvallis and Eugene were supposed to be very warm today so many were beating the heat by going to the cooler coast.

Once we had got to Newport we drove through town and parked at a public parking lot so we could walk to the part of the town that was a long the coast. This part of the town was lined with many restaurants and fisheries. Originally we were going to find a restaurant, which was recommended to us by someone, but it had appeared the restaurant had since been closed and was taken over by another restaurant. Looking for another place to eat we walked to the other side of town where my cousin knew a restaurant he liked. As it turns out the restaurant he liked had since been relocated a few doors down and just by chance we stumbled upon it walking back to where his car was located.

We decided to stop into at the new location of this restaurant. This restaurant mostly specialized in different forms of fish and chips however they had many different seafood items. My cousin had gotten a grilled tuna dish, and I had got halibut salmon and chips along with a cup of clam chowder. I had paid for this meal in gratitude for my cousin allowing me to stay at his house for these few days.

After lunch we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which was located across the bay from where the restaurant was. We took a bridge across the bay, which was very tall – it kind of reminded me of the bay bridge in San Diego which takes you from downtown to Coronado Island across the bay. It is tall enough to allow larger boats to cross underneath without being a drawbridge that stops traffic. From the top of the bridge you could get nice views of the bay and the small town of Newport.

Arriving at the aquarium we paid for our tickets and first walked into a reptile enclosure that had turtles, snakes and other water reptiles. Besides the reptiles we saw the aquarium also had a great diversity of animals – they even had a bird atrium where we saw puffins and penguins. One section of the aquarium had glass-lined tunnels that allowed you to see the sea life above and around you. We walked through one of these tunnels that contained stingrays and sharks. It was thrilling seeing sharks and stingrays float just inches away from you!

We decided to head back to Eugene after the aquarium. We had originally planned to go to the beach after the aquarium but we decided it was too much to tackle in one day. I enjoyed the drive back to Eugene. We largely took the same route we originally took up to Newport. We listened to some of my cousin’s eclectic music, which I enjoyed. His music ranged from Jazz to Heavy Metal music. We stopped at the Safeway grocery store in Junction City to get some groceries before heading back to Eugene.

Once back in Eugene we spent some time out in the front yard of my cousins house just relaxing before we completed the evening again with cocktails and some video games. Tomorrow I am going back to California.

Oregon Day Two

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Today was a decidedly light day. In the morning when I got up I had some coffee with Mike while watching TV. I had told my cousin that I needed some items because the TSA had confiscated a few of them for security purposes. So the first thing we did was go to Walgreens to replace the items that were taken from me. The arrangement of the store was different than the Walgreens I normally go to in California so it took me a few minutes to find where each item was located.

After Walgreens we decided to have a small breakfast at a bakery shop downtown. The place was very cool – it had refrigerators full of different pastries and cakes for you to choose from. I selected a croissant filled with spinach, cheese and chicken. The cashier even baked it for be so it was warm for me to eat. The croissant was airy and tasted very fresh. I had also ordered a genmaicha tea (green tea with toasted rice) but was only able to finish half of it because it was a huge mug. We headed towards a few shops in downtown Eugene afterwards.

The first shop we went to was a record store where I casually browsed while my cousin looked for some new music to buy. Unlike some music stores the focus of this store is mostly on vinyl records as opposed to compact discs. I was struck at all the different forms of music available. They had rock, r&b, jazz, world music, reggae and everything else in between. After my cousin had selected a few albums he purchased them at the front of the store. I offered to buy him one of the albums he selected as sort of a belated birthday present, so I picked out one of the albums and bought it for him.

The next store we visited was called “Hollywood Antiques.” It was called this because the store was a former Hollywood Video rental store and they simply modified the signage on the front of the store to change the video in the name to antiques. This store had virtually anything under the sun. It had anything from gardening equipment to decorative plates. I quickly gravitated towards the used license plates. I have a small assortment of these plates at home and am always looking to expand my collection. They had some interesting ones at a reasonable price so I had purchased some of the plates. The cashier dealed on the prices of each plate so I bought them for even less than I originally was going to pay. I was pretty happy about that.

We headed to Junction City to pick up my cousin’s girlfriend’s brother at his house. He was to come a long with us tomorrow to see the Oregon coast and stay at my cousin’s for the night. However upon arriving at the house he had told us he needed to wait for one of his parents to come back home because he was looking over a dog that needed some attention. While waiting for his parents we threw a football to each other in the street in front of his house. One of the parents had arrived and we headed to get some lunch/dinner in town. We settled upon a Mexican restaurant, which was adjacent to a “Scandinavian Cultural Center.” I found the juxtaposition of the Mexican place next to a Scandinavian center funny for some reason. The food was very good at the Mexican restaurant. I had got tacos al pastor, which were marinated pork tacos along with a side of rice and beans. The others simply ordered tacos.

We all drove back to Eugene to my cousin’s house where we remained for the rest of the evening. My cousin’s girlfriend’s brother made us some mojitos, which he is very good at and played some video games. Tomorrow we are off to the Oregon coast for a day!

Oregon Day One

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Today I am on my way to see my cousin in Oregon. It turns out my aunt was leaving at a similar time for a different flight so I was able to ride with her to the airport. I appreciated this because it meant I didn’t have to leave my car at the airport and I wouldn’t have to bother someone else to drop me off at the airport. Since my Aunt was going to the airport anyways it worked out perfectly for us. She arrived at my house around 8 am and left to pick up other family members that were going along with her on a separate trip.

At the airport I went straight to the security line because I had already checked in online the previous night and had no bags to check in. Moving through the security line I was asked to take off my shoes and “any metal items that I had on me.” This is normal procedure at the airport, something we have come to expect when using air travel. However the rules for what items you can and cannot take onboard seems to constantly change. A TSA attendant asked to check one of my carryon bags, to which I agreed. As she rummaged through my bag she came across my toiletries bag, which contained a tube of shampoo, toothpaste, and eyeglass cleaning solution.

Some items in my toiletries baggage exceeded the allowed limit for liquid items, which is three ounces. The limit for items taken in your carryon bag are a lot lower than that for checked in baggage. Since I mostly check in these items in my baggage when I travel was not aware of this rule. The attendant who was checking my baggage asked me if I wanted to check these items in or if I wanted to throw them out. Not having an extra bag or the will to get out of line and check in a couple of toiletry items I just told the lady to throw out those items that was too large. I will purchase these items in a smaller size at a drug store in Oregon at a later time.

We decided to have a quick breakfast at one of the restaurants located inside the terminal. Walking in my socks through the terminal because I still had yet to put on my shoes we had arrived at the restaurant. I had a glass of iced tea with my Aunt and the other family members whom were going on the plane ride with her. My flight was scheduled to leave in about a half hour of me sitting down with them so I had little time to enjoy the company. After about 15 minutes I had to leave because I wanted to grab something more substantive than iced tea at the McDonald’s in the terminal before my flight began to board. I ordered a Sausage McMuffin and another small cup of iced tea. After paying for my meal the cashier handed me a bag containing my sandwich and my drink. Usually I try to avoid fast food but today I was in a rush to get to my flight, which was boarding shortly.

When I had arrived at the gate the flight was already in the process of boarding. I shown my ticket to the front counter and was allowed entry onto the plane. There was a sign near the front of the plane, which indicated the plane had WIFI on board. However this being a short flight I am not sure how worthwhile it is to spend almost $10 to simply surf the Internet for a little over two hours. I wish I had WIFI on board my flight to Europe though, that would have made the flight time go by much quicker.

I enjoyed the scenery from the window of the airplane. As we flew out of John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California we flew mostly over arid deserts, which gradually gave way to mountainous areas with snow topped mountains the further north we went. There are few clouds today in the sky making the visibility of the ground below the airplane very easy. However once we got closer to Portland we started seeing more clouds.

The plane landed and I disembarked. I made my way towards the car rental station in the airport. I rented my car from Enterprise and originally reserved a Corolla however I opted to rent a Prius instead. After signing off on the car I was given the keys and was on my way. At first the Prius was difficult to operate. The shifter for the Prius operated much differently than other automatic transmission cars I have driven in the past. For whatever reason the “Park” setting on the transmission was a separate button from the shifter itself. Whenever turning the car on and off the car needed to be engaged in park so I kept trying to shift the gear lever forward towards where park usually is on a car so I could start the motor until I finally realized that park was a separate button. Also unlike most cars I needed to shift sideways in order to select the drive mode of the car. After figuring these details I was on my way towards my cousins house in Eugene.

The drive to Eugene is always nice. I last visited here in January. The scenery looked much different this time. It was mostly sunny, although it did drizzle a small amount in Portland, however the scenery was still very green despite the warmer temperatures. Things were more lit up – it was beautiful seeing the summer light shine through the trees beside the freeway. Even in Portland the traffic was very light so the drive was very leisurely. Unfortunately the Prius had quite a bit of road noise and vibrations in the cabin, which was slightly unpleasant. According to the trip computer in the car it said I was getting over 55 miles per gallon on the drive, which is pretty impressive.

Arriving in Eugene I was greeted by my cousin and his girlfriend. They have been doing quite a bit of work on their house since I had last been there in January so they shown me the new additions to their house. They have been doing extensive work in their backyard – they planted various vegetables and fruits and have almost a mini farm in their backyard. When I visited the house in January the backyard was only a greenbelt. Another new thing they have in their house was a new guest room, which I am sleeping in tonight. They have been doing quite a bit of work since I was last here.

After a few hours of relaxing at their house we headed to downtown Eugene for some dinner. Before dinner we had decided to walk around downtown a bit and check out a couple of their favorite stores in Eugene. We visited a clothing store and an antique market where my cousin bought a few records. Originally we had wanted to eat at a beer hall but we settled upon an organic restaurant instead. At the restaurant I ordered a vegetable and cheese bowl, which was surprisingly filling.

At the house we relaxed some more, watched some tv and played Nintendo 64. I played Goldeneye with my cousin, which he won most of the time. We are all going to bed relatively early because my cousin’s girlfriend is leaving for Arizona at 6 in the morning to see one of her friends. They gave her a plane ticket as a graduation present.

Travel Update

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Just a minor update, I am going on two more trips in the following weeks. First I am visiting my cousin up in Eugene, Oregon and at the beginning of August I am going to catch up with a good friend in New York City for a week. Check back here for more travel blog postings as I intend to post updates for my upcoming trips. As for the rest of my blog postings for Belgium I aim to finish them off by the end of next week.