PARTY ON THE WEST COAST!

So, my roommate, Takara, was hurrying out the door to leave for Oregon. She had invited our other roommate Amber to go with her since she's from a little town in Oregon. Unfortunately she had to work, so it was looking like it would be just Takara until she got to Pocatello and met up with her friend and cousin. I was walking out with her, since I was going out to do something of no particular importance and she said, "Hey, why don't YOU come with me?!" I was like, "Yeah, sure. I'll find someone else to sing in church on Sunday, and call in a couple people to take my two shifts for the next couple days at work." She was all for it. In a couple of minutes, I had called the bishop for the service ward, the pianist, and the man I'm singing the duet with to reschedule for next Sunday; I had called the hostess at Craigo's and arranged for Dani to fill in for me both Friday and Saturday night (she was looking to pick up some shifts anyway); and had my bags packed, in the trunk, and was on my way to Pocatello to pick up these girls.














Hey, I've never been to the west coast.





We arrived at Takara's uncle's house in Portland around 5:30 Friday morning. We cleaned ourselves up a bit and headed out to breakfast with 'Uncle Louie.' When we got back a couple of us took a nap while the others went out and gallivanted. Then we all got back together and went shopping - a find of some ADORABLE red stilettos took me out $60, and from there I went drastically downhill. Really though, I didn't do as badly as I thought I had once I went through how much I spent. You see, there's really no place to get some good shopping done anywhere near Rexburg. Not even Idaho Falls. This was my one chance for any quality clothing for the next 6 months at least.

Besides, I've never been to the west coast.

We spent the night at Uncle Louie's - funny story by the way. He was having a hard time remembering my name, so he told the girls while they were sitting outside one of the stores waiting for me to finish up that I needed a nickname. He settled on Moe. Later Takara told me about it and I was like, "No kidding! That's been my nickname among my family since my cousin started calling me Malie-Moses when I was like 7." We thought that was pretty ironic.


Anyway, Saturday was spent at the street bazaar in downtown Portland. It was here that Takara figured out why everyone from Oregon is so freaking happy: the entire city of Portland smells like marijuana. I'm pretty sure it's soaked into the buildings. Heaven forbid one of them catch fire. The street market was a lot of fun. I found the coolest art booth! I'll put the link to his website on here later. Takara and I got our portraits drawn - I will also put that picture on here, since I'm sure there'll be requests for it. The only other thing I bought were these really cool coins. They're just a Maine state quarter and a silver dollar from 1922. But the man has jigsawed all the negative space out of them. They are the coolest things! I'm sure I'll find something to do with them. I'll take pictures of them as well. After the street market we went to Multnomah Falls. It's beautiful!





Saturday night, Takara, her friend Emily, and I went to Salem and spent the night in a cheap hotel. We drove Sunday morning to Lincoln City on the coast. What a pretty little coast town, and what a pretty drive! I would never want to live in Portland, it's kind of a dirty city, but the coast is beautiful. It made me rather homesick for Maine. Really the only difference is that since Maine's coast is so rocky, and the water is very deep right up to the land, we have lots of harbors that are right up against the towns. Oregon's coast is sandy and so there aren't as many harbors and coves and such. It was so nice to have trees and mountains all right up close. (I'm still trying to figure out how I landed in the ONE TOWN that lands right in between the Rocky Mountains and the Tetons. There's no water or trees for miles, and my campus is on the highest point in the area! Good grief.)

Anyway, enjoy the first few pictures I've got here. Like I said, I've got lots more to come!