Back from my trip, and having an…interesting day, to say the least.

1) Bertha, my trustworthy little Corolla, refused to start this morning. I knew she had starter problems at least a month ago, but kept putting off taking her in, to the point where I convinced myself that the starter problems magically resolved themselves somehow (what, you mean to tell me there aren’t car gnomes?). Now I’ll have to get her towed. Whoopsies!

2) Walked to work to find my bike missing from the rack. Again, this problem is self-inflicted. As I sat on the bus in Portland, admiring all the cyclists passing by, it occurred to me that I had left my bicycle on campus - locked, but with a pretty cheap lock - in an area where bike and accessory theft is rampant. Instead of simply wheeling my bike into the safety of my office, of course. Again, whoopsies.

3) Walked into the little restroom next to my office, and surprised an older woman standing outside of one of the stalls - with her pants down, and, uh, yeah. “Oh, I’m just getting a pad,” she said, moving into a stall. “There, it’s all right, you can come in!” No thanks, I thought as I scurried off to hide in my office until she went away. Yeesh. I won’t say “whoopsies” to that one, because dammit, I ought to be able to walk into a public restroom and not be flashed by old lady parts!

Will post about my trip shortly (as well as the rest of my Europe trip, eventually. I’m slow!).
* Posts are down below, according to the date I wrote them in my travel journal!

I got back from camping on Sunday evening, and was subsequently felled by a vicious summer cold. (I thought these things are restricted to the winter months!). Yesterday I stayed at home and had some vague intentions of working on back blog entries, as well as cleaning my room. Ha! Instead I drank my weight in chicken broth and tea, slept, and stupidly attempted to work on Isabeau, for some reason. It’s an easy enough pattern, which is why I was able to knit both the body and sides yesterday, despite having to rip back a couple of times because of stupid cold-head errors. I really should have just vegged out and watched TV or something.

Anyway, here’s the first writeup of the Portland trip:

I stayed with my friend Bella and her boyfriend’s house in Sellwood. It’s a charming little neighborhood, kind of far from the center of town, but with enough restaurants and pubs in the area that it doesn’t feel like it’s in the boonies. On my trek from the bus stop to her house, I walked beneath a trellis of roses someone had set up over a sidewalk. Not a bad way to start a trip!

As soon as I got there, I set my bags down and went with Bella, J and their friends to go eat at this awesome little sushi place called Suburo’s (sp?). The rolls there are really cheap and monster-sized - the ones I ordered were as big as my fist. I got some sea eel, which was fantastic, and an order of spider rolls, which was okay.

The next day, we headed for the Oregon coast. At first, when we arrived, the ocean was covered in a thick layer of fog - so thick you couldn’t even see the water.

It looks incredibly static, like a Seurat painting, but in person it was quite windy.

As lovely and magical as fog can be, we all wanted to actually be able to see something, so we hopped back in the car and drove up a little ways further, to Oswald West State Park.

While traipsing around the woods and snapping tons of photographs, I looked up and saw the coastline! Not shrouded by fog!

There were a fair amount of Oregonians out and about, taking advantage of the nice day.

The fog billowed over the cliffs, spilling out of the other valley.

I came across this really cool rock and sand turtle someone had built. As I was fiddling with my camera, this dog walked up to the turtle and passed his judgment on its artistic quality.

How many places in this country are more beautiful than the Pacific Northwest?

By the time we headed back to Cannon Beach, where we’d started at the beginning of the day, the fog had cleared to reveal these massive boulders. This particular one is Haystack Rock, famous for being in “The Goonies.”

The water here, of course, is far too chilly for swimming (I must admit, I did try and poke my toes in once, just to see how cold. It’s pretty damn cold.) Of course that didn’t stop some intrepid Oregonians from coming to the beach clad in bikinis and swim trunks!

Next up: food, the city at large, and the Rose Gardens.