June 21, 2009

“Father’s Day? Bah, Humbug”

We left Portand relatively early so we could have lunch with my cousin John and his family in Corvalis, OR. I apologized for high-jacking their Father’s Day, but they didn’t seem to mind. When we got to their house John, Margit and their two kids Henry and Liza all greeted us as we walked in. Henry and Liza gave us a whirlwind tour of the house, highlights of which included Henry’s Pokemon cards and Liza’s acrobatics. Shelby piqued Margit interest when she mentioned that here students all play pokemon.
“Do they ever grow out of it?”
“Yeah, not a lot of my 5th graders play Pokemon. Maybe some of the less mature 5th graders but not many.”
That seemed to give Margit hope.

We headed out the door to lunch and posed for a picture in front of the house. Liza made a game of grabbing my hat.

We got lunch to go from a local bakery and took it to some nearby picnic tables. We hopped around to different table trying to find one that was somewhat sheltered from the rain that snuck up on us, but eventually made it back to the bakery and ate inside. Henry said,
“It’s not a picnic in Oregon if you’re not moving.”

When we left them we went across town to get an oil change. We’re driving a rental, but it had been 3000 miles and I’d like to think that Hertz would do the same for me. (I’m told that they will reimburse us.)


John had given us directions for the Oregon coast so we headed west for our first peek of the pacific. We stopped, hiked up a huge sand dune and there it was. In the late afternoon sun it looked warm and inviting. The afternoon sun is a lying sack of hammers. I put my feet in and nearly froze those beanbags off. Cold. Cold but worth it.

We drove south down some amazing coastline. The towns, the temperature, and the terrain reminded us of Maine. Ironic that they both have a Portland. I just realized that the alliteration and the rhyme of that last one should be a poem. Here goes. It’s called:
“Ironic that they both have a Portland”

The towns
The temperature and
The terrain
Reminded us of Maine

The signs
That shown on
The shore, again,
Assured us it was Oregon.


Not bad. We camped at a state park called Humbug Mt., watched a beautiful sunset and camped for the first time without any rain whatsoever. (Previous camping nights have involved at least some small amount of rain.) We made Cincinnati style chili that any true Cincinnatian would probably scoff at but we nevertheless devoured.