Blogs from Oregon, United States, North America - page 128

Last Wednesday at the ungodly hour of 6:30am (unsure how god relates to a time of day), I flew out to Portland, Oregon as part of the UofM student chapter of the Society of American Foresters! It sounds pretty professional, and indeed, it was a conference held at the Oregon Convention Center. Our group stayed at the illustrious INN at the Convention Center, which was conveniently practically at the convention center. I attended 11 seminars, most of which focused on ecology, and more specifically, fire. They were very interesting and educational except for one, which didn't seem to belong. I toured the city and found a park with a vista, which provided a beautiful shot of the city, and tall trees. We had a dinner with U alumni. We ate out and felt full, and then ... read more

Mum and Dad visited me for three weeks. We had a great time. They arrived on the Saturday whilst I was in Colorado on Fulbright Fall Meeting. When I returned on the Tuesday, they were still really very jet lagged. By the next weekend they were starting to aclimatize and we travelled to the coast. We visited Florence, Newport and Yachats. The weather was freezing, and typically breezy, but we had a great time. We visited the aquarium, the sea lion caves (although they were out...twice..so we didn't pay 9 bucks to see the caves minus the animals) and we had a lovely walk along the beach at Seal Rock and saw some seals at no cost at all. Wednesday the 10th October arrived and I turned the BIG 3-0! A bit of a depressing thought, ... read more

I arrived in early August here in Eugene. Since arriving I had travelled, worked, socialised and enjoyed everyday life. I have been taking photographs of all my experiences. I have posted most on facebook and bebo. However; since this limits who can view them I decided to put everything on a central site, to let people see what I am doing.... read more

SO here we are in Bandon-By-The-Sea and we are seeing sun for the first time in a week! Its been very depressing because we haven't been able to do much. We tried hiking in the rain, but then we were soaked and it took 3 days for our clothes to dry. Since Seattle- we went to Olympic National Park and camped there for a night. We hiked in the rainforest and we thought all the moss was really cool looking. After Olympic NP, we started our journey down the coast with high hopes of warm weather and sun. WRONG! Cold and rainy for the forecast (thanks to the wonderful working man, Alex Penning, who is always in front of his computer checking the weather for us!) We explored much of the Washington and Oregon Coasts, hiking ... read more

We thought you might be interested in a few facts and statistics from the tour: Number of days on the road = 73 Miles travelled = 14,213 (approximately!) Gallons of fuel = 362 (approximately) Number of states = 34 (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California). Notable wildlife seen: Elk, Pronghorn Antelope, Burro, Long horned sheep, White tail deer, Mule deer, Golden Eagle, Cougar, Goafer, Armadillo, Alligator, Skunk, Bison, Wild horses, Coyote, Cotton tail rabbits, Jack rabbit, Turkey vultures, Bluebirds Items mysteriously lost on route = 1 flip-flop (new, somewhere in Ke... read more