Monday, August 31, 2015

The West Coast - II

We're staying at Kelly's godparents', who are lawyers. They have a beautiful house and an unbelievable amount of books. Today, the plan is to head to their beach house.

When I last left you, we had just left Eugene, and were trundling up North on I-5. Our destination: Portland. That evening, we arrived in a beautiful, clean, well-organized city, passing under the air tram and wondering what those two green glass towers in the distance could possibly be for.

Upon arrival, we unpacked our stuff and prepared a delicious stir fry, which we enjoyed while watching Portlandia. We then set off to salsa night at a local bar; Aztec Willie. It was very crowded there, filled with an interesting mix of nervous white people and dancing latinos. Kelly tried to teach me salsa, but I was really quite dreadful at it. The margaritas there were tasty, though.

The next day, we lazily lounged around during the morning, and worked on our various projects while waiting for Kelly's godparents to arrive. Pat and Scott showed up with all of their pets, and instantly the house became warmer. We showed them the "Tim Tam Slam" and Pat prepared us a delicious yak soup. We chatted about "The Big One," Portland demographics, and Pat and Scott's glamorous neighbors - Cheryl Strayed recently moved in nearby (!)

That evening, we went down to Salem to a housewarming party thrown by Maiya's friend Karen. On the way we picked up a PCT hiker looking to hitch a ride down to Brownsville, OR. He told us about trail names (his was "the Jesus" - from The Big Lebowski), traveling the Mojave desert, and PCT "legends" - hikers who had completed the triple crown (PCT, AT, and CDT) multiple times. It was awe-inspiring to listen to and I spent the journey down daydreaming. At Salem, we bought some delicious chocolate-covered coconut chews to give to Karen before heading to the party. The food there was delicious, the people warm and welcoming, and there even was a swimming pool! We had a blast, but we left before too long, as it was getting late. At home, we crashed immediately. The day had been tiring.

I woke up early today to actually get some work done. I'll post another update later!

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