Oregon Pt. 2

Back to last summer in Oregon. A couple of weeks into our stint at the marine institute we had a long weekend for memorial day. A bunch of us decided to go spend the weekend in Portland, one of the guys had a friend who owned a cabin near the city so we could stay for free also. Let me tell you if you're not in love with the Pacific Northwest already from coastal life, spend a little time in/near Portland and you will be. I can't emphasize enough how beautiful it is...sooooooo beautiful. I imagine it similar to German countryside, rolling beautiful hills, wide grassy feilds juxtaposed with areas of dense forest, and everything is so green and full of life, on top of that it is so quaint (outside of Portland - we were in Sheridan).

The kid who had the connection to the cabin was from a town named Sheridan, his family owned a farm there. They invited us over for a barbecue the evening we got into town. Their land was beautiful. It would have been fun to play around the area as a kid.

I grew up in LA, I had never spent any extended period of time on a farm - in fact I went on a hayride once and a field trip to a farm when I was little, that's the extent of my experience. So I spent some extra time at the farm while most of the others went to the cabin. It was crazy, Taran's sister showed Bre, Kelly and I around and gave us a little taste of what it's like to run a farm. I had a lot of firsts that day: I touched a goat and then I milked it and then tried goat milk (I did not like that), I rode a horse (admittedly, I am slightly afraid of horses - mostly their big teeth - and I was uncomfortable but it was pretty fun, except my horse was a bit rambunctious and at one point took off running), and I ate a fresh angus beef hamburger - I'll talk about that in a minute. Look how cute the animals just line up to be milked - or slaughtered :|

Taran's family was so nice to us and I was definitely appreciative, but I was not ready for the hamburger situation. The thing is the cow had been killed like the day before and much of it was still in huge slabs like you see in movies, others were in large piles of ground beef, and a lot of blood. So here some of the OIMB students are making the patties we're going to eat. I could not get into the hamburger - some people say fresh beef is so much better but the whole situation kind of grossed me out and I couldn't even eat the hamburger (I forced down as much as I could to not be rude). I actually became a vegetarian shortly after Oregon, and this picture still grosses me out.

We spent the majority of the trip in Portland. I loved that city. It was definitely a big city, but it was also so beautiful - like the rest of Oregon. I think there is an attitude to most cities, and Portland felt so relaxed, yet hip and full of environmental concern (though not an attitude I liked it); and everyone rode bikes! So we saw most of the sights: Saturday Market (I had my palm read), Burnside Bridge - and the skate park underneath, Voodoo Donuts, Powell's bookstore - incredible, the size of costco with multiple floors, I loved it, downtown, the umbrella man, the temple, the green glass buildings, etc.

On the drive back to Coos Bay, we drove down the 101 along the coast. It was such a pretty drive, and totally worth all the twists and turns. For a lot of the drive the road is on a cliff edge, so there are these really cool views and rock formations. At one point we stopped at a look out and ended up climbing out onto the rocks. It was crazy fun, but looked like an area with little life, mostly just the rocks. But I climbed to the edge of the rocks and all the sudden this oasis of life appeared that could not be seen except if you're on top of it. It was great, so cool, and so many vibrant colors. I love the ocean. Okay, that's all for now.

Reprise: On Stage

Wow! How good is sooooo good? See Phantom of the Opera, the stage production and you'll know. I was blown away today at the Pantages in Hollywood. In the interest of full disclosure, I am completely biased. I love stage productions (particularly musicals...but straight plays, opera, ballet, etc. I like it all); I also have a particular affinity toward Andrew Loyd Webber and especially this show. When I was younger my mother had an Andrew Loyd Webber video (it was a compilation of Webber hits, awesome) and we watched it all the time - I can sing along to everything from Jesus Christ Superstar to Joseph. Anyway, the Phantom of the Opera songs were my favorite - it was around my twelfth year when I stole the CD from the Broadway production with Micheal Crawford/Sarah Brightman, and thus it started. I had never actually seen a production of it until the movie (straight up - we were poor growing up, pricey musicals were not in the cards). I thought the movie was really great, no qualms with any part, I own it and watch it. The thing is the broadway performers mostly blew the the movie cast out of the water in terms of voice - they were soooo good. I was completely impressed in every sense. If you ever have the chance to see this musical...take it.

Okay, in conclusion: my favorite Phantom of the Opera related moments:

1. Singing phantom songs in parts with Melissa on the ski lifts - I wonder if the people behind/in front of us could hear? Haha, I hope so.
   
2. Explaining to someone that "Music of the Night" is the Phantom seducing Christine emotionally, physically and mentally - Come to the Dark Side, Luke and also sleep with me - and thus dashing her innocent naiveté, she was 23 though. She took it hard, like the show was ruined for her or something.
3. The bus ride freshman year to see this movie in the theatres; good memories on the Provo bus circuit - I know people who met on the bus and then got married, I think the LA bus circuit I took had more...ummm...character though.
   

Oregon Pt. 1

Some excerpts from the time I spent living/researching at a marine Institute (OIMB) in Charleston, Oregon.

WARNING: Longest Post Ever.

Coastal Oregon is soooooo beautiful; the coastlines are pristine, craggy and sandy and the inland area is a forest, seriously like Jurassic Park. It is so green and natural, not to mention relatively secluded; it was so refreshing after growing up in LA (not that I don't love LA).

Okay OIMB is beautiful, and definitely tight-knit. I was there with some other college kids and a professor/his TAs and we took classes and did our research project and then there were the University of Oregon kids doing Undergrad or Grad work. You get to know eachother fast; I was even luckier, I came knowing people, our TA Sophie and a friend Kelly - we were pretty close after Physics 106 and fish/flux analogies, anyone else have Magleby? haha.

Anyway, the marina was pretty much our front yard, it was so nice to just sit on an isolated beach - think, write, read, draw, whatever, I read Les Mis - wow. Also it was pretty fun to mingle with the old fishermen around the docks. The dorms were a treat, boys and girls in the same hall, also the walls didn't go to the ceiling haha, it was pretty funny - not much privacy. Also, here's our campus map, we lived in the dinin hall/dorms and you can actually see a really small bit of my window on the far left of the dorm picture.

Anytime we weren't required to be in class we were probably outside exploring/messing around or playing sand volleyball - we got pretty good. There were so many trails to hike in the woods, which were right behind the Institute, and coastline to explore, which was right in front. Also I had my mountain bike so I got to see a lot of the area; it was awesome so many Oregonians have bikes I love it - I hope I can live in the Coastal Northwest when I grow up, maybe Seattle.

We were on this trail one day, hiking and the woods were pretty thick and the trail vaguely cleared. Anyway, the brush clears a bit to the west and we realized we were totally on a cliff edge, which we did not know; we kept going and the trail abruptly ended with a cliff edge (seen below), there had been a mudslide the previous winter that had wiped out the trail, it was crazy, a little frightening, and very cool.

Even the work at OIMB was awesome, this is research (pictures below, I loved posessing hip waders even if only for a summer). This tunnel cut from the trails in the mountains right behind the Institute to this secluded beach/tide pool. Like every beach in Southern Oregon has tide pools too, and they are so pristine, I can't describe how happy they made me. The tunnel was a pretty good find, saved time to get to the beach for research if we couldn't get a ride (it was like a mile by road from the Institute) and definitely had the cool/spooky/freaky vibe going for it. Kelly, Bre and I braved it a few times without a flashlight.

Our first kind of day trip outside of Charleston, came when Dr. B wanted to go to Bandon (like an 1 hr South down the coast). He said Bandon has the best fish and chips in the world and invited anyone who wanted to come. The fish and chips were okay, a little oily for my taste, but we had fun walking around the town. It was quaint and a little touristy. 1st picture - Me, Kelly, Laura and Bre in hats in Bandon. A couple weeks into my time in Oregon I turned 22 (fyi my golden birthday as I turned 22 on May 22nd).

Aparently, if anything weird in a marine sort of way happens in Charleston locals think that the Institute students are marine experts. This one particular day Mike, Kelly and I were out running and on our way back some local people stopped us and told us they found this stranded baby seal pup, so they brought it to the Institute. FYI it is a huge fine to even come within like 100 ft of a marnine animal let alone pick it up. But anyway, they said they saw some teenagers messing with it and attempting to run it over, so they rescued it and brought it to the marine institute. We of course had no idea what to do with it, the professors who live on campus and all the grad students were also away on a study. So we're left with this infant seal pup (it still had an umbilical cord). Eventually we got a police officer over who was in contact with the department of wildlife and they transported it a couple hours north were they could care for it (it died like 2 days later). But he was so cute, we named it Boo.

Here are so of the crazy animal life you see at the tidepools:

Of course I should mention that it was by no means a warm toursity beach type environment. It was late spring/summer and often in was warm like 75 or 80, but the water was always freezing, I only got in on 2 occasions - once after a run we jumped in and the other during a crazy moment of fleeting reckless abandon when I jumped into deep water from a rock like 150 meters out to sea that was insane.

Oregon is famous for huge waves crashing into the rocky shore, we got to see a bit of that. Also, the microscope picture below is juvenile sea urchins. I actually spawned those and then we tracked their life cycle from single cell through juvenile, it was very intersting. Thing with the baby sea urchins though, someone from each team had to watch them 24/7 for a few days, so I have some good memories of Kelly and I on the 2 am til 6 am shift.

Okay, well this post is so long and I have so many pictures/memories from Oregon that I think this will be installment 1 in a series, so auf wiedersehen for now.

PS maybe you're wondering about the German, I'm picking up some German for Europe this summer. I have family in Germany we'll probably stay with for a couple days, it's a heritage thing or something.

Most of you probably don't know, but I was named after my father's mother Carol Paul (my middle name is Carol). She died last year, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about her. She had a special way about her...realistic, un-expecting and unassuming, with a real wry sense of humor, she was so funny. She was beautiful, yet tough. My grandfather (pictured above on their wedding day and in a few of the black and white pictures) died when my dad was seven, leaving my grandmother a single mother of four children in the sixties. She mourned for sure (she said my grandfather was the only love of her life) but she had four kids to take care of, so she did what she had to, worked and made the best. She would eventually remarry, but none would work out, because like I said my grandfather was it. Anyway, I miss her a lot, and I honestly hope I'm kind of like her/can be like her.


A little caption for the pictures: clearly my grandma is the young to old woman in all the pictures, my grandfather (Robert Paul) is in the cowboy hat in the 2nd and 3rd pictures, my dad is the baby in all the pictures/on the far left in the first color picture/the groom in the wedding pictures (my mom's the bride), the other young woman in the black and white photos is my grandma's sister, the first color picture is my grandma, dad and his brothers (Warren, far right and also the little boy in the 4th picture, and Bob, middle) and sister (Dorothy, also the little girl in 3rd picture), my brother (Robby) and I are the kids in the Muir woods picture, the older guy in the wedding pictures and the one with my grandma and the baby (my sister, Melissa) is Preston (they were married through most of my childhood), the group wedding picture is my dad's family, and the last picture is my grandma with her sister.