Travelogue: Oregon Adventures

Last summer was arguably the best summer of my life. My mom's side of the family is from Oregon and so every summer and winter ever since I was a baby has been spent in Oregon. It is because of all those summers and winters that every time I go to Oregon, I get this feeling of "going home". So, of course, at the end of June 2009, my grandpa and I started our 3 day trip to Fossil, Oregon. We decided to go through Nevada, mainly because I wanted to stay the night in Las Vegas. So we leave Blythe at around 7ish at night and get to Vegas at around 11. We stayed at the Golden Nugget, and when we checked in, was I in for a surprise. Our room was INSANE!! Oh Lordy that room was amazing! It was basically this huge suite. There was a master bedroom, that connected to a living room (each had a huge flat screen TV), each room had its own bathroom (mine had a TV in it, too) and there was a little bar area in the living room. I stayed in the living room on a bed the hotel people brought up for me, but boy was I in heaven. Also, I am a total night owl, so Vegas is awesome for me. After we checked in, checked out our room, got our stuff unloaded, relaxed, all that jazz, it was about midnight. Anywhere else, everything would be closed. But no, not in Vegas. We ate a full course dinner in a busy restaurant then went to go watch the light show
and have some Starbucks while we were at it, also. All night long the city was alive and I was loving it. So our hotel had this nightclub called the Golddiggers. My grandpa, being my grandpa, decided to go in there. I got away with it for about 20 minutes until my grandpa decides to ask me what I want to drink, of course he means soda or something, but then the bar tender always looks at me for about an entire minute then asks how old I am. (You don't know how many bars I was kicked out of because of this). So yes, I was in a nightclub at 15 years old in Vegas with my grandpa. I have a picture haha
Ok, so we end up going back to the room at about 3 AM, and I fall asleep after nothing is on TV (Nevada doesn't have TV. At all. It sucks.) We wake up in the morning and decide to go to the stratosphere before we hit the road. After about an hour of my grandpa trying to find the stratosphere (dude, it's the big pointy tower in the middle of the city. Not hard to miss), and him driving on this sidewalk next to the strip that said DO NOT ENTER on it, we finally get inside the stratosphere and we go up to the top and I go on rides and all that. It was all good fun.
Then... we drive...and we drive...and we...wait for it...yes, drive.
Let me just say, other than Vegas, Nevada isn't interesting. Whatsoever. It is all desert and every 8 hours there is a truck stop and a casino. This is what we saw for about a day and a half straight:
So basically we drove until we got to Fossil, Oregon.




Fossil is about two hours out of Bend, Oregon. Fossil is where my grandpa grew up. It's where my great-grandpa lives, and basically the center of our family on that side. No matter what, my great-grandpa always pulls us together.
Here's my great grandpa:







Anyway, we stay at my great grandpa's house

for a couple weeks and I get to see my cousin, Whitney, who is pretty much my sister.
We hang out and it's fun, and then we take off to go to Lehman, a hot spring camp place right between La Grande and Pendleton. This place definitely makes me feel at home. The cabin, the smell of the forest, everything is so peaceful and amazing.
So we stayed in a little cabin and swam, ate, and hiked for about a week. It was awesome, it always is. Around the area, there are tons of forests and places like this:So, basically, that's what happened in Oregon. I hung out with my cousins, swam, hiked, went on crazy adventures with my grandpa, made inside jokes, and loved life. So, let's talk about the trip home. We decided to go the California route. California is a long state. BUT it is interesting. We stopped and visited my uncle and cousin in San Fransisco Ferry around the Bay

Golden Gate Bridge


Cable Cars!!!!

Alcatraz
(This always makes me think of the movie Shutter Island)


My grandpa and I on the ferry




mmmm shrimp and crab =]
So, we have fun, eat overpriced pizzas and go on our way. The next day we got lost in LA, in Chinatown...and Grandpa declared me the worst map reader ever. I declared him the worst sign reader ever. We got frustrated with each other, but it was mostly because we are too much alike and too stubborn. Seriously, once we got in a fight over the difference between "strong willed" and "stubborn". He was basically fighting with me about how he isn't stubborn he's strong willed. At least I admitted that I was stubborn...but I didn't give up haha. My poor grandma that day, she was stuck in between us during our fight at a dinner table in public. That was another time... flashback, okay, so we get out of Chinatown, finally, and make our way home.

So I think I have talked enough about my summer vaccation...even though I could talk about how two days later my friends and I all went to Corona Del Mar and then I stayed with my aunt in Laguna Beach for a month. Well, Laguna Beach is my ultimate happy place, but I talked about Oregon. I learned a lot about my grandpa on this trip. I learned that Nevada is boring, except for Vegas. I learned that my grandpa cannot read signs, but I can't read maps, and that even if there is just a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Nevada, there is a casino there. Most of all I learned that my grandpa and I are more similar than I would have ever thought to be possible.

Personal Philosophy

I am an oxymoron. Okay, don't go laughing now, thinking, "haha she called herself a moron!" Seriously, I am a complete contradiction. For example, I am the most free-spirited obsessive compulsive person on the planet. I can be happy and smiling one moment and a total emotional wreck the next. I am loud and crazy, but also calm and chill. Outgoing and shy, talkative yet quiet, even smart and stupid. All of these contradictions describe me perfectly and there are many more as well.

I have realized a lot about myself over the past year or so, some of it I was glad to discover, other things I need to work on changing.

I have always known I am a procrastinator. For instance, it is 12:37 AM currently and I am only beginning this assignment due in the morning that was given to us a week ago. I try to put myself in the mindset that I am going to get something done, but I get distracted by something that seems easier to do at the moment, like watch TV. I am also a very logical yet understanding person and think more in shades of grey than black and white. I get all sides to a story and determine which is the most logical. I am also lazy, and I have developed somewhat of a carefree spirit, which at times can be great and fun, but can also be hazardous. What I have realized is the I have literally become carefree about mostly everything. Of course I still value and care about my family and friends, and I still have goals and dreams, but I have no current motivation to do anything that would help me achieve those dreams and goals. That said, I am also a dreamer. I have big plans and ideas, but have difficulty actually putting them into motion and doing what needs to be done for them to actually happen.

What might come as a shock to people, is that I am a fairly private and reserved person. I have recently understood that people actually don't know that much about my life. This is because I don't really like talking about it. I would rather forget my troubles and just play around and make jokes with my friends. Sometimes I have to make a joke about something that is actually causing me mental harm, because it's my only way to cope with it or I don't want to think about it. I don't want to tell the whole story because I might not get every part right and because they are usually long stories that I feel most people don't want to hear.

I believe in God and my religion. Lately I have learned a lot more about my religion (Catholicism), and I have actually chosen it, not just been dragged to church every Sunday. I believe everything happens for a reason, but our choices affect the reasons. I truly believe that guns don't kill people, people kill people, because every choice we make determines not only ours, but other people's lives. I believe that everyone can be respected for something. You may not like them, but they have some admirable quality. Last but not least, and ultimately probably not really last, I believe in life. I believe in selfless acts, and in living life passionately.

First of all, I value morals. I have my own set of morals just like everyone else, and I don't expect anyone to follow anyone's set of morals other than their own. I value innocence, because it is something I feel is so lost in the world today. I value happiness, because these days it seems so difficult to genuinely be happy. I value love of all kinds because I think that "those three words are said to much, but not enough."* I value my mom, for giving a lot of her life for me. I value my grandpa, for being the closest thing I have to a dad, for supporting me in every way. I value my grandma and my aunt for being like my second moms. I value my best friends, for always being there for anything. My uncle and my cousins for basically being my brothers and sisters. And with all my heart, I value my actual little brothers and sister, for being that perpetual light in my life.

My main goal in life is fairly simple: be happy. I don't know where I am going, or what I really want to do yet. I have thought of a few choices, but honestly I don't know what I am doing next year, much less in 5 years. I don't know what will make me happy in a few years, what career or anything I will want. I want a little bit of everything and I don't want to ever be stuck in a bad situation that I don't have a way out of. It's like at lunch, I never actually eat a meal. I go around the table, picking off of food here and there and I usually stand. My friends think I am uncomfortable standing, but honestly I prefer being free to move about and do whatever I want, no restrictions. I want to be independent, but not standoffish, though. I want to get married someday, but I am not one of those girls who sits has been planning their wedding ever since they could talk. I am someone who just goes with the flow and sees what happens. Whatever is right will end up being right for me, I just have to be open minded and let it happen. This applies to all aspects of my life, but also with logic and reason mixed in.

Wow, I feel like I have written a lot. I have given a lot of information about my life and rambled on. But I guess that is sort of the point of the assignment right?

Well my personal philosophy basically is that everything happens for a reason, so you just have to let everything happen. You are obviously going to have to use your head and make good choices. Stick to your beliefs and never forget who your true friends are and never take your family for granted.

*Quote from Snow Patrol's song, Chasing Cars. Didn't know how to cite that.
Here's the song, it's a pretty good one with a great message, you have probably heard it, but make sure you listen to the words:

A Perfect Contradiction

Ok so, anyone who knows me knows that the ocean is my happy place. So that might be the obvious reason I chose this photo. Yes, it is a beautiful picture, but the ocean in reality is a contradiction. It looks so beautiful and majestic, and the waves crashing on the shore is a very peaceful sound and feeling. However, the ocean is possibly one of the most dangerous things on earth. Imagine being trapped in that wave the picture shows. Anyone who has ever been trapped inside a wave knows what I am talking about. You lose control of your body, and hope to God that there will be a break to breathe and that it won't slam you into the shore or some rocks. It is a contradiction, a beautiful mess, a perfect flaw, a peaceful terror. In a nutshell, it is me.

The Grandfather Part I

So one of the main ideas for a blog topic was my grandpa. Let me warn you, he is one of the most obsessively Catholic and Republican people I know. He has no filter of what he probably shouldn't say out loud. *He is not prejudice or racist or anything and he means no disrespect to your religion, race, or political views whatsoever. So do not take offense to anything he says. He just says whatever pops into his mind at the time. However, everything is to be taken lightheartedly, or don't read it at all.*
Anyhow, there will be more posts about my grandpa and the random things he says, this is just what I have been able to quickly type out.


1.) Grandpa-"Do you know how much water California would save if men weren't allowed to pee in toilets?... It's just unsanitary, really."

Mom- “I really don’t understand why you have to be in the bathroom for so long. There is like 15 people in this cabin and there is only ONE bathroom.”

Grandpa-“ Well, it would be really easy to build a urinal upstairs. All you would have to do is bring a long pipe…”

2.) Grandpa-“Those damn Canadian democrats.”

3. )Grandpa-"My first act of mercy at University of Portland was volunteering at a center for mentally retarded Eskimos."

Me-"Oh really, just them?"

Grandpa- "Yeah well they have their problems, too, you know. If you lived in those igloos in the darkness for 6 months, you would be messed up, too."

4.) So my eighteen year old cousin was down visiting us, and I walked in to the living room while my grandpa was telling her a little story.
Here’s his story:

“Well, there once was this man named Hitler. And he didn’t like the Jews very much. In fact, he tried to kill ALL of them (saying this while gasping). He almost did, too. But you know, of course some of them escaped. They went up into the mountains, sort of like the ones in Oregon, but in Poland instead.”

So, after all of that, my cousin replies, “Yeah… I know what the Holocaust is, Grandpa.”


5. )(Short Story Alert!!!)So my grandfather decided to buy some math DVDs. Yes. You read correctly. Not just math DVDs, calculus DVDs. So after about 3 months of his efforts to get me to sit down and watch them, my aunt, Michelle, comes home for Christmas. And guess what? Yep. He brought out the boxed set of calculus lectures and somehow got us to watch one. Here is how the conversation went when we were deciding which one to watch:

Grandpa-“Which one should we start off with?”

Michelle-“Hmm… how about Pascal’s Triangle?”

Grandpa- “Oh! Yeah! Let’s watch Pascal’s TER-AN-GLE.”

*I kid you not, how I just spelt triangle was how he pronounced it. TER-AN-GLE.*

Me- laughs really hard.

Grandpa-starts laughing, not really knowing why. “What’s so funny?”

Me- “You said TER-AN-GLE…It’s supposed to be TRI-ANGLE.”

Grandpa-“…Well, they sound like the same words to me.”

*Michelle & I start laughing in unison, Grandpa still confused.*

So then we go off into this laughter fest, bringing up every time he has pronounced
something “wrong”. I put wrong in parenthesis because of course, he never thinks he
says anything wrong.

Michelle-“Remember a Mc DLT is a Mc Dilt, and a Cadillac is a Cad-i- lick.”

Me- “Or Elvis is really ELV-LIS, Italy is IT-LY. Oh and don’t forget, you don’t wash something, you WARSH it.

Grandpa- “Okay, Okay.”

Then he randomly starts a conversation about how nowadays we don’t pronounce Latin words correctly.

Grandpa- “I know the right way to pronounce Latin words, I took it in high school, I went to mass in Latin. This new-fangled way of speaking it is not correct. Like everyone says his name Copernicus, but I know that it is CO-PER-KNEE-SHIS.”

And that’s when my aunt and I just about died of laughter.

haha I love my grandpa =]