Comfort Suites Salem

... got up early to do some wine tasting. We were in the Willamette Valley wine region of Oregon so were able to taste some very nice Pinot Noir. It was very cold weather! From here we headed directly to the coast where we started our road trip down Highway 101.

We h*d * gre*t d*y tod*y despite some pretty high side-winds from the west. The ro*ds were busy but good. Lots of trucks on I-5, even for * Sund*y. We st*rted the d*y by *ttending worship services with Bob *nd J*net *t B*yside Church in Gr*nite B*y. It w*s *n *m*zing service *nd the worship is re*lly exciting. It w*s the first time I'd ever he*rd * church get excited when it w*s time to t*ke the offering. They re*lly h*ve embr ...

... wasn't creation of an income stream, I found that downtown Salem yields about $3 an hour.

We quickly transformed into homebodies again this past month, but we did take a few day trips to
Portland (located approximately 45 minutes north) and Lincoln City (a
beach town on the Oregon coast, directly west of Salem). We were
privileged to have Clooe's company for most of the month. A terrific
golden retriever ...

... out the other side and back on US-12.

Footnote: Lewiston, ID deserves a return visit as we went through the "Old Town" last evening and it is so heavily treed that the canopy of the trees hangs over the street from both sides and creates a very nice shaded promenade. Also there is a lot of interesting shops and eating places. We need to add Dayton and Walla Walla to this list for a return. But the time to visit is either early ...

... 192 countries that are undisputed that still leaves
many areas of the world that do not enjoy such luxury. I am certain
they will continue to fight about it until long after my expiration.
Just as certain in fact as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow and
wool is itchy and uncomfortable.

Courtney and I have decided to
set off across these lines virtually wherever we can find them. We have
every intention of traversing these from one to the next for ...

... more interested in listening and learning than in "partying" compared to other group tours they had been on. My concern about "standing around waiting for other group members" did not materialize-everyone was quite prompt with posted schedules, as was our local guide Ahmed. This trip was very, very full in terms of sightseeing and Ahmed's experience paid off when he said things like, "we will meet at the bus at 9:30 and you ...

... Aug 11th - woke to find him kneading my body, asking to eat breakfast! I think this will be a lazy day, at least this morning. I did not do anything but read and sleep and play with the cat today-I guess my body just needed to get caught back up-Tonight I feel rested -I did make a pot of soup today-and worked on a new blog to upload this diary too- Hope it works out. Aug 12th- About noon I headed out and first stop was the PERS office. I had worked ...

... route was the way to go. So with the promise to share costs, I decided to head out tomorrow with him. No-one in the hostel it seems ate food so I went up the street to the Blue Moon bar for food. Found a steak and ale stew with pasta. Interesting combination and quite nice, but the portions were for cats, not Americans, so left me feeling hungry still so had a big ale brownie. That was good too. Went back to the hostel. Still quiet ...

On my way to Salem, my flight from Warsaw was 2 hours late, which was a miracle!!! I met my parents in the airport on August 6th for an hour. We didn't plan the meeting, but we were both going through Chicago on the same day. If my flight had been on time, I would have missed them by 7 minutes- so I was ecstatic to hear about a delay. But, I was overjoyed to finally get to Oregon the next day (after over 50-some hours of ...

Finally, I am out of Portland. It's not that I didn't like Portland the city or the people, its just that the weather sucked, I didn't have anything to do, and I had no friends. So even if there was something to do, like go skiing, I didn't have anyone to go with. Poor poor Jimmy. However, Maya and I have spend all day packing up the apartment and we are headed to warmer places. Of course it ...