People pack their best when they're on vacation, and for some reason I decided that Oregon should see me as a human potato. Or a really confused Desert Storm deserter. I was rocking the beige top and pants. No one really commented on it, I just caught a reflection and was instantly appalled. Then I danced around like a hot potato for effect.
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Travelling with a dog is somewhat challenging, especially when the hotel doesn't allow you to crate the dog by itself. She spent most of the vacation in the car, so I felt a little bad for her, but at least she got to see Oregon. Wilbur is crazy jealous, from what I gathered from his expressionless face. Daisy spent all the commuting times on Elaine's lap, kneading her thighs and shedding all over my poor wife. If she had any more fur on her, PETA would've picketed my wife. Daisy also got herself riled up over other dogs, cats, and bold red Oregon squirrels, and decided to take it out on her leash. Her retractable fifteen dollar leash. Damn dog.
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We never visit friends and relatives in other states because we usually don't have any, but in this rare case we had an opportunity to visit Bev, who is my wife's ex mother in law. It's not as awkward as it sounds, since she's a pretty nice lady. Easy to chat with, very warm, very grandmotherly even though my kids have no blood relation to her at all. I'm glad we got to see her, even if it meant an hour of driving through hellish, rainy traffic.
I also got to see my cousin in Oregon, and meet her husband Patrick. I haven't seen her since Alex was less than a year, so yeah, it's been a while. We had dim sum and I ordered like a maniac with the full intention of picking up the bill, so when they did I felt a little bad because their palate was on par with Elaine's, which is to say they were willing to try new things, but they usually stuck with what they liked. I wished to spend more time with them since it's not often I get to spend time with peers who are related to me, but they had jobs and we had a timeline to adhere to in order to get home in time for kids bedtime. But still, it was a good visit.
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A milestone I hoped to never reach was realized when I innocently went to the bathroom at the motel. What was to be a routine drop slowly unravelled into a horror show when my deposit failed to swirl into obilvion, instead swirling upward in a rising pool of unusual undigested byproduct. In a panick, I started bailing filth into the bathtub with Daisy's dog dish but it kept overflowing, because the stopper in the toilet bowl was also not working. I reached for the valve to shut off the water but instead cranked up the pressure, flooding the bathroom floor with some really bad soup. Finally I shut it off, and yelled for my wife to get a plunger from the front desk. The manager, who did not seem to understand that I had a reputation to uphold, sent in a housekeeper.
I avoided eye contact as she undoubtedly was emotionally scarred by cleaning up after me. We left the room promptly soon after with a tip to cover the cost of hand sanitizer.
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The ironic thing about Science Centers are that the kids love to tinker with the physical props and ignore the actual Science. They don't care what propelled the empty soda bottle, they just want to make it go. Meanwhile, I'm trying to learn something I should already know, but because of the kids and their desire to hope from exhibit to exhibit, I find it easier to just ignore the words and play with the toys.
Perhaps the most eye catching exhibit aside of the giant submarine docked outside te Science Center is the pre-natal section, basically about childbirth and all that. In the middle of the floor is a section with an almost full circle enclosure which is black. And at eye level, there are glass displays of fetuses from early conception all the way to near full term. Surprising to me at least, was that all the fetuses, maybe thirty or more, were actual fetuses.
I suppose some people might raise a fuss about it, but i think I was rather glad that it exists. It's not like it caters to any morbid curiousity, it was done rather well.
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The highlight of the Oregon zoo had to be one of these three things: The Zoolights, seeing the Bat exhibit, or watching a monkey pick anothers' posterior, insert residue in his mouth, and then spit it out. That was a lesson for many of us that day. The baby elephant was pretty cute too.
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It was a claim that didn't seem true, more so when we were seeing it in person. The second tallest waterfall in the US. Didn't seem that tall. Reexamining the photo I took, it was actually the second tallest continuously running waterfall in the US. Tricky.
We tried hiking to the top of the waterfall, but it was quite a trek. Pretty cool though, even if I'm usually not the kind to enjoy nature much.
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Irony is when your windshield wipers don't work and it's pouring down rain, and when you finally switch the left and right wipers, it stops raining for the rest of the vacation. The first Two days were like trying to wipe down windows during a downpour with a wet towel. I depended mostly on large shapes to drive.
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When a large man approaches you at a gas stop in Oregon, he's not trying to rob you I found out. To cover my embarassment, I went inside and tried to pay for a full tank. That's when the attendant told me that he had to fill the tank first. I'm so cool.
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It was a much needed trip really, it should hold till Disneyland in the spring.
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