Oregon Roots

I arrived early Friday morning at the Portland airport. The air was crisp, clean, and woke me up more than a cup of overly priced coffee. It was sunny and 65 degrees. Beautiful. By midday it was about 90-95 degrees the whole time. Weylin was waiting for me in his new Jeep Patriot and we headed into the city. We stopped at a local restaurant for breakfast where I enjoyed a Spinach and Havarti cheese omelet and seasoned potatoes. Yum.

Me and Weylin

After breakfast and a quick stop by my moms work we headed to Stayton. Population 6,800. I stayed 2 nights at my grandparents solar powered house on a street lined with large trees. I spent the afternoon making blueberry pie and eating green beans picked from the garden. I took a stroll in the garden and picked raspberries, blueberries, and boysenberries until mt finger tips were dark purple. "This is the life" I thought. My grandpa returned home from a hike to cone peak (5300 above sea level), and he is 83 years young. For dinner we had turkey, gravy, steamed green beans, cranberry stuffing, and sweet potatoes. Yum

Me and Grandpa

Solar House

I woke up the first morning to Italian opera and the spell of oatmeal cookies baking. My Grandma was in the kitchen as usual and my Grandpa was reading the paper sitting on the bar stools. My grandpa lives in a fantasy world where you think of s type of food and it appears magically in front of you. Today he had homemade yogurt, cereal with blueberries, juice, toast with homemade jam. He never reaches for any of it. He just looks up from his paper and it is there. He eats, then when he looks up the dirty dishes are magically gone. I had hot cereal with brown sugar and blueberries.

We spent the afternoon at a local festival in Stayon. I saw some cool cars. One made of Oak and a Porsche that looked like an Autobot. It was a good relaxing day.

The Next day we met my parents in Silverton and had lunch at a Thai restaurant. After lunch my mom took me shopping in downtown Salem. Oh the smell of patchouli and coffee. I missed all the tea houses, homemade soap stores, organic clothing, vegan food, people on corners playing instruments, tattoos, sexy clothing stores, the girl will dread locks to her waist. Oh Salem, you are loved.