Oregon Vacation

Blog Buzz #5

Oregon Vacation

Last weekend I went to Oregon to visit my dad's old friend from college, Michael Hansen, and his family. We went to three places in Oregon: Bend, Portland, and Lincoln City, which is REALLY close to the coast.

When we stopped at Bend (we broke our drive to Portland in half), we stayed at a hotel/motel called the Shilo Inn. It was cozy, but they had pretty uncomfortable beds and when you turned on the TV it didn't have great picture. Oh, well! At least they had REALLY fast Internet and AWESOME free breakfast. I even created my new blog, Crafty Abby, there.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and headed to a ski mountain called Mount Bachelor. Instead of being wimps and going up the chairlift, we decided to be MACHO and HIKE! No one else did it. I hated the climb up, but going down was AWESOME. As you can see in the pictures, we rode down the mountain with trash bags. Tanner took a chance and took off all his clothes except his underwear and rode down. It wasn't a huge success, though. He fell off his bag. Poor Tanner. He ended up being cold for the rest of the hike down.

When we got to the bottom, my black Converse shoes were all muddy and brown. They didn't even look black anymore. I used one big waterbottle to wash the dirt off at the end. My family got mad, though. They said that they need the water, too. Oh, well. ;)

We put our stinky shoes and socks in a trash bag and rode the rest of the way to Portland barefoot. It reeked in the car. I had to suffer for three hours.

When we got to Portland, we changed into new socks and shoes and checked in to our new hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. It's much nicer and newer than a regular Holiday Inn. My brother taught me a new song called, "Motel Hotel." He sang it over and over whenever we said "hotel" or "Holiday Inn." "Motel, Hotel, Holiday Inn!" is how it goes. I thought it was funny that a rapper would sing about a hotel. Rappers sing about weird topics sometimes.

After we checked in, we drove to the Hansens' house to pick up my brother Parker and his girlfriend Meegan. Parker got interviewed to see if he could work for Nike (Nike headquarters are in Portland). Meegan had gotten interviewed to see if she could work for this credit union called Pacific. Parker got interviewed for the Nike job because Michael Hansen, the man we were visiting, (and his family, too!) works for Nike. It's a REALLY cool job.

When we got to the Hansens', the wife, Janine, (I hope I spelled that right) gave us awesome cookies. I don't know what they had in them, but they were good and crunchy. She gave us a huge container of them for us to take back to our hotel. We ate them all in less than 24 hours. My brothers are pigs.

Then, we went to Red Robin for dinner. It was really good. I always love a good cheeseburger once in a while. A chocolate Monster Milkshake, too. Yummy. I want some right now. When a waiter took a picture of us, the waiter that had been serving us jumped into the picture right when the waiter took it. I don't know why it didn't show up on the computer, though.

The next day we went to Nike headquarters to get a private tour from Michael Hansen. There's a track dedicated to Michael Johnson, this really good track runner. It's not very big, but it would give you a great workout!

On the campus, they have buildings named after professional sports players. For example, there's a Lance Armstrong building that has a rock climbing wall, a pool, and lots of exercise rooms. I've never climbed a rock climbing wall, so I REALLY wanted to break into that room, strap on bungee cords QUICK, and climb to the top.

Next to the Lance Armstrong building is a little putting course in honor of Tiger Woods. When the Tiger Woods building was dedicated, Tiger Woods hit a golf ball that went 364 yards and landed in the exact space a plaque is sitting now that tells about the hit. At the end it said "Damn bushes" because if those bushes hadn't been there the ball would have gone farther. :)

After the tour, we went to the Nike Employee Store where you can get ALL Nike items for half-off! Right when I walked in I pulled a shirt off the rack. My mom thought I was going to be buying everything I laid my eyes on, but I ended up only getting about five articles of clothing and two pairs of AWESOME shoes: pink Converse (Nike owns the Converse company) and pink breast cancer basketball shoes. There's a pink ribbon on them that shows if you buy those shoes, the money will go to support women with breast cancer. It was awesome.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a fashion show of all our clothes. Then, we changed into casual clothes and drove to downtown Portland to find a restaurant. We walked a long ways and ended up by the Willamette River. Above you can see the picture. I'm in a ponytail and I'm wearing a gray butterfly shirt. Soon we found a Thai restaurant called Typhoon! I don't like Thai, but I tried some new things and it's delicious! But, of course, I had to eat most of the rice. RICE IS SO DANG GOOD.

The next day we went to church. For class I got to go to a classroom that 12 and 13-year-olds go to. They were shocked to find out I was ten years old, besides Reese, who is Michael Hansen's 13-year-old son, because he already knew.

Then I went to the younger classtime for 3-12-year-olds. That's where I belonged. I ended up being the oldest. Woo hoo!

After church we went to the Hansens' for lunch. We had chicken, watermelon, rice...a big feast. I didn't eat much. I wasn't very hungry.

We played volleyball outside in the rainy weather. I was all giggly because I kept falling over and messing up the play. My brothers started teasing me around by saying, "I think you had some Reese's Pieces last night!" I paused for a few moments, and then asked, "Why did you say that?" My brother Parker looked at me and said, "You know exactly what I mean, Abby." Reese was on the other side of the net, staring with wide eyes. OK, OK, I know what you're all thinking. But nope, it's not true. Well, maybe a little, but not fully. He's 13, I'm ten. He's shorter than I am. He is quiet, I'm not. YOU SEE NOW? And I shouldn't be talking about this. MOVING ON!

The next day, Monday, we drove to the Hansens' beach house. It's a really nice beach house. It could almost be a regular house! I really liked staying in it. We stopped in Salem for a shopping spree, then kept on going. We all (Mangums AND Hansens) sat at one table. I couldn't sit there, because I was wet from the ocean. I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN WET. It was just so tempting.

After lunch, we went back to the ocean for volleyball. It was really hot in the wetsuit, so I took it off (don't worry, my swimsuit was underneath). We played volleyball, and again, I was giggly. My mom told my brothers to stop the teasing, though, so none of that. I saved the ball a few times. No spiking, though, dang it. I wanted to so bad! I'm just not tall enough compared to my brothers.

After a long match, we climbed into the ocean, and this time I didn't have my wetsuit on, so it was colder. I got sucked into a few big waves, so I got kind of used to it. Soon, it got really cold, so Marrin, the daughter, (I hope I spelled her name right) Reese, and I got into our towels and hurried to their hot tub.

It felt SO good once we climbed in. The hot tub can only fit about four people, but once all my brothers got in the hot tub was overflowing so we had to take turns sitting on the edge while others got to be in the warmth. It's cold when you sit on the edge. I didn't like it, but oh well. We don't want to waste water.

That evening, we went to the beach again to roast marshmallows and had s'mores. It was really fun, but cold. Reese didn't bring a jacket, so he was sitting there freezing. Poor him. :)

That night we watched a movie. We saw Taken. The people who had already seen it went downstairs to watch the Paycheck. Taken was scary, and the sad thing about it is that it happens in real life. Here's a clue about it: people take these two girls. That's all I'm going to say.

We all went to bed when it was about 1:00 AM. We were tired.

The next day we had French Toast with this awesome Buttermilk Syrup. http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=1242 You can get the recipe at that website.

My family packed the car, said goodbye to the Hansens, and then drove the 11 hours home. We dropped off Madison, Parker, and Meegan at the Portland Airport. They had to fly back to Utah for school. I got the whole back seat to myself while Tanner and Meredith got their own space in the middle. I was less nauseous than I was when I was cramped with Tanner and Meredith. I don't know if I'm claustrophobic, (which means I don't do well when I'm cramped) but whatever. I don't care if I am.

We stopped in Baker City for dinner. My family got Subway, but since I don't like sandwiches, I went to McDonald's and got some Chicken Nuggets. :) I thought I didn't want a shake when my dad ordered it, but when I asked my sister for a sip of hers, I drank almost the whole thing. She got mad. Oh well. It was irresistable.

I had the greatest vacation to Oregon EVER!!!