Oregon Days 3 & 4

Friday, I had my appointment at Portland State University for a tour of the campus. The uniqueness I discovered is how the campus is laid out in downtown Portland. Just from walking the campus buildings it is hard to believe 25,000 attend college there. I am "sold" on attending classes here. The average class size is 25-30, plus there are more upper-level classes available in the nights and on weekends.

The ironic part of this tour was who had the umbrella. Those who lived in OR and WA had to borrow one of the umbrellas. Little ol' me from Nebraska was smart enough to bring one along! lol

After my tour, we took a ride on the Aerial Tram. The tram was built to transport patients to the med. center. However, the public can use it as well. The pictures (and views) from this ride were incredible! Looking out over the river and City Center was just so cool!

Since we were halfway across Portland, we drove up to Vancouver, WA to visit Terry's mom and sister, Kim. (Side note: Chris is/was still in Seattle with Whitney, as she recovers from her heart transplant. So I didn't get to see her :( ) We took Terry's mom out for a late lunch, then returned to her house to play some cards. BTW ladies rock at cards! lol (enough said)

While we were in Vancouver, it started snowing HUGE snowflakes. This was starting to concern us about the plans to go to the coast on Saturday. The mountain pass we would cross was being closed due to the weather. Fortunately, by Saturday morning the roads had cleared and the pass was open.

On the way to the coast, we stopped for lunch in Sherwood, OR, just south of Portland, at a "Sushi & Teriyaki" place. I had to laugh as we were waiting for our food, I started really listening to the music being played. When one of my favorite Christian worship songs started to play, I started to laugh. Here we were in an "authentic" Asian restaurant, with (very) American Christian worship music playing in the background!

On the way through McMinnville, we decided to stop and visit the Aviation Museum, where the "Spruce Goose" is housed. Normally, I wouldn't have chosen to visit such a place. I'm glad Terry drug me into this. The planes were really interesting, as well to see all of the changes in Aviation over the years. There was a cut-out of one of the first commercial jets. Looking at that made me really appreciate what I had flown into Portland on!

Standing next to the Pacific Ocean was awe-inspiring. From the hotel room, I could watch the waves roll in from a great distance. The Pacific certainly wasn't very "peaceful" that day. A storm was starting to roll in to the north. We took advantage of the sun, while we could and took some pictures, while we were out on some rocks. The rocks we were walking around on had little tiny clam (looking) shells embedded in them. I'm not much of a biologist, but it was fascinating to see all of the "homes" of these tiny creatures. (To the Gatewood clan: No I did NOT bring any rocks home. I thought of Grandma's suggestion, though!)