My Oregon Trail

Last weekend I went to Oregon to attend a women's conference and visit my longtime friend Jessica (and our mutual friend Dania)! I'd never been to the Pacific Northwest before, so everything was exciting to me. Not that there wasn't legitimate excitement to be had.

First of all, Jessica took professional portraits of me! I've always known she's a talented photographer, but I couldn't believe how good she made me look. :) It was fun to participate in her creative process, too. Please check out the rest of the photo shoot at her blog.

Robin Jones Gunn was the keynote speaker at the conference, and I was able to meet her and have her sign one of my old Christy Miller books! She was extremely nice and down-to-earth, and even gave me a hug. I was thrilled (as you can tell from my dorky expression).

Continuing the bookish theme, we made a pilgrimage to Grant Park, which houses several statues of Beverly Cleary characters. (I was obsessed with the Ramona books as a kid and pretended to be her on many occasions.)

We visited the REAL Klickitat Street. I'm not ashamed to say that I was practically dancing.

The only way to follow that was with a trip to the famous Powell's Books! I bought at least ten books and had to ship a box home.

one of the thousands of aisles in Powell's

We also drove out to the coast one day, despite less than ideal conditions (i.e. cold, rain, and gale force winds). This was my third time seeing the Pacific, and I'm still struck by how different the coast is from the Atlantic I'm used to.

Touching the Pacific (sort of)

We had hoped to take a whale-watching tour, but this was the only whale I saw all day. :)

It was great to spend time with friends in an exotic (to me) location! I hope to go back sometime, preferably at a time when the weather is nicer. :) Thanks Jessica for the hospitality and for driving me all over the place!

And thanks to two layovers in Salt Lake City and a drive across the river into Washington, my visited-states map now looks like THIS:

Woo hoo!