Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Return of the native


I sent off my book proposal last week, and the next day Cosimo and I hopped a flight to Northwest City. We spent a day in Other Northwest City and a couple of days at my aunt and uncle's house on the Oregon coast, where my brother and his girlfriend met up with us. Then we all headed back to the family homestead.

This is how we do, in the PNW:
  • We go on hours-long hikes in the wildlife preserve near my parents' house. (It preserves cougars and bears. We make a lot of noise.)
  • We encounter slugs. I had forgotten about slugs of this size and in these quantities.
  • We see women in high heels riding bicycles home from bars. Also, we see bicyclists yelling at motorists stopped in traffic about their crimes against the environment.
  • We wonder whether driving a car with Marine Corps paraphernalia (bumper sticker, medallion, DoD tags) means we'll get yelled at, too.
  • We walk for miles on virtually deserted beaches.
  • We drive in and out of tsunami hazard zones.
  • We spend three hours and hundreds of dollars at Powell's City of Books. We have everything shipped back east. We feel depressed about how ill-read we are, and how little reading time we have.
  • We eat lots of seafood.
  • We drive through tiny towns where hand-lettered signs advertise firewood, live bait, and espresso.
  • When we're not staring at the sea, we're staring at the mountains.
  • We miss the west.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do love the Oregon coast (Yachats? Newport?) and Powells! What a fabulous vacation (do wish you were getting warmer weather, tho;-)

squadratomagico said...

Ooh! Some good friends of mine live in Yachats! They eat foraged wild mushrooms for months on end. I'm always jealous of their flickr pictures of their haul!

The History Enthusiast said...

I grew up in the PNW and miss it so much! Haven't been back since I was 14, 'cause it just costs to much right now to travel for vacations.

Carin said...

All this sounds pretty great except the slugs and the yelling. Especially the slugs.

Flavia said...

Annieem: they live in Neskowin, just up the coast from Lincoln City.

And the weather was okay--it was beautiful in PDX, and has been largely sunny, if not especially warm, everywhere else. (I usually visit in August, knowing what June is like. . . so I was prepared for worse weather than we've actually had.)

Lucky Jane said...

What fun! Have a great time.

Congratulations on sending that sucker off. D'ya have a name for it?

kfluff said...

awwww. Senor Fluff's parents live in the Tsunami Zone, so weirdly, this sign always fills me with nostalgia. But why don't we have drive through coffee in the Northeast? Where's the love?

medieval woman said...

Yes, congrats on sending off the proposal!! I know it will be like catnip to those publishers...

And I'm glad you guys are having a good time!!