A Whirlwind of the Greater Northwest

It began early in the morning, and though we overslept an hour, we busted out of the doors by 6:30 AM in the direction of Tri-Cities, after realizing we were first headed towards Portland. And though I had mentioned we might want to get gas in Madras, we continued onwards, despite the fact that the gas light came on five minutes outside of Madras. We scanned each ghost town we past in search of a gas station. Candice and I stopped in Grass Valley with a gas station in sights. There was no attendant, no nothing. There was an antiquated place to put your card, but it rejected all the cards we tried, and then we saw the sign that said all major credit cards NOT accepted. Lovely. We continued driving, now going on 50 or so miles with the light on, Candice not realizing how far it was to Biggs. We then stopped at Moro, a little station way off the side of the road. We discovered the same situation at this station though, and so when we saw someone else getting gas Candice ran over to discover his secret. She stood outside his window and said Hi, thinking, "this is the point where most normal people roll down their window..." But this was no normal person, this was like the epitome of the small town man. She finally got him to roll down his window and after explaining our dilemma, he informed us that all these small towns were part of a Co-Op, and you have to have a special card to use these gas stations. So we offered to pay him cash in exchange for us card use, dollar for dollar what we needed. He got really awkward about it and was unsure about the whole thing and finally whipped out his calculator. "Well, let's see, gas is $2.80, two gallons should get you to Biggs since you're driving a Taurus and could get 20 mpg, so 2.80 times 2...."


Anyways, we finally made it to Tri-Cities, where Abby promptly took us out to hike Badger Mountain, after which we busted out the rollerblades and longboard and rolled around the park, across a bridge and over to Tiffany's house, where we picked her up, went back the way we came and further through the park the other direction. Neither of us had rollerbladed in about ten years, and we had never longboarded, so it was quite the experience, but it worked out quite well and it was so much fun playing all day. Exhausted and scuzzy, we then headed the hour further to Walla Walla where we thoroughly enjoyed a lovely shower and coziness at Sarah's house. The following day provided an opportunity to see a long-lost friend who had been in Taiwan for the last year. We met up at the Sunday market, and then tried to find some lunch. Shockingly, in Adventistville Walla Walla, we could not find a restaurant open on a Sunday, so we settled for a Taco Wagon. And then coffee. It was really good to get together again. A few hours later and it was on the road again for Candice and I, this time to Portland.


The next day, amidst at attempt to meet up for lunch gone awry, I ended up walking all over Portland for a good three hours. Candice gave me directions to a restaurant, but with some slight miscommunications, I kept calling her up saying I was pretty sure I wasn't where I was supposed to be. "No no, you're so close! Just keep walking, I'll order for you, you'll be here in like five minutes!" Haha, she had no idea. Turns out I was over by Lloyd Center, on the wrong side of the river and quite far from where I should be. I said, "Candice, you're near the tall buildings right? Well, they don't look so tall from here... I think I'm further than you think." Anyway, Kenneth and Candice and I finally met up and went to New Seasons (great store), where we stocked up on ingredients for the night's dinner. Stupidly, we sent Kenneth off for falafel ingredients; he comes back with a giant bear claw which, consequently left him quite without an appetite for the meal to come.


Candice played hooky from work the following day and we got to hang out more. She gathered some old clothes and we went off in search of Buffalo Exchange, a place to buy and sell clothes. Spent a good few hours there but found some great deals. Afterwards, something we did not find was the car. Took us a good 30-45 minutes to remember which side street we parked on. Made it back to the house in time to barely whip out some dinner with Kenneth before the three of us and Candice's roommate headed off to Fiddler on the Roof! SO EXCITING! The best part was the guy who played the lead role was the same as the guy who played him in the movie, it was his farewell tour. It was the boys' first time to see it and they loved it, Candice and I loved the live experience, and overall it made for a lovely evening. And so concluded my small tour of some of the better parts of the Northwest.