Road Trip '08: Day 3

Ashland, OR to Newport, OR
Miles driven today= 268 + 7 miles around town
Total miles driven= 1006



The route from Ashland to Newport was a lot prettier than my first two days of driving, making the trip much more interesting and enjoyable. I had another 5-hr drive, and arrived in Newport in the early afternoon. Since Mesha was still at work, she left a guest pass for me to explore the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Since my last visit in 2006, the Aquarium has added a new exhibit gallery, "Oddwater", featuring the odd and unusual creatures that live under the sea. The way they displayed the specimens was very unique and neat--in a tank amongst pretty glass art. After touring the front-of-house exhibits, Mesha took me to see their Education classroom & some behind-the-scenes areas, including the top of the HUGE tank where they use to keep Keiko.

For dinner, we went down to the historic bayfront, and ate at a Local Ocean Seafoods, a restaurant and fish market that specializes in serving sustainable seafood. It's pretty cool, all the seafood that they serve has a background: you can get information on where it was caught, by what means, and by who. The food was delicious! We each had a cup of the crab soup, then shared crab cakes and grilled fish & chips. Mmmm.

Road Trip '08: Day 2

Rocklin, CA to Ashland, OR
Miles driven today= 298 + 11 miles around town
Total miles driven= 731
# times I got lost today= 3 (hoping this doesn't happen anymore!)

This is a photo of Ashland Creek in Lithia Park

Today, I'm giving thanks for several things:
1. Yahoo maps. Not sure how I would've gotten to some places without its directions.
2. REAL-in-your-hands maps from AAA. For the moments when Yahoo maps failed me. Which happened a couple of times today.
3. Cute road workers. For the moments when Yahoo maps & regular maps fail because road construction is occurring. I would still be driving in circles right now, if it weren't for the guy that helped me out. I actually had to hail him from the road (the one I wanted to be on), and he off-roaded a bit & drove over to the side road I was on (the one I didn't want to be on but didn't know how to get off of) and nicely pointed me in the right direction.
4. That I enjoy country music. Because that's pretty much all you'll find out here in the middle of nowhere, and I don't mind one bit.

So, my drive to Ashland took a bit longer than expected due to my little "getting lost" detours, but I arrived with a good portion of my day left to explore the area. Checked into my hotel and took a quick break, then drove into the main part of town. Had a yummy late lunch at a sandwich shop, Big Town Hero. Ashland is a very cute place, with a quaint and easily-accessible park. Ashland Creek runs through Lithia Park, and I took a walk along it for a while. After exploring the park, I went home to rest a little bit more, before heading to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I saw their free Green Show, featuring the Indian music of Bindaas. Right before leaving for my trip, I was able to get a last minute ticket for one of OSF's plays, a wild-west adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors". The show was in their outdoor Elizabethan Theatre, and it was great. Although the ticket was a little pricey, I am so very glad I went.

Visiting Mesha on the Oregon Coast tomorrow!

Road Trip '08: Day 1

Long Beach, CA to Rocklin, CA (outside of Sacramento)
Miles driven today= 422
Total miles driven= 422



Okay, I know I just left this morning, but thought I might as well take advantage of the internet access while I can. Day 1 of driving is done! I left at 6:15 this morning, and after listening to a lot of country music, drinking a cup of coffee, and taking one pee and gas break, I've arrived safely at my first destination. It took me six hours to get up here, and I'm now chilling here at Jake's place, enjoying the air conditioning and avoiding the HOT outside. Checked out the school Jake teaches at and his classroom, took a tour of the house that he is in the process of buying, and am about to pop open a strawberry blonde and RELAX.

Heading to Oregon tomorrow!

Road Trippin'

It’s vacation time! I’m heading out of town tomorrow, on my first long road trip--spending two and a half weeks in the Pacific Northwest. There are many things on my itinerary, including visiting friends (Jake, Mesha, and Wendy), visiting Twilight locations like Forks, La Push, and Port Angeles (and yes, I will be looking for Edward while I’m there =P), camping in Olympic National Park, and going to Haley’s wedding. I'm hoping that I'll have time to blog some during my trip, and will let you know how it's going!

Breaking Dawn

Release
The Breaking Dawn pre-midnight release party I threw at my place was tons of fun. Over twenty of my Twilighter friends attended, and we spent the evening hanging out, snacking, drinking, and playing fun Twilight games. I had a “Kisses” guessing game, Twilight trivia, and a raffle (which was rigged for me to win—my great friends caught me by surprise and totally embarrassed me! Thank you guys!) Kellyn made an amazing Twilight board game, and Raelene made cute “worry doll” Twilight Character game pieces for us to play with. After the party, most of us headed over to our local bookstore to await the midnight release of the book. We participated in a trivia raffle game, then sat around until we had to line up outside. The bookstore gave away four prizes that night, and three of them went to our group! Staci won a Breaking Dawn t-shirt, Anitza won the Twilight movie poster, and Kristen won a signed copy of the book. It was great! I had a wonderful night, and am glad everyone else did too!

(Photo courtesy of Anitza!)
So here we all are, shortly after getting our books. We are all adult women (many of us are married women!), being nerds and indulging in the fun of a teenage vampire love story =D

If you want to see more photos from the party, check out the rest of Anitza's Pictures (especially if you want to see Raelene's "worry dolls". My favorite is Jacob.) I'll post my pics up on my flickr soon.

Reading
I finished the book early Sunday morning, and thought it was wonderful (with one exception, but that is easily forgivable). To avoid giving spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail about my opinion on the book, but I will say this--I don’t think it deserves all the disappointment and gripe that it is getting from fans. I don’t think they are fully appreciating it the way they should. After calming down and letting go of their prior expectations for Breaking Dawn, I hope these fans will revisit the novel and give it a second chance.

So close

It's almost finally here--the long anticipated release of the fourth and final installment of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn! August used to seem so far away, yet in the blink of an eye, it has come so soon. I'm excited to be hosting a Pre-Midnight Release Party with my friends tomorrow evening, before we head off to the bookstore to purchase our copy of the book. If you'll remember, my original plan was to introduce some friends to the books so I wouldn't have to go to the midnight release alone. The plan exploded, and I've gathered a whole gang of fans--there will be 23 of us at my party tomorrow. I have a few things planned, including party favors (homemade bookmarks with quotes from the book, chocolate covered expresso beans for a snack while reading, and "i heart twilight" magnets), a Twilight Trivia game, a raffle, and prizes. Kellyn made a Twilight board game, which will be lots of fun, I'm sure. I can't wait for all the Twilighting fun!

Oh, and in other exciting Twilight news, I've converted my first MALE reader. Yes, you read correctly, Twilight Fan #31 is a man!

Another Trailer!

Check out the second trailer that came out recently.
Twilight Teaser Trailer #2

Twilight Conversion Count: 30 friends

Welcome, August

The month is coming to a close, and I'm looking forward to leaving July behind. It has been one of those months, where I feel like I may be going a little crazy, like I may be losing my mind just the tiniest bit. A scatter-brained, eye-twitching, sad, busy, and stressful kind of month...My grandfather passed away. Taught my two weeks of camp at work. Managed to forget four (yes, FOUR!) birthdays, and if it weren't for my friends reminding me over and over again, I would have forgotten five. Forgot to pay a credit card bill and my cell phone bill. Trying to plan and get my butt in gear for the vacation I'm going on soon. Attempting to finish reading book club book before book club meeting takes place... Yes, I've been a bit overwhelmed.

But alas, August is upon us, and I will have a fresh start. It's already looking like a good month, with the release (finally!) of Breaking Dawn, and my 2 1/2 week Pacific Northwest road tripping adventure.

Goodbye July, Hello August.

Remembering Gramps

Your Loved One Lives In Your Heart
Many tender memories soften your grief,
May fond recollection bring you relief,
And may you find comfort and peace in the thought
Of the joy that knowing your loved one brought…
For time and space can never divide
Or keep your loved one from your side
When memory paints in colors true
The happy hours that
belonged to you.
— Poem by Helen Steiner Rice

All In a Day's Work

I am teaching summer day camp this week, and although it is fun, having to corral eighteen 5 & 6 year olds can also be very challenging and exhausting! We have the complainers and the talkers and the criers, but they are all so cute and can be quite entertaining too. Here's a story from our shark lesson today...

(After going over bones vs. cartilage with the kids): "Instead of having a skeleton made of bones, what do sharks have in their body?"

(One of the boys yells out): "Cardboard!"

Haha. Hmmm, a skeleton made of cardboard, that would be interesting....