Oscar Party

Last year in honor of the Oscars I posted about why I love movies.  This year, I was apart of a small crew that organized an Oscar Viewing Party.

We had almost 40 people come to the event.  People dressed up, walked the red carpet, gave autographs, posed for photos, played bingo, cast their ballots, and ate and drank until their hearts were happy.  I sadly didn't see any of the show (except for the last 15 seconds of the Les Mis performance and Anne Hathaway's acceptance speech) but everyone had a good time so that is all that mattered. The event was a lot of fun and it gave me an excuse to go to Value Village and purchase a 46 vintage cocktail dress.

Oh, and I did I mention that I got to be on the news?  I did!  Click here to watch.  Plus, two of the newscasters got dressed up and served as our emcees for the night.  All of this put together made me feel like a minor, minor, minor, minor, minor local celebrity.

Fun times.

Coos Bay Adventure

This weekend Cliff and I did a few activities to get us into the holiday spirit.

On Friday, we had our Winter Wonderland event at work.  We had photos with Santa, two live reindeer, face painting, a ton of holiday crafts, hot chocolate and sugar cookies at Mrs. Claus' kitchen, snow, violinists playing holiday music, train rides, a gingerbread competition, and a festive sweater contest.  Cliff even volunteered and decorated the top of the bouldering wall to look like a penguin village (think snow, lights, inflatable penguins).  It was adorable and the event was a success.  

Yesterday, we went with my awesome co-worker, her husband, and two kiddos to Shore Acres State Park for holiday lights.  Shore Acres is south on the coast (that's right we got to see a part of the state we hadn't before!) and for the holidays they put up over 300,000 lights.  It was a long day in the car but it was totally worth it as we got to see a few pretty cool things:

1) Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area:  On the way down to Coos Bay there is an elk viewing area.   The area is a year around home to about 100 Roosevelt Elk.   We decided we needed to stop by to see if we could actually see any. Holy cow they were there!  There is a little pit stop area where folks can have a picnic, go to the bathroom, and watch the animals.  They were super close to the road.  I felt like we were back in Yellowstone.  I'm a big fan of elk. 

 

2)  Fun Food:  We ate at the Blue Heron Bistro in Coos Bay.  It is a German/seafood restaurant.  What could be more fun?  At our table we had fried oysters, cod fish and chips, steamed muscles, bratwurst, sauerkraut, stewed red cabbage, German potato salad, and cucumber and cabbage coleslaw.  It was tasty.  The whole restaurant was covered in old Norma Rockwell images.  

After dinner we went to Cranberry Sweets and More as we heard they had tons of free samples.  They literally have a sample for every item they sell.  Every. Item. They.  Sell.  No joke.  They even had free coffee and cider.  It was all decked our for Christmas.  We sampled cranberry and raspberry chocolates,  cookies, candy canes, fudge (Cliff was really brave and tried their neon cheddar cheese fudge) , jelly candies, spicy chocolate and a ton of other things.  It was nuts (but I didn't eat any...haha).  I asked to buy a chocolate covered cherry and they gave me two for free.  Awesome.  I highly recommend the stop for anyone who is going to Coos Bay. 

3) Shore Acres Holiday Lights: So apparently Shore Aces State Park has some of the most amazing scenic cliff and coastline views in Oregon.  With this said, we got to the park once it was dark.  But that is ok as  we could hear the ocean so we knew it was close.  We will need to go back in the summer when it is light, green, and the flowers are in bloom.

Every year for the last 26 years, Shore Acres State Park has decorated with lights.  Each year, more and more lights have been added and now there are over 300,000 lights in the park.  We all got bundled and walked around the gardens.  We enjoyed more cider and cookies and listened to girl scouts singing Christmas carols in the gazebo.  It was pretty great.  

They had little light displays of marine life (whales, seals, crabs, frogs, herons, etc.).  A few of the light displays had actions.  The frogs jumped and croaked.  There were underwater glowing Koi.  They had lights in bushes to create glowing hydrangeas (I love hydrangeas!).  They sold these special 3D looking glasses at their gift shop.  When you looked through them at the lights every bulb turned into a gingerbread man, stocking, and candy cane.  I tried to take a photo of the effect.  See below for the first of my terrible photos.  The one to follow is actually of Cliff and I.  My photos rule.

It is crazy to think that we are just a week out from Christmas.  All of our gifts are in the mail, the tree is up, and we are all set to watch Christmas Vacation or Love Actually tonight.  It is finally starting to feel like Christmas. 

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!  I know it is two days after turkey day but better late than never.  We were really lucky as we got to celebrate with Kathy, Jill, and Brie. So much food.  It was glorious.  If only I could have taken one photo that wasn't blurry or missing part of someone.  Whoops.

 Hope you all had a great day!

Dad's Oregon Visit

Dad came to visit us this summer.  He arrived last Tuesday and left yesterday morning.  We tried to cram fun activities around our work and volunteer schedules. Dad spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday hanging around campus taking in the U of O scene.  On the first day he went shopping at the Duck Store so that he would look like a native.  He did a good job.  As you can see we now all have Oregon hats to sport (Dad with his new visor, Cliff with the trusty green hat, and my new yellow hat to replace my old trusty green hat).

After a few days of eating at local restaurants (Hop Valley, Off the Waffle, Track Town Pizza), shopping, hanging out on campus, listening to live music, and taking in a drive-in movie; the weekend started and we had three days to explore around Eugene. First stop, University of Oregon Football Fan Day.  We arrived and the line was super, super long so we went and ate fish and chips and hamburgers at Red Robin.  When we came back we were able to walk in and see what was going on.  The football players were signing autographs, the cheerleaders were posing for pictures and performing, Puddles the Duck was out and doing his thing, and folks were generally just geeking out to be standing on the field at Autzen.   Dad bought a four DVD set about the history of Oregon football.  Did you know that we use to be the webfoots?  Awesome.

 The next day we went and explored Fern Ridge Lake, Veneta, and areas slightly west of town.  Dad hadn't done the Oregon wine tasting thing so we went to Silvan Ridge and Sweet Cheeks.  My Dad doesn't drink so it was really odd to see him tasting the sweet wines.  Dare I say, I think he was even enjoying himself.  After wine tasting we went to go see The Campaign (what can I say,  I love Will Ferrell).   After the movie we went to Sonic for half priced shakes.  I got my usual chocolate malt but both Cliff and Dad decided to be daring and get a mix of pineapple, strawberry, chocolate, and hot fudge shakes.  It was called a banana split shake and it was delicious. 

On Monday we drove (with the dog in tow) to Portland so that we could be ready to go early in the morning to get him to the airport.  We decided to head out to Multnomah Falls.  I always forgot how quickly the city fades away as you head east on the Columbia River Gorge from Portland.  The landscape is beautiful with the Columbia River, the tall trees, the rocks, and the lack of development.  

When we arrived at the falls we hiked to the bridge and then ate hot dogs and ice cream cones.  Rudy even walked up to the bridge with us.  Dad was pretty impressed with the scenery and who can argue.  It is one of my favorite places in Oregon.  In case anyone would like some facts about Multnomah Falls, the lower falls come in at 69 feet and the upper falls are 542 feet from top to bottom.  Pretty awesome.

The photo of Dad on the bridge might be one of my favorite photos of him ever.  So good.  To follow up on one of my favorite photos I will also post one of the funniest/most non-photogenic photos ever.  Cliff captured us as we really are in real life.  Also so good but in a totally different way. 

After the falls we drive back towards Portland and ate at Salty's on the Columbia River.  It was a really fancy seafood and steak restaurant.  There were all kinds of fun salads, really good tomato bisque, and seafood for all!  Cliff got sturgeon (the daily special) with some absolutely fantastic vegetables.  Dad got a combo of coconut fried prawns and crab cake.  What did I learn at the restaurant?  After years of not being able to eat shellfish the jury is still out for me on some things.  Baby shrimp?  No thank you.  Clams, crabs, and prawnes?  Yes, please.  We topped it off with two really decadent deserts.  The best part is that we got one for free as we used a card from our hotel.

Airports are tricky.  One of my favorite things to do in the world is pick up people at the airport.  I love looking down the gates waiting to catch a peak of loved ones as they come off the plane and out of their terminal.  On the reverse, I really hate taking people to the airport.  It is so hard to say goodbye.  I hope that Dad had a great time.  We didn't get to do everything on our list but it will just help feed the need for the next Oregon adventure. 

TrackTown 12

The Track and Field Olympic Trials have once again arrived in Eugene, Oregon.  For ten days track and field athletes gather at Hayward Field to compete to represent the US in London.  Track and field is a big deal here in Eugene.  I mean, after all we are considered Track Town USA.

Yesterday was the second day of competition and included the second day of the decathlon,  qualifying rounds of shot put, javelin, hurdles, triple jump, high jump, 800 meters, 400 meters, and the finals of women's 100 meters and 110 meter hurdles.  You can see the schedule here.  It was a great day to be at the trials.

We took advantage of the free (posh) shuttle service and arrived bright and early.  The first event started at 9:30am and to tell you the truth I was a bit surprised as there weren't a whole lot of folks at the track.  Before the first event, Cliff and I walked around the stadium, explored the festival area, and got some free goodies.  We got samples of Chobani yogurt (full size cups) and Safeway brand milk (Cliff got mocha cappuccino and I got straight up chocolate).  Side note: holy cow, I forgot how amazing chocolate milk is!  We actually got the milk because we ran on human sized hamster wheels.  The wheels helped to power the electricity (TV, music, a cellphone charging station, etc.) in the Safeway tent. 

We visited the youth area and answered Olympic trivia (well tried to anyway) and got buttons and pins.  We even got to pose as decathletes Ashton Eaton (Go Ducks!) and Trey Hardee.  But more on them later.

It has been kinda rainy the past few weeks.  In my mind the rain should be long gone.  Well, its not.  It was cool yesterday (around 60 degrees) with showers on and off all day.  No worries.  We are Oregonians.  We came prepared.  We each had on a few layers, a hat, sunglasses, and a raincoat.  We even brought plastic trash bags to keep our legs dry.  I had an awesome system of putting my bag under my coat to keep it dry and me warm.  Cliff thought it made me look pregnant.  I thought it was a good system.

It was so cool to watch all of the events.  I always enjoy watching track and field at the Olympics but to see it in real life really makes you realize how strong and fast these folks are.  It is nuts.  We were in the 4th row so we were close to the field and could easily see the competitors.  Their coaches lined the wall in front of our seats and were yelling feedback and suggestions to their athletes as the competitions went on.  The crowd was really small all through the morning events.  That seems weird to me.  Our tickets got us nine hours of events.  By gosh we were going to see it all!  So where were the other folks? 

Prepare yourself as I am just going to post a ton of photos of the events.  We were close but you still might need to look at the photo closely to see what I am actually trying to capture.  I wish I were a better photographer.  As you look through these just remember that these are my good shots!


The pole vault was really impressive.  It was starting to rain and yet the decathletes were still flinging themselves four and five meters into the air.  I snuck closer to the field so I could get a better photo of Trey Hardee getting ready to go.  Ashton Eaton won this event hands down and it helped to set him up to break the world record for the decathlon. 

Then the javelin throw started.  First we saw the javelin specialists go and then the decathletes.  On one attempt, Trey Hardee's javelin split in half as it was flying through the air.  He got to throw it again and was really happy with the results.  Apparently he just had elbow surgery about nine months ago and is amazed with his progress.  I was able to get one photo of Ashton Eaton getting ready to throw. 

 

Then it really started to rain.  I mean it was actually coming down.  Everyone in the stands pulled out their ponchos and we all just sat there watching.   At this point there was quite a bit happening on the field: the shot put, the decathlon javelin throw, the women's triple jump, and the high jump had just started.

The rain got so bad that they had to suspend events for about 20 minutes.  I'm glad as it did not look safe out there.  They had a ton of volunteers out their with leaf blowers and rolling squeegees trying to dry everything out. Cliff, Kelly (our friend), and I were all cold and wet.  Our clothes were for the most part still dry except for where our garbage bags had failed us.  I felt like a turtle.

We all were cold so we decided to get up and walk around the stadium and check out the Nike tents.  On the way I got to meet Puddles!  Awesome, right?

We ate some more free yogurt and watched the men's 800 meter heats on the large TV in the festival area.  We had sufficiently warmed up and were ready to settle back into our seats for the remaining two hours of events.  We got to see the men's 400.  LaShawn Merritt ran it in 44.78.  Nuts. 

We saw a preliminary of the men's 100 meter dash.  We also got to see the finals of the women's 100 meter dash (with this too close to call photo finish for third).  The final women's 110 meter hurdles.  The sun came out for the final 45 minutes of the day.  It was really nice.  Hayward Field really is a great venue. 

Ok, now is where I proclaim my admiration for decathletes.  Since Ashton Eaton is a Duck, we have seen quite a bit of coverage about the decathlon leading up to the games.  Apparently, decathletes are a very close knit group and they are friendly with one another.  I can understand this as they compete and stand around together for two whole days at each meet.  The guys yesterday have probably been competing with one another for years.  They would yell encouraging words at one another, help to get the rhythmic clap going for certain events, and provide an excited slap on the arm or hug when the other did well.   The final event of the decathlon was the 1500 meter run.  There was lots of pressure on Ashton Eaton. He had broken several world records over the past two days.  He had won six of the nine events and he was poised to potentially break the world record for the decathlon.  All he needed to do was shave two seconds off his best time (no pressure, right?).  The announcer kept saying this over the loud speaker.  So much pressure!  All of the other competitors were congratulating him on his amazing performance so far and you could tell they wanted to be there to see the world record broken by one of their friends.  Two guys in the pack were really great runners so they were going to be pacers for Ashton so that he could see how fast he would need to go to beat his time, win, and break the world record.  Ashton Eaton ran third until the last lap when you could see that he totally gave it his all to catch up with his pacers.  He passed the first guy with no problem but then something completely amazing happened.  The guy who was in the lead turned around to wave and cheer him past so that he could make his time.  I almost lost it.  Not only did we get to see the new crowning of the world greatest athlete but we also got to see some of the world's greatest sportsmanship.  I was incredibly proud.

After the event, all of the decathletes take a victory lap (as they made it through two days, ten events, and a whole lot of rain!).  Dan O'Brien (1996 gold metal decathlete) and Bruce Jenner (1976 gold metal decathlete) were both there to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the decathlon.  It was so impressive.  Really, you can't help but be inspired by these guys. 

Ashton Eaton had a chance to run around a bit by himself sporting a big smile and his American flag.  Side note:  he is engaged to fellow Duck and Canadian Brianne Theisen.  Brianne Theisen is currently the Canadian collegiate heptathlete with the highest score so far this year.  She will also be going to the Olympics in London. Amazing.  I bet they eat real healthy at home.  

After the events were over 99% of the people filed out of the stands.  A few of us stuck around to see the medal ceremonies for the decathlon and the women's 110 meter hurdles.  They couldn't do the ceremony for the women's 100 meter dash because at that point they still could not determine who got third (now we know that they both got third as they absolutely tied).  When the athletes arrived at the podiums, they had changed out of their regular competition outfits and into their new team USA jump suits.  Once again, I almost lost it.  So much pride. 

And then I got pooped on.  I was just standing there watching the podium ceremonies when I looked down and realized that a little bird left me a present.  When did he have time to do it?  I had a plastic bag over my lap 90% of the day to protect me from rain.  Well done little birdie.  Well done.

You can check out the rest of the results of the day here.  Best: Time: Ever.

Day 3: Sonic

I really enjoy Sonic.  When moving from the east coast to the west coast I knew I was going to miss three food places: Wawa, Cracker Barrel, and Sonic.  Well, I lucked out as Sonic has arrived in Oregon and there is one about 15 minutes away from our house.  Our Sonic is right by Walmart so I use it as a motivational treat to get me through our large shopping trips. 

I liked our Southern Oregon Sonic on Facebook so that I could get information on daily deals as sometimes they do shake specials for $.99.  When I did that I entered a sweepstakes.  First place won free Sonic for a year, second place won a $100 gift card, and third place winner got a t-shirt.  Well...I was a winner!  My t-shirt arrived in the mail last week and I was super excited to sport it at Sonic today.  I cashed in a coupon that Grandma gave me for a buy one get one free shake.  They were tasty. 

I like Sonic.