Archive - Sep 2008

As this is the beginning of my favorite week of the year, we planned a fun-filled farm day. And luckily Oregon is the perfect place to have it. Justin and I started the day at the Canby Farmers Market. I haven't been to a farmers market since Marbella so it was long overdue. We picked up some yummy local veggies for dinner before heading off.

After leaving the market, we went to the Canby fair grounds to see the Flock & Fiber Festival. We arrived just as the Irish Wolfhound judging competition was ending. These are some incredible looking dogs. And they are huge! All I wanted to do was give them a big hug and cuddle them. It was kinda odd to see so many gigantic dogs all in one place, but they seemed to be enjoying the day too. After the dogs we walked to the other side of the grounds to the festival. If you know me at all, you might have heard I have a thing for sheep. We went first to the animal side of things and checked them out. They were beautiful, and very well behaved. They even had some baby lambs with their mom, very cute. The rest of the festival was a knitter's, crochet, weaver's dream, every type and color of fiber was available for purchase.

We soon set off and after having a tasty pub lunch at McMenamins Oregon City we drove to the Philip Foster Farm in Eagle Creek. They were just happening to have their cider squeeze. It was perfect weather to hang outside and listen to some fiddle music, eat some homemade apple pie and get some cider for home.

Just an excellent day in Oregon! And we still have tomorrow...

• Flock & Fiber photos
• Apple Cider Festival photos

We've really been enjoying Oregon so far and are pretty sure that we are going to spend some decent time (e.g., a couple years) here, though not entirely sure yet if that will be in Portland or another part of the state. I have been most impressed with the urban and pedestrian planning, even in the small suburb where we live, as well as the proximity of agricultural land and all that it offers (fresh food, friendly people, and beautiful views). We've also started looking into buying and living in a yurt, but let's not put the cart before the horse -- we're very much in an exploratory phase of that right now.

However great all of the recent past has been, I still have intentions of catching up this blog on the remainder of our European travels, I really do. I have a list and notes handy, and today when I was thinking about starting an unrelated blog about something else, I realized that I really need to get cracking here before I'm going to allow myself to do that. So, in the near future, expect updates on:

• Stuttgart, Germany
• Heidelberg, Germany
• Córdoba, Spain
• Paris, France
• the rest of our time in Marbella

There are still a bunch of photos, too, so stay tuned!

I thought I would explain a little about why we are in Oregon and what we are doing here, for those who don't know.

Justin and I wanted to continue our travel around the world and the US. And we figured there must be some way to keep it up, even with our jobs. Justin's job is very transportable, so that just left me. And just like traveling nurses there are travel physical therapy jobs as well.

I've known about travel PT since school, but there is always seems to be a bad association with it. For instance, you are going to be placed somewhere no one else wants to work- and there is usually a good reason for that. I have also heard that you may be the only therapist around and in charge of everything. And I still believe those positions are out there; I just made sure I didn't get that.

There are a lot of recruiter agencies out there- I kinda just stumbled into mine and so far am pretty happy with them. Initially they asked me where I wanted to go and what setting I wanted to work in. When Justin and I came up with a list of places to travel to, it was well over 10 cities/states and we had to slim it down. In our case we decided on the northwest and then more specifically Portland area. From that point it was easy.

Moving out here was relatively simple. It was very nice to just walk into a furnished apartment, unload our car and be done. But there has been some difficulty, I can't imagine a move without something happening. In our case it has been setting up internet- always an issue when you move. But this is particularly a problem since it effects Justin's work. But he managed and in the meantime found all the coffee shops and checked out the library.

I started my position about 1 month ago; and will stay there for 13 weeks in all. After that we don't really know what we are going to do, but it will be an adventure.

I ran into another traveler here who gave me some advice that I wish I knew in the beginning. She has been traveling for 2 years and loves it. She recommended never take an assignment over 13 weeks- try to extend if you like the facility later, and always work 2 days off into your contract. That way you have some time off if you need it, or you don't have to take it if you don't but at least you have the option. Good advice for next time.

To answer Stew's question, yes, we made it over the Rockies ok. After dinner in Bozeman and a night in Butte, we made it clean through Montana to have lunch in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We found a really cool place called Calypsos Coffee, which had great sandwiches and, well, coffee, and free wifi so that we could catch up a bit. Coeur d'Alene definitely looks like a place where we could spend some more time -- it was a beautiful sunny day and the town is centered around the lakefront. Would have loved to linger a bit, but we knew we could get to Portland that day if we pressed on.

We were able to get out of the Rockies without much fanfare -- it seems that part of the range is not very tall, at least relative to the gaps where the highway goes through, so we didn't really see any bare peaks or anything like that. Before we knew it, we were winding down the other side and out into Washington. I had never seen the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon, so I was surprised to see how dry and hot they were.

We crossed into Oregon and followed the state border along the Columbia River the whole way into Portland, where we set up for the night in a motel near the airport. The next day, Friday, we drove the short distance down to Wilsonville, our new home, met the leasing folks and got our keys, and entered our furnished apartment. It was pretty seamless!

Life near Portland has been good so far. We've been exploring the city when we can and have visited Russ & Jaci a fair amount down in Corvallis, plus had them (and Gwen) up here with us. Don't forget our town's Goat Appreciation Day and a great hike up to Multnomah Falls. This weekend is some time in Portland and an Oktoberfest down near Michelle's work.

Sorry for the late update, but we're alive and well!