Finding Oregon

What is Oregon like? Well, it is like no place on earth--except for Washington (State, that is, for you Easterners).

Oregon is the place where a couple hours after arriving in the state Phil said to me, "I am already getting annoyed at how efficent everything is and how nice and helpful everyone has been to us."

You see, the night we arrived, we were beat. We set out from our home in Jamaica Plain at about 4:00PM and took the bus, two trains, and another bus to the airport. Then we flew to San Fran. On this flight our children slept most of the time and Phil even managed to fall asleep until I shook him awake when Ramona stirred so that I could lift Sumner's pillow from Phil's lap and hopefully keep Ramona resting. The Ramona disaster was averted, but at the cost of a Philip disaster. He didn't get any more sleep, but not for lack of trying. In SF, the now-rested kids woke up and cheerfully led us the our gate to Portland.

As we got on the plane to Portland I turned to Phil and said, "These are my people." Oregonians abounded. Simple hairdos, lots of t-shirts, a few grungy punks, and everyone looked like they would enjoy hiking.

Once we got to Portland, 12:30 AM Portland time, 3AM Philip and Emily body clock time, our kids were really ready to start partying. We made our way to baggage, were we split up. I took Ramona to get a rental car and Phil took Sumner to get the luggage. I soon realized that I had left my wallet on the plane and Sumner's car seat had gone missing. It was about 1 AM. Trying to remedy either of these situations in Boston at that late hour would have been like trying to start a fire without matches in a rainstorm. But not so in Oregon. In the United Baggage Assistance Office, there was not only one or two, but THREE smiling, helpful, awake woman ready to help me out with my two problems. First the wallet, one of the three counter ladies asked for a careful description of the item in question and my seat number. Then she called to yet another helpful, jolly woman who was waiting in the back room on bended knee to scurry out to the plane immediately and retrieve my wallet, which she did in less than 8 minutes. Meanwhile, I was given a loaner car seat for Sumner and promised that they would get our seat to us at our ocean hotel--a two hour drive--by the next day. Problems solved. No need to get frustrated. Philip and I could hardly contain our tired selves--where was the person or reason for us to get mad? No where in this friendly place. To add insult to injury, they found the seat within minutes, paged us, and then ran the seat out to us the rental car counter. It was about 1:45 by then.

Not only are the people nice in Oregon, but it is just breathtakingly beautiful. I am not sure I have ever appreciated this until this trip. As a kid, it was just what it was. I didn't drink in the beauty, because I was used to it. But on this trip, I was amazed. Driving from Portland the the Oregn Coast, the car wound its way through mountain forests, thick with pine trees. We did a lot of winding on Oregon highways. It seems as though the land has to be wound through. A direct route could never do it justice. There are no strip malls from the Oirtland burbs to the coast--only a few Dairy Queens and homestyle family resturants. Although I know that much of Oregon has been logged and reforested, it seems untouched and underdeveloped. I felt like I was discovering something that I had forgotten and everyone I knew in other parts of the country and world were missing out. Then we hit the coast. The air felt cleaner; it was cold and I could taste it with my nose. Driving on cliffs that in some places drop a hundred feet straight to the beach, I couldn't decide if I should be focusing on the mountain to my left or the ocean to my right or Sumner driving in a sports car with his Papa directly in front of us.

Oregon. Nice. Efficent. Clean. But mainly: beautiful.