Lewis and Clark

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to go and explore the great northwest because of an interview at a residency program in Corvallis, Oregon. Corvallis is home of Oregon State University and has a population of about 55,000. I arrived in Eugene on Friday after a 6hr flight from NYC. I then drove up to Corvallis in my big pimpin' Chrysler 300, it was an absolutely gorgeous drive. Most people describe the northwest as a place where it rains every day, but not this day, the sun was shinning, the air was crisp and fall was in the air. It happened to be OSU's homecoming and the weekend of Halloween so it is needless to say the town was hoping. My hotel was on the Northern end of the main street and after unloading my belongings I got a prank call from a fellow classmate who was rotating at the hospital. After I figured out it was EB, he and took a stroll down the main street and settled into a restaurant to enjoy some pizza. While walking up and down the street it was impossible to notice all the children (and adults) in their costumes trick or treating. All of the local businesses give out free candy each year. Being a Texan I am used to extremely nice people but these people we're even nicer than Texans, which took me off guard after being in the northeast where a bad look gets you in trouble.

Later that night I went to have dinner with the current residents and fellow applicants. My friend TP was there interviewing as well so after the dinner we went to a wine bar next door. The waitress(?) was great and very informative and very eager to tell me about all the awesome things Oregon has to offer. It didn't take too much convincing because thus far everything I had experienced was either gorgeous and/or friendly, including her.

The next day I had my interview in the morning, which went well. I then had lunch at a local brewery with TP. EB met up with us for a bit once he was done at the hospital. TP's flight left that night so we dropped her off and headed on our great adventure to coast. We drove for about an hour through the rain to Newport. First thing on the agenda was to drive over an awesome bridge I saw we did that and then saw a spot to go park near the beach. We walked out on the beach where the wind was blowing at least 30mph. Since we were both from Texas and decided it was cold we left. We heard about a brewery there so we went and walked through it, seeing how I am not a big beer drinker I didn't try any. At this point we were kind of out of things to do, but then we saw a lighthouse. I decided I needed to go in to the lighthouse and once I figured out I could go all the way to the top there wasn't much that could stop me. The stairs were a little scary but when else was I going to be in a lighthouse in Oregon? I then proceeded down to the gift shop to buy a coffee cup since I have decided I collect them. The volunteer informed me that Oregon had six lighthouses, after a few minutes of small talk she discovered I was from Texas and informed me that Texas also had six lighthouses, who knew? I asked her which was a prettier drive up or down the coast she suggest we head north so we did. The girl at the desk of my hotel told me I should check out the Devil's Punchbowl. When driving up the coastal highway we saw a sign for it and made a quick U turn. She was absolutely right it was amazing. There also happened to be a winery at this point with free wine tasting. The Flying Dutchman Winery is the western most winery in the United States according to Dan the man working there. After trying a few wines I bought two and had them shipped back to Fort Worth.





We continued our drive up the coastal highway and then found a random side road that cut back towards Salem. This ended up being very interesting. The one lane side road winded through the mountains and we lost all cell phone reception. Convinced we would die if anything happened to my shaggin wagon 300 we pressed on. Deer roamed through the forest and moss covered every tree. We finally made it back to salem and took the highway back to Corvallis where we enjoyed dinner at a local sports bar where I had the brisket nachos.