People and Places

In real estate, "location, location, location" defines quality. So what has quality for our decidedly real estate-less travelers? As the Maori proverb goes, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata! What do you mean you don't speak Maori? (It is people, it is people, it is people).

We have seen expansive, rugged coastline, white sandy beaches, and breathtaking rainforests, but the sights we have seen rarely compare to the people who have shared our experiences with us.

Exhibit A: Roger and Bette (and Lulu and Nelly and Corky)

We continued up the Oregon coast, past Tillamook (with a brief stopover at the Tillamook Cheese Factory) to the fair village of Bay City. It is here that we ran into Roger and Bette, friends of olde. We would be lucky to ever meet a more hospitable pair.

Steff rides a cheesemobile at the factory

Together with Roger and Bette, we walked the dogs, had Cat Stevens sing-alongs, shared dinnertime conversation, and met their friends. We learned the names of most Oregon flora and received a crash course in photography from these talented enthusiasts (check out their work here. It's beautiful!). They gave us the locals' tour of Tillamook Bay, complete with a historical rundown of the area.

But first, the dogs:

Lulu, who was raised on PowerThirst (runs as fast as KENYANS!). Bright and manipulative, her favourite game was to pit the other two dogs against each other without them realising.

Nelly, the half-Malamut who was spectacularly shy. It took her nearly 7 days to come out from under the coffee table and lick our fingers.

Corky, the original alpha dog, and Steff's new best friend.

To Roger and Bette (and the pups), Tillamook County is heaven on earth; their detailed guided tours allowed us to see Tillamook through their eyes. We extend many thanks to the five of them for welcoming us into their lives and their family.

Exhibit B: Russell and the roommates

From Bay City, we drove through the Tillamook Forest (which is lookin' good after a long and devastating period of fires and a massive community reforestation project that spanned decades). We landed in Portland, Oregon.

Portland was a city we visited briefly, yet fully, with another photographer and his roommates. We received a thorough tour of the Montavilla and Hawthorne areas, care of our photographer friend and one particular roommate, Shelly. We shared meals, forged friendships, and even modeled for an impromptu photo shoot.

More of Russell's work can be found here.

We had our first taste of southern hospitality in our interactions with Shelly (at the northernmost point Nancy had ever traveled). The amiable Texan took us on a guided circuit of the city, pointing out important landmarks and treating us to Portland's own Stumptown Coffee. And if we fell silent?
"Is there something you guys need that you aren't asking for?"

The city of Portland yielded such pleasures as Powell's Books (a bookstore that's four storeys high and a city block long in length) and VooDoo Doughnut (home of the Maple Bacon doughnut). Let's elaborate a little on those doughnuts:

Pre-consumption, pre-sugar high.

...And the sugar kicks in about now.
The voodoo pin on the  "Voodoo" doughnut image is a pretzel, and next to Steff's left leg is a photo of the Maple Bacon Doughnut. Nom.

The Voodoo topiary

The display cabinet. Behind it is a shelf of trays of fresh, hot doughnuts.

An urban renewal agency (the Portland Development Commission), set up in 1958 by city voters, appears to have served the city well. Then there's City Repair. The site says it better than we can:

"City Repair began in Portland, Oregon with the idea that localization - of culture, of economy, of decision-making - is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and nurture our local culture."

Portland has a small-town, organic feel. It is packed with quirky local cafes, art galleries, bead shops, bookstores, co-ops, and porn theatres (allegedly, Portland has more strip clubs per capita than San Francisco and Las Vegas. In 1987, the Oregon Supreme Court specifically found that lap dances and nudity in strip clubs are protected speech, constitutionally protected. Yee-haw.). There is a strong buy-local movement in place. As the all-knowing cybersage Wikipedia notes, Portland is arguably "one of the most environmentally friendly, or 'green' cities in the world". And all the locals we met spoke fondly and proudly of their little city (except this one woman at a bus stop who grumbled bitterly about not remembering what the sun looked like). Everyone had a suggestion for a place we should go or an activity we should partake in. We concluded, wholeheartedly, like everyone else in the area, that we loved PDX (although, like everyone else, we can't tell you how Portland acquired this moniker).

Another beautiful Harry Potter moment, courtesy of a fan in Portland.

After a few days in the City of Roses, we concluded that, just like Tillamook, it was the people of Portland who moulded our experience of Portland.

Having amassed many cheerful memories, we found ourselves sad to leave Oregon. Occasionally, wistfully, we say to ourselves "I miss having my gas pumped for me."

The Quest Quotient by Nancy Howie and Steff Werman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thequestquotient2011.blogspot.com.