On the road

We brought my trusty laptop with us on the road; thank goodness for free wireless access! Because lord knows we are obsessed with the internet. While Brian is over there insulting his reader's tastes in music, I thought I'd give a little update on things, because... well, apparently I'm obsessed with everybody knowing my exact whereabouts at all times. After leaving Brussels, flying for about 13 hours, in addition to a 6-hour layover and another hour in US customs (anyone feeling sorry for me yet?), I arrived home at long last on Sunday. After all my meetings, I had one free day to be a tourist on Saturday. I copped out, though, and took one of those double-decker tourist buses to pack in as many sights as possible! I also saw a Paul Klee exhibit that was pretty good. I will post more pictures of that later. About two hours after I got home, we got a head start on our road trip, arriving in Portland at 2am! Can we say "exhausted?" Thankfully I was able to sleep through the night due to sheer exhaustion and I might be mostly over my jet lag already.

Driving along the coast of Oregon yesterday was awesome. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and rainy and cool, but it was still very pretty. One of my favorite things was checking out the tidepools and looking at the beautiful anemones. We took pictures but haven't downloaded them. They looked just like this picture on the left -- amazing.

Other highlights included clam chowder, the Devil's Churn, the Devil's Punchbowl, sand dunes, and listening to the new Bonnie Prince Billy album in the car. One of my other favorite things about our drive yesterday was the recent discovery of podcasts! They're ingenious. My sister-in-law Johanna turned us on to "This American Life" podcasts from NPR, so Brian downloaded a bunch of other mostly NPR shows before our trip. We are in the middle of listening to one podcast that is going through songs from the top 25 best albums in 2007, as voted by NPR listeners. It's a fantastic selection. You can check it out here. Podcasts are wonderful things, but can someone tell my why they're called podcasts? Anyway, they are a saving grace out here on the road, and are saving Brian and me from total boredom with each other!

Right now we are in Coos Bay, Oregon, wherever the hell that is. Ha ha. It's a logging town, as far as I can tell. We were pleasantly surprised last night by an amazing German restaurant in the middle of the tiny town. It was filled with old posters and awesome beers and wines, and an extensive menu. I had bratwurst, sauerkraut, red cabbage, potato salad, and a Belgian beer. Amazing. If you ever go through Coos Bay, you must visit the Blue Heron German restaurant. To die for. I mean, if you're into that kind of food...

Well, we have another full day of driving, podcasts, and scenery ahead of us. A major highlight today is driving through the Redwood Forest!!