Oregon Fever

As I continue with my second week of my internship here in Newport, I have become more and more immersed in the peculiar culture of Oregon and the coast.  Two Fridays ago, my roommate Lauren and my officemate Margaret decided to check out the hip Café Mundo in the Nye Beach area of Newport (http://www.cafemundo.us/).  Again, upon stepping into the café, I felt like a fish out of water.  The people inside reminded me of a mix of the stern faces and dreary clothing that one would see in old fashion black and white portrait photography mixed with the hip styles of the sixties – and of course, I can’t forget the flannel.  It is worn here like it is going out of style.  The décor of the place was another sight to see.  To me, it seemed as if the owners went out and found every mismatching piece of furniture and decoration and placed it in the café.  There were little mini doll houses on the walls and one wall was painted bright yellow with a purple door frame and red door. The restaurant was two floors and to get the food to the top floor, they used an interestingly decorated dumb waiter elevator. I felt out of place with my jeans and nice top.  I can’t say that I didn’t like it, it’s just not what I’m used to.  I never thought that living in Oregon for a summer would be such a cultural experience.

My new bag

The next day, my fellow “Sea Granters” and I had plans to go exploring around some tide pools, but unfortunately the weather was not on our side.  We decided instead to hit up the local farmers market, an outlet mall, and several thrift stores in the area.  Since I have not lived in a cold climate for several years, I am in short supply of things like shoes and sweaters.  If you have every been “thrift-storing” you know that you will probably walk in with a list of things in mind and leave with a ton of things none of which were on that list.   This is exactly what happened to me.  My first find is what I would describe as a cool hippie bag. It looks like it was hand stitched with yarn and reminds me of an American Indian blanket.  I also stumbled upon, a “West Linn” zip up sweatshirt which is where Tim grew up.  Since this summer I have no TV and little access to internet, so I picked up a couple of puzzles as well.  My roommates and I have completed four puzzles in the last week! Since it was still raining, we decided to head 40 minutes up the coast to Lincoln City to visit the outlet center they have up there.  All that I wanted was a couple of sweaters since it was 50 degrees outside, but since it is summer the only things that I could find was shorts and tank tops!  I think the shops at the outlet mall forgot about the Oregon Coast climate in the summer.  On the way home, we stopped at La Roca which is a cheap Mexican sit down restaurant.  Since I already had lunch, my friend Betty convinced me to try “flan” which is like a caramel custard.  It was pretty good, but Betty told me that she’s had much better, so I’ll definitely have to try it again. 

Flan

Stay tuned for my next adventures!