An Unexpected Weekend Off

The weekend before last was supposed to be spent in the field conducting more experiments, but sadly an issue came up that resulted in our project completely falling apart (check out my other blog here if you want to see what happened: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/seagrantscholars/2011/07/19/reflections-to-date/).  Although this was an unfortunate event, it lead me to experience another great weekend in Oregon.  If there was any weekend that I wanted off the most, it was definitely this past weekend, so I was elated to spend it as I wished.  Upon leaving work, I called Tim to come pick me up who was surprised that I was asking him to do so since he thought I was working all weekend.  Friday night after work I headed east to Corvallis with my coworker, Stephanie, to meet Tim and go out for drinks at the Downward Dog which is a fun bar in Corvallis with great mac and cheese!

Sara Duncan - At Gustav's German Restaurant.

That night we headed back up to Tim’s dad’s place in Damascus where we went to sleep to prepare for our next fun weekend.  That morning, I got to visit with Tracey, Tim’s stepmom, and her rat terrier, Brittan.   I was excited to get to see them.  That afternoon, Tim’s sister, Christin, stopped by with her beautiful three little boys.  We played outside and got into tickle fights which were a lot of fun.  That night, I went out to dinner with Tim, Tracey, Tim’s dad, Robert, and Tracey’s son to Gustav’s German Restaurant.  Since I recently turned 21 a couple of months ago, I enjoy trying new drinks, so I ordered a “Sea of Cortez.” It was too strong for me and had a weird combination of sweet, salty, and spicy, but I will try everything once!   I wounded down that night with a relaxing sunset by the fire at Robert’s hilltop residence. 

Sara Duncan - Visiting Voodoo Doughnut. 

The next day was spent relaxing and studying for the GRE that I will be taking in September.  One of the main reasons why I wanted to come up to Portland that weekend was to see one of my favorite artists, Mat Kearney, perform at the Roseland Theatre in Northwest Portland.  On Sunday afternoon, Tim and I headed into the city to grab some dinner at Habibi’s Lebanese Cuisine and watch the concert.  We stopped at Voodoo Doughnut while we were waiting for the show to start.  Voodoo Doughnut is a famous doughnut bakery is Portland that is known for its interesting doughnut creations.  The line was out the door, but we had to at least stop by to check it out.  After that we headed over to watch the concert.  The Roseland is a great venue to watch a show.  It is rather small which makes there no bad seat in the house.  Mat Kearney was great and we enjoyed the main performance, Owl City, afterwards before we headed back down to Corvallis.  I’m glad I got to spend the weekend relaxing and visiting with Tim’s family before my hectic field work schedule back in the lab.  It was a well deserved break!