Eugene, Oregon

Myself and five other educators went on a journey to Eugene, Oregon. We were attending a conference on a program that we use called Direct Instruction. Let me just say that it was an adventure from start to finish. It started off on Saturday July 19th. We were suppose to leave Philly at 12:55, but when I got there the flight was cancelled due to the fact that there wasn't enough pilots. Luckily Kevin and Michael had just left, so they turned around and came back to get me. The good thing was that I was able to hang out with my family a little longer. We finally left around 5:00. We arrived in Denver, Colorado and had a two hour wait, so we decided to get some dinner. I also took a picture of the girls in front of a sign for tornado shelter, they never saw anything like it.

When we got to our gate it said that the plane was delayed due to the beautiful lighten storm that was happening outside. We finally left Denver and landed in Eugene around 12:30am, which is three hours behind in time, so it was really 3:30am our time, what fun. By that time I was tired and annoyed. We finally got to our hotel and was able to go to sleep, but wasn't able to get much sleep because our training started at 8:30 the next day. We spent the week going to workshops and learning a lot of helpful ideas for the up coming school year. Eugene is a very interesting place, everyone seems so happy and layed back. There are a lot of restaurants that serve organic food and drinks. I have never seem so many hippies and VW bugs in my life (I lost count on all the punch buggies). On Wednesday all six of us jumped into a mini van, which I drove and took went to the coast. We all wanted to see the sea lions and the Pacific ocean. It took us about an hour and half to get there, but it was a beautiful drive through the mountains. We saw the sea lions and then decided to eat at a restaurant called Mo's in Florence, Eugene. They had the BEST clam chowder that I have ever tasted and I think that everyone who ate it would agree. We ended our trip to the coast by running up a VERY LARGE sand dune and seeing the sun set. We wanted to stick our feet in the water, but it was to steep of a trip down to the bottom and I don't think that we could make it back up. The sunset was absolutly beautiful.

The next day it was time to travel again, what fun. We went from Eugene to Portland to Denver to PhillyOf course the flight from Denver to Philly was a red eye. I stayed up for a total of 28 hours straight, I can't sleep on airplanes. Needless to say that I was extremely tired by the time I arrived home. When I got home I was greeted by Roxy and my son. There was also a sign that said welcome home, roses, a card and brand new camera. I was so excited, but I couldn't show it because I was sooooooo tired. All in all it was a good trip but I am not to sure about the flying again. Here are some pictures of the trip.