Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Home home home

Earlier this month Mom and I made a trip to the Southern part of Oregon to visit my sister-in-law and nieces. My brother is unfortunately stationed in Idaho, and so he missed out on our visit. We had a fun couple of days together. We took some fun and silly pictures using the PhotoBooth feature on my Mac.
One fun part of our visit was watching the poppies together. These poppies are right outside of their house and we happened to be coming home one day (or leaving?) and someone noticed that one poppy was about to pop! It had already lost half of its outer shell and was on its way to blooming. As we stood and watched, the bottom half of the shell dropped off. It was pretty exciting and the girls were happy.

One poppy already in bloom, you can see how none others are blooming:
Then later on:

Mom and I left Southern Oregon and drove North, and took hwy 22 West from Salem, out to the coast. I've never been this way before, and although it was a little slow-going due to the windy roads, it was beautiful and a nice scenic tour through the Oregon countryside.

And you Oregonians know a drive through Tillamook needs a stop at the factory. Does this picture make you hungry?
We left last Friday for Mexico. We stopped once in Madera, California and stayed the night, then drove to San Diego, met up with my dad, and stayed the night again. Sunday we headed in to Ensenada Sunday at lunch time where met Stephanie at her house. Stephanie is one of my best friends from college and she's been teaching in Ensenada for the past year. Mom, Dad, and Heidi, who had driven with us, took off for home, and I stayed two nights in Ensenada.

Stephanie and I spent some time down at the boardwalk in Ensenada, and visited a friends' cafe and saw a movie there. We ran around town, basically. Monday I went to Stephanie to the school and sat through her classes. The kids are incredibly cute and I'm exciting about teaching there next year. I got to meet the directors and other staff at the school, which was nice. Stephanie's third graders were super excited to meet me and had prepared questions beforehand to ask me. So, I got to stand up in front of the class and answer questions about my siblings, my favorite color, where I live, etc.

Monday after school Kelly, who is Stephanie's roommate and also teaches at the school, and her boyfriend Gilberto, took us to an empanada place to eat, and to get juices from the place down the street. Later on Stephanie, Kelly, and I went to a cool coffee place with an upper balcony under a tree. Basically we just ate the whole time I was there.

So... this is the only decent picture, wherein Kelly is doing something funny with her face, and Gilberto is obviously trying to tell us something.
View from the school:
View from the hill above Stephanie's house:
Gilberto gave Kelly a baby duck. Yeah. He gave her a baby duck. You read that right.
Tuesday morning I left Ensenada for the drive South. The drive home. Unfortunately there was a bit of a detour that made me question my decision to bring my car to Mexico. It wasn't too long, but it did take a while, since the terrain was so rough.
But, I drove home, through these wonderful mountains, and my car survived, and I arrived "home". Home, home, home.

posted by Meghan @ 2:46 PM