Adventure: In The Area

Last week I finally was able to take some adventures after about a 2 month period that lacked new adventures.

Pittock Mansion
Thursday I took a much needed day off and took a field trip out of Forest Grove with Abby, an optometry student's wife. The field trip took us to Pittock Mansion, the home to Henry & Georgina Pittock and was built in the early 1900s. Henry purchased the Oregonian and made it what it is today. The mansion is nestled amongst the trees and what seems to be the highest point in Portland.

When we got to the mansion we walked the grounds to see the overview into the city and pretty sure we could see the whole city through the trees. We decided we didn't want to pay to see the inside of the mansion, but were told it was free to see the servant quarters house. Even that was amazing, yes smaller, but we both decided we could comfortably live in a house of it's size. Plus their was even a volunteer there to give us a bunch of history on the Pittocks and their servants.

Roloff Farms
As I was moving out here Jodee told me I better stop at Roloff farms if I see it, because she is a fan of Little People Big World. So I finally looked it up and discovered it was about 15 miles for our house. Well of course we had to go then, it was just a matter of figuring out when we all could go. The farm is only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October. Sundays are hard because of varying church schedules and Saturdays run into a lot of games for me, so we had to do it a Friday and I would have to leave work early.

Well, we finally found a Friday that worked. Last Friday, we headed to Roloff Farms to get a pumpkin. When we got there I spotted Amy Roloff right away, due to the line of people wanting pictures with her. So I jumped in line and eventually was joined by both my roommates for a picture with Amy. I was very aware of how tall I was and this time it wasn't because I looked like a giant next to my roommates!

After our picture I went on the search for the 'perfect' pumpkin and Chantel and Natalie properly documented the search with their photography skills.

'Eye Ball'
Saturday night was the 'Eye Ball', a fundraising semi-formal dance for the Optometry Amigos clubs. It is a club that travels to other countries to provide eye care to underserved people. So I purchased a ticket to attend with my roommates and also got them in contact with my Uncle Doug who helped them get Chinese Garden tickets donated for the silent auction. The silent auction was a mix of donations from places in the area as well as optometry supplies for the optometry nerds who the 'Eye Ball' was for anyway. Our tickets provided a tasty dinner with far too many forks.

Public Transportation
Sunday I headed into Portland after church, but chose to ride the MAX, the public transportation system instead of driving. I checked out the map and knew what trains I needed and thought it would be easy. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to decipher how to buy a ticket! But finally ended up with a 2 hour pass, which I thought was an all day pass... Anyway to get on the train you don't have to scan your ticket like in Chicago, so my ticket was never checked, so I rode the train back 4 hours later with the same ticket.