Tim and Mark's adventures in America

Woke up on Saturday to the realisation that we unfortunately had to go and get James from the airport. We weren't happy. We were even less happy when we had to wait over an hour for the idiot to get through customs. Our moods did improve however when he told us that his suitcase had been lost!

The plan for the day was to go down to Drew's university (Oregon State University) in Corvallis, however we first stopped off at a huge outlet retail park on the way down. Grabbed some lunch then proceeded to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap prices on offer. After spending hours there, we continued down into Corvallis and parked up at Drew's house. Met his housemates Scott and Adam, drank some beer and had home-made pizzas. Then went off into town and had a mini pub crawl. James was pretty tired from his flights so didn't drink as he normally would. The last stop was a Mexican place that had karaoke on. Scott wanted to sing, but was too late. Headed back to the house and crashed out.

Sunday, we spent most of the day doing nothing. Drew took us to have a look around his uni, and we got a chance to play a bit of football. Went to a Mexican fast food restaurant for lunch, then went back to the house to wait for Adam and his girlfriend to be ready. Eventually we left for Adam's beach house at about 4pm. The closer we got to the coast, the wetter it seemed to get until the rain was pretty much torrential. Stopped at a shop to grab supplies for the night, then settled in for the evening. The rain did stop for a little bit, so we walked down to the cliffs to look out over the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately James didn't fall in. Went back to the house and continued to play Super Smash Bros on the Wii. It's surprising how competitive Drew was considering it's a game for kids! Watched Balls of Fury (during which James and Mark fell asleep, with Mark snoring loudly in the corner) then went to bed.

The weather was much nicer on Monday. The rain had cleared and the sun was out. Had a leisurely breakfast and repacked the car, then headed for the beach. Played football for a little while, then went for a little paddle in the water. We were warned that the water was going very cold. It wasn't. I've been swimming in far colder water at Bournemouth! Stopped at a brewery for lunch. The beer was good, and the waitress gave James and I back $10 more change than we should have had so we were quite happy with that. Stopped off in Corvallis to collect the rest of our outlet purchases then headed back to Boring, with Scott and Adam joining us. Dropped Adam off at his parents place, and arrived back at Drew's by 8ish. After dinner, myself, Mark and James went to the pub, with Mark driving. Only stayed for one, then went back and fell asleep.

Tim

Wednesday was a pretty uneventful day. The weather was pretty rubbish so we didn't do a lot. Went to a small outlet mall around midday where we picked up a couple of cheap t-shirts, and Goochie got himself a pair of Levis for about £16. In the afternoon, we met up with Brandon and went to see Tropic Thunder, a comedy film starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. It has to be one of the funniest films I've ever seen. I definately recommend people go and see it when it hits UK screens next month. In the evening, we went to a pub called McMenamin's and played darts all night. I sucked! Gooch did rather well tho.

On Thursday we had another lazy morning and then headed down into Portland to visit OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). It was a pretty cool place with loads of interactive stuff, although the dinosaur exhibition has to be the worst I have ever seen. It was truely shocking! In the evening we got to see another side of Drew....the ultra competitive side. We went round to Brandon's to play Halo 3 with a group of Drew's mates, and found out that Drew hates to lose, especially at Halo. Myself and Mark were pretty terrible, although apparently we did quite well considering it was our first times playing. Was a pretty late night by the time we finished, I think I'd given up by this point.

On Friday we went took the MAX (the local light rail network) to downtown Portland for the day. Got off at Pioneer Square, where there was some Italian food festival going on. Watched a grape crushing contest then left. We took a look at the waterfront where there was a Christian music festival going on. Normally that wouldn't be my idea of fun, but there was an extreme sports demo area so we went and checked that out. The skateboarders were pretty awful and kept falling off (which kind of gives entertainment in a different way) but the BMXers and Motocross riders were quality. Unfortunately the entertainment was cut short by a preacher, and after listening to him drone on for about 45 mins, we snuck out. Burger for lunch at a brewery, although due to dehydration from the heat I didn't fancy a beer. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping and went to pick up some Portland Timbers merchandise, before heading home. In the evening, Brandon's parents took us out for Mexican food (which I enjoyed) and then we went bowling. I am happy to say that I won the only completed game, and Mr Gooch came second, thus giving Team GB a one-two. Drew was leading in the second game, however we ran out of time before we finished so the result didn't stand. He didn't like that. As I said before, he's a bad loser.

Tim

After an early start and a 3 hour journey from Drew's house in his mums Pontiac, we made it to the picturesque city of Seattle. Upon arriving we met up with Drew's girlfriend Torii, she goes to uni in Seattle.

After having a sarnie and a jamba juice for lunch we headed to downtown Seattle to see the sites. As we are tourists we thought the best way to see the city would be via a bus trip, this tour was different tho, it was an amphibious bus meaning we could travel via land and water. We had to wait 4 hours before we could go so we went and had a look around the shops, after a couple of hours we went and hit a bar. The beer sucks in america and there's no cider at all! The wait was over and we finally got to ride on Duck tour, after travelling through the streets of Seattle we hit the harbour of Seattle during which we saw where Sleepless in Seattle was shot. The tour was pretty cheesy with rubbish jokes and music along the way, but it was all good fun.

The next day was wet and cold so we headed to the famous Pike's Market which was all under cover so we didn't get wet. They sold loads fresh local produce like fish, flowers, fruit and veg. The fish market was quality, the guys who worked there kept everyone entertained throwing the fish around and singing at the same time. We visted the 1st ever Starbucks shop, it didn't look that different from any normal starbucks, but it did still have all the orignal signs outside. For lunch we headed to the Pike Street Brewery in the heart of the market, Tim tested the Kilt lifter Scotch style ale, i'm not a fan of ale so i gave it a miss. He said it was very good tho. In the afternoon we went on a tour of Seattle's underground city, which was very interesting with loads of facts about the history of how Seattle was built. They had big problem with the sewage system, lucky enough some english guy by the name of Thomas Crapper helped them out. In the evening Torii cooked us spag bog, which was excellent.

The following day the weather was alot better, so we went up Space Neddle, which is a tower built for the world fair in 1962. We went up to the observation deck at 520ft. The views across Seattle were stunning on such a clear day. For lunch we heading down to the waterfront to Red Robins, its a well known burger resturant. After this we started our way back to Oregon but on the way we stopped at a Flight museum on the edge of Seattle. It had loads of really cool old planes like concorde, air force one and a massive boeing 747. Inside the museum there were sections on WW1 and WW2 planes. It also had a section on the history of space flight. After a few hours we headed back to Oregon, but the weather turned on us very quickly, Drew did a good job to keep the car on the road from what i hear, i was alseep by this point. We made it back fine but very tired, so we called for a pizza, it was mahussive.

Mark

We're here! Despite the terrible weather in New York, we finally made it to Portland in the early hours of Saturday morning. My flight down from Toronto was delayed by about 2-3 hours due to the thunderstorms over New York, but luckily my connecting flight to Portland was also delayed by the same storms. Mark's luck was no better either. His outbound flight from the UK was delayed by about 1 1/2 hours and then he was stuck at JFK for over 6 hours waiting for the storms to subside. I think in total he had been up for about 30 hours when he finally arrived in Portland! Luckily all was fine tho, despite the delays, and we arrived and met Drew at the airport within minutes of each other.

The next day we took a trip up to the Columbia River gorge and the selection of waterfalls along the valley. Starting at Latourell Falls, we also saw Bridal Veil falls, Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls, which was the biggest of the lot. It was an incredibly hot day, about 40c! After that, we were very sweaty so we went for a swim at Drew's girlfriends house.

In the evening, we met a friend of Drew's called Brandon and went to watch the 'soccer' match in town, Portland Timbers vs Montreal Impact. Portland won 2-1 on a terrible looking, artificial pitch. Highlight of the match was the Portland Timbers mascot, Timber Joe, wielding his chainsaw at any opportunity to get the crowd going. After the game, we headed back to Brandon's for food, then went back to Drew's to rest up before heading to Seattle in the morning.

Tim