The Veterinarian's Log

1) Up at 6:30am this morning, finding last-minute things to pack and generally getting ready for a day on the road. Brr. We even managed the requisite running in and out of the house at the last minute, fetching things and making sure things were turned off and such.
2) Starbucks for breakfast! I'd swear the dude gave me a decaf. With not much chocolate. Woe. But the bearclaw was tasty.
3) Drivedrivedrivedrivedrive
4) There be goats on the side of the road, doing weed control as goats do best. Evidently people have been complaining about the goats, since folk what don't deal with animals slow down as they drive by to get a good look.
5) Stopped by the apartment (which is a wreak, gee thanks flatmates), fetched the firewire for my iPod (which I hope works, seeing as Martha evidently decided to nibble on it at some point), my knee brace o'doom (I am seriously bionic woman in this thing), and another sweater. Also paid off the rent - so productive.
6) Lunch in Truckee - sandwiches from Safeway. I swear people forgot how to drive when they got in the mountains. There were some hair-raising moments.
6) Sis and I discovered that yes indeedy, the internet connection thing works. Watched music videos.
7) Sis has taken over the driving! O.O No crashing thus far.
8) Still driving. We have about two and half hours until Elko. *prays the connection is still working so I can post this*

Yes, finally getting around to posting the last bit of my exciting adventures. *ignores the sighs of relief* But first, I found one of the memes that I wanted to do but couldn't due to the evilness of the internet connection. This one's stolen from grey_ships

( The )

Okay. On to the real point of this post, which is to finish the vacation chronicles. *ignores groans from the readers* I was wrong in my previous point. When I left off, I said we arrived in Pacific City, Oregon. Since we had left Pacific City that morning, that doesn't make much sense. Instead, we arrived in Brookings, Oregon. It isn't much of a town, but the harbor is pretty when the sun sets. They also have a good seafood restraunt - The Great American Smokehouse. My only advice is to stay away from the cajun fish. The chef puts on way too much salt. The chowder (yes, I finally gave in and had some clam chowder) was fantastic though. We saw a very unusual thing - a farmer growing fields and fields of hydrangeas. He wasn't raising them for cut flowers - they were beginning to die off. So... does anyone know why a farmer would raise huge fields of stunningly blue hydrangeas? Also, joy of joys, Star Trek: The Journey Home was on TV that night. I absolutely love that movie, and consider it the best of the Trek-fliks. What can I say, I love clueless!Spock, and McCoy is at his greatest when rescuing Chekov. Then we got to see one of those Animal Police shows on Animal Planet (I really want that channel) where humane society/animal control officers crack down on animal abusers. I thought they were going pretty light on the audience - the cases weren't that horrible. I've definitely seen worse at work.
On Saturday we managed to get going pretty early and started off down the coast again. There was a problem finding a decent breakfast place. We asked the lady (the very uncommunicative lady) at the front desk where we could find breakfast, and she suggested 'The Apple Peddler'. That sounded good, so off we went, eager for breakfast. We arrived in a war zone. You know things are bad when the waitresses are openly fighting amongst themselves in front of guests. We decided that maybe the Apple Peddler wasn't such a good idea, and headed down the road again, now very hungry. A few miles later we found a very cute little breakfast place - with almost an hour wait. O.o Oookay then, no breakfast there. And once again we were on the road, now very hungry. Soon, we were in California. Still no breakfast. We were beginning to get desperate - Mccy-D's was looking pretty good. Then we saw another cute little breakfast place - and they had places to sit! And were polite! Gotta love it. Thus, we finally got breakfast (hurrah for Spanish omlettes!), and could stop wondering if grass was edible.
Much more driving later, we stumbled across a field full of elk. I will now say that baby elk have to be the cutest things on the planet. They squeak! How adorable is that? The herd seemed pretty healthy, with lots of adorable baby elk.
Pretty soon after that we found 'The Avenue of Giants', a road that ran parallel to the highway and ran through a huge forest of giant redwoods. So we drove down the avenue, stopping at little stations and reading their little tour guide pamphlet. Whoever wrote that thing must have been writing it for little kids - it was simplistic to the point of being insulting. Oh well. The forest was pretty.
I discovered a bit later that my newfound propensity for becoming carsick on windy roads has not gone away yet. Both-er-at-ion. I was trying my darndest, but I still had to ask dad to stop the car. *growls at irrational inner-ear* I used to love windy roads! Of course, we were following highway 1 home. To those who have never heard of/driven on Highway 1, it is a narrow, two-lane highway that runs along the cliffs of the California Coast. Yes. On the very edge of the cliffs. At least one person drives off the edge a year, if not more. It is very windy. Geh. It's very pretty though.
After what seemed like a great deal of driving, we arrived in Fort Bragg. We spent a long time hiking around on the cliffs, looking at the ocean (the water was an absolutely stunning Carribean blue), and searching for good pieces of sea-glass on Glass Beach. Dinner wasn't fantastic - seafood places are pretty slim pickings in that town. The scenery is definitely the best part of Fort Bragg.
There was an interesting show on the History Channel - all about the books of the Bible that didn't make it into the current Bible. I thought it all very interesting, because I've often wondered if the Roman Catholic Church didn't leave something out when they decided on an official Bible. It is entirely possible - the Catholic Church isn't exactly known for it's flawless decision-making ability. I'll admit, some of the books they described are definitely too 'out there' for consideration (one about kid-Jesus pushing a playmate off the roof just so that he could ressurect him), but others sounded plausible. Makes one wonder, doesn't it?
Finally the last day of vacation. We got up early, since we wanted to get back to San Jose in time to pick up the Martha-muffin. We had breakfast at 'The Eggheads', a very cute breakfast shop with a 'Wizard of Oz' theme. Okay, so we can add that to the short list of 'Good things in Fort Bragg'. We tried to eat lightly, splitting two berry french toast orders between the four of us, but we still ended up with way too much food. It was delicious though, so we didn't complain. After stopping to admire the trunk of a fallen redwood that was old when the Roman Catholic Church was founded, we took off again.
A few hours later we were in Napa. I've never been there before, so it was a very different experience. There were vinyards and wineries everywhere! We stopped at one winery I've never heard of and tried some of the wine... there's a reason I've never heard of them. The finish was nice and oaky, but it was way too dry for my taste. Almost sour. Bleh. So we took off down the road again, admiring the beautiful winery houses and the huge vinyards.
We stopped for lunch/dinner at the Culinary Institute of America. Oh yes, it was that good. We got an assortment of olives and bread to munch on while deciding what to order. First course (they had courses. Oh dear Eru) was this neat little sampler thing they had, where the chefs made little tidbits of food. There was a tomato gelato thing (yum), a toasted bread and fois gras pate (different), green beans and pine nuts (double yum), rye bread, creme fresh, cured salmon, and dill (triple yum), and a shrimp and procutio (sp?) and cheese thing (Dear Eru, I've died and gone to heaven). There was only enough of each thing for a couple bites, which made it a lot of fun. Then there was the soup course, a sweet corn chowder with crab (drool). Finally, the main course (lavender chicken with heirloom tomatoes, croutons, and olive spread) which was very, very good. After that, we were all rather full, so we had a light dessert - we shared some goat cheese fried thingies with bing cherries, and some little tidbits of dessert - tiny raspberry macaroons, orangewater marshmellows, tiny blueberry muffins, and other such things. Dad had a thirty-year-old port that was positively fantastic.
Much, much later we arrived in San Jose... and discovered the kitty hotel where Martha was staying was closed on Sundays. No Martha-muffin! But there were clothes to wash and cars to unpack, so we were all kept rather busy. The next morning I got up early and effected a kitten-rescue. Martha's been rather clingy ever since, poor kitten. Heh, here she comes, she obviously knows I'm talking about her.
Right, vacation-log done! Hurrah! Now, back to your regularly scheduled program while I try to write a decent essay for my vet-school application.

I believe this laptop well and truly hates me. That, or it wants to go on vacation as well. *shrugs* No rest for the wicked... not sure if that applies to the computer or me!
Yesterday we left Seattle, but not before having a grand breakfast with all of the fruit and pastries we had bought at Pike's Market the day before. The apple cinnamon roll was okay, but the cinnamon carrigon (sp?) braid was fantastic. That, with some blueberries and some raspberries... yummy. CA fruit's gonna seem rather dull after this, unless I can find a farmer's market down there.
We drove... and we drove... and we drove... I slept a lot. It's amazing how riding in a car wears one out. Finally we put on one of the CD's. I love old radio shows. There's always really cheesy ads. Most of them for this series are for some now-defunct brand of car parts, though there was one ad for a now-defunct California wine. I kinda feel sorry for those people... I hope they made money while the company was still going. They sound so sure their product is great.
Finally we hit the town of Tillamook. Yes. That Tillamook. The one with the great ads with the fake-o Swiss knights. "Vee have lost the cow, but ve'll steal the cheese!" I love those ads. The factory is pretty cool, though I think the jobs of cutting and packaging the cheese are best used to inspire young students to study. *shakes a metaphorical finger at said young students* You study hard now, or you'll be stuck in Tillamook, packaging cheese all day! *snickers* They have good ice cream there, however. They also have one of the statues from 'Cows on Parade'. I love those cows. I have a replica at home (much smaller, obviously) of one of the cows - it's red and has boxer shorts, and is obviously one of the coolest cows ever. Yup.
Another long bit of driving, and we came to our final destination - Pacific City, Oregon. We're right next to the beach, and though it is pretty cold, it's very nice here. Mom, Dad, and I went for a walk on the beach before the sun went down. Dad took pictures of me when he thought I wasn't looking (I didnt' react - I think he thinks he got away with it. *grin*) Dinner was the smoked salmon and other bits of munching stuff we've acquired along the way. Still very yummy.
I should give today's report now, but it looks like everyone else wants to go to bed, and I don't want to catch more heat. Just one more thing - evidently there is a rather large herd of domestic rabbits roaming the city. I've seen roughly 15 of them so far, and they're uber cute, if not very tame. I just keep thinking about one of my co-workers. I don't think I'll tell her about this - it'll give her fits. *ponders* That could be interesting. Ah well. We don't need more drama at the shelter.

Fourth of July in Bend, Oregon is a very... interesting event. The entire town is fireworks-happy. And there's no offical 'gathering place' to watch the big fireworks show. There were people in parking lots, on roofs, alongside the road... it was almost a carnival atmosphere. There were TNT-sale tents everywhere, and fireworks were being sold in all of the big supermarkets, so everyone had a big supply of crackers and rockets and bits of lithium and other bits of flamable explosives. And they lit them at a pretty steady clip. The complex of parking lots we stopped in were constantly lit up by a steady stream of firecrackers and such. The air was full of crashes, screaming, and sonic-boom type sounds. There were even some flare-gun type explosives, some of which were quite elaborate. As it got dark, the madness increased. It looked like the whole town was on fire, with all of the explosives going off. And people were still driving around - even throught the parking lots that had turned into amateur demolition zones. One little kid nearly got creamed when the driver of a huge pickup truck couldn't see over his massive hood to see the kid crouched on the ground next to his recently burned-out firework. Verrry scary. The guy had an inch of clearance, if that. Some other random guy shouted profanities at his taillights, and everyone went back to blowing Bend to kingdom come. Then the fireworks show started - someone had hauled a couple firework cannons up to the top of the one hill in town and had somewhat managed to set them to music, which one of the local radio stations played. After the show was over, the pyromania showed itself again. We went home, however...
Watched A.I. last night. Is that the strangest movie ever, or what? There's some huge plotholes too. But I rather liked Joe. He was a likeable mecha... though I suppose in more than one way. I loved Teddy though. I want a Teddy.
Even though we got to bed around one, we were still up by 730. Yeah, we're nuts. We drove out to Sisters for breakfast - let me tell you, they're generous with breakfast in Sisters. I highly recommend 'The Ski Inn'. Lots and lots of food, very tasty, none too healthy on the most part, not too expensive. And they have really nice people working there.
Then came the long drive through the Wilamete (sp?) Valley. I know that's not spelled right, but I'm being too much of a lazy bum at the moment to go look it up. It was very pretty, and I added that to the list of 'Places Dad Could Retire', even though there isn't much in the way of organized towns out there. We stopped at a little coffee shack (another benefit of Oregon - there's expresso places everywhere!) for a jolt. Mom ordered a latte, and was asked if she wanted it wet or dry. We all kind of stared at each other - isn't all coffee rather wet? The lady took pity on us and explained that she meant did she want it to be half foam or all foam. Ah. Still confusing. I was a good girl and got water, which was actually pretty necessary since it was getting warm outside.
Four or so hours later we decided that lunch would be a good thing, and if we didn't eat it soon, we might as well call it dinner. We stopped at a nice little rest stop (another benefit of Oregon over CA - CA rest stops are... gross) and had a little picnic lunch - french bread, goat cheese, more of that salsa stuff, and more salami. Yum. With cherries for dessert, I was a happy cookie.
Finally, finally we reached Seattle. After getting throughly lost on the city streets, we found our hotel. It's rather Matrix-like in construction, since you can wander around for ages and still not find your room. They actually provide maps at the door. O.o When we finally found our room, we were rather floored. There's two bedrooms! And a full kitchen! I'm glad we'll be hear for more than one night. Things like this deserve to be savored. Hopefully we'll pick up some good stuff at Pike's Farmers Market tomorrow. *grins happily* Blueberry season is still on here! We bought a huge basket of blueberries yesterday and had those with cottage cheese for dinner last night. Yumyumyum. I've been missing my fresh fruit meals. It's the best part of summer.
After we settled in, sis and I went to the Sci-Fi museum right down the street. It's pretty cool - lots of artifacts from movies and TV shows, along with some neat books. They had some scripts of Uhura's from Star Trek (with some strange equations - 12-3=9=Mudd. Huh? They also had some of the weapons used in Doctor Who (The Happiness Gun!) and a Dalek, as well as one of the aliens from the movies of the same name, the Terminator and bits of his nemesis, Will Robinsons' outfit, a klingon mask along with his bat'leth and other bits of klingon weapondry, lots of phasers and rifles and a whole bunch of other stuff. Pretty neat.
Dinner was accidentally at a pretty pricy restraunt (it sounded cheaper on the web), but it was tasty anyway. Evidently I still look under 21 to some people, because the waiter immediately took away my wine glass. Not that I was going to use it anyway, but I was amused.
Tommorow's the Van Gogh exhibit! This is Reporter!Bodldops signing off.