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October 4, 2004
Road Trip
Back from Oregon.
On Saturday morning, we drove my parents up to SFO, then hit the road after a silly detour in the City. We stopped in Orland to see the Vlaches. Ethan is just too cute. If he wants you to come see something, he'll hold out his little hand and say, "hand!"
There was another silly detour in Redding, then we drove on. I haven't seen Mt. Shasta without snow on it for years (or maybe even ever), and it looked smaller than I remembered.
Because of the silly detours, we didn't get into Ashland until about 6:30. I'd failed to get us a hotel, and we looked around fruitlessly for one, then gave up and went to a play. The only thing with seats available was Raisin in the Sun, which I wasn't all that excited about seeing, but turned out to be just fabulous. The set/costumes/tech were great, and with one glaring exception, the actors were all wonderful.
When the play ended, we had some food and looked for a hotel. There was no room in any inn in Ashland, so we headed up to Medford on an Aurora-like frontage road. Medford was pretty gloomy, but we did manage to find the real reason we'd gone up there in the first place. We checked into a Holiday Inn Express (what makes it "Express"?), which had the least comfortable beds and pillows I've ever experienced in a hotel. Neither of us got any sleep.
The next morning, we drove around Medford some more. Despite the stunning surroundings, the town was still gloomy in the even in the daytime. The downtown area was trying really hard to be cute, but everything was closed, including the coffee house. What kind of coffee joint is closed on Sunday morning? (And I don't mean that it was like 5AM. It was 10:30.)
After exploring for a while, we went to the house to meet the real estate agent. The house was gorgeous, but needed a lot of work. Still, I really liked it. I could tell pretty quickly that Rob didn't. We left and went back to Ashland for lunch.
We had a pretty blah lunch, then got back into the car to explore some more. Ashland is almost ridiculously pretty. It's like it's a set for a play. But a scenic designer couldn't have painted a set so vividly. The dark evergreens, the lurid autumn foliage and the blue, blue sky could only be believed in nature.
Following a tip from the real estate agent, we headed north again to see the town of Jacksonville. It's even quainter than Ashland. It's almost too quaint, like they're kidding about it. We looked around at houses, including a new copy of a Greene & Greene house up on a hill. It was insanely beautiful, and heartbreakingly priced at $1.6 milion. A house like that here (on five acres!) would be a steal at $20 million. Exhausted, we went back to the town and had margaritas and chips on the balcony of a hyper-quaint gold-rush era building. We discussed the merits of the house in Medford, and decided that we both didn't like it enough to move forward with it.
We eventually started the drive back home. Coincidentally, the book I'm reading aloud in the car right now is Microserfs. Interesting reading for people who are contemplating getting the hell out of Silicon Valley.
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Comments
You're moving to Oregon? Is Rob quitting?
Are you pregnant or something? *suspicious eyebrow raised*
Posted by: Amy at October 4, 2004 9:37 PM
No, Rob is not quitting. No, I am not pregnant(as if). No, we're probably not moving to Oregon, but I want OUT OUT OUT of the Valley.
Posted by: Kate at October 4, 2004 10:07 PM
Oh, okay.
Posted by: Amy at October 5, 2004 9:58 AM
I am so glad you are not moving up here.We have enough yuppie assholes like you here already! Stay down there and live like rats on a sinking ship hahaha
Posted by: Jason heckathorn at October 22, 2004 10:53 AM
I really prefer "yuppie scum" to "yuppie asshole", but YMMV.
Posted by: Kate at October 22, 2004 11:10 AM