Day 8 Recap

We didn’t really do much today. We drove around some scenic routes just to kill time because we had nothing better to do. If we had just flown into Oregon from Illinois, that would have been one of the coolest things I’d done, but it was actually somewhat commonplace. There were some nice views of the Columbia River and Mount Hood, but if we had better things to do today, I wouldn’t have thought it worth driving a few hours to see it

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On the way back to Portland, we saw this awesome wizard guy:

In Portland, there are many restaurants that use only ingredients from the Portland area. A local pizza chain called HotLips is one of those. Aaron saw a listing for them in the Portland travel guide and wanted to check them out. There was one within a mile of our hotel, so we headed down there for supper. It was kind of expensive, but we both agreed that it was possibly the best pizza we’d ever had. It had a similar flavor to Monical’s thin crust, only better in just about every way. I’d highly recommend them to anyone visiting Portland.

A couple interesting things about Oregon that I knew but didn’t remember: First, there is no sales tax in Oregon. A lot of prices are set at exact dollar amounts because of this. Second, a gas station attendant is required to pump gas for you. It took a little while to figure that second one out; I was trying to figure out what the person was doing walking to my car and opening my gas tank. I really had no idea whether or not you’re supposed to tip him, so I didn’t. Was I correct in this?

I really don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. Seeing Portland then heading south probably. Whether we head toward Crater Lake or toward the Pacific Ocean is up in the air though.

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