Hello, Internet.

So, you might remember we visited Oregon a few years ago for our very first ever unit of PLP.

 

Well, we went back.

We took a field school to Oregon and Washington in an effort to learn about the Manhattan Project, specifically the Hanford Site. The Hanford Site is now a national park, so we got to take a tour of the actual buildings and reactors, and interview some people who actually worked there. All this contributed to the “Manhattan Project Project”– our current history assignment, centred around making a video about Hanford.

 

However, as much work as we got done there, we also took the opportunity to do some off topic learning, sightseeing, and lollipop eating .

 

One of my favourite places that we visited was Powell’s Books, the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. While we were there, we were given an assignment: find a book with a weird title and recreate it, and find a weird book related to something we actually liked or cared about and take a picture with it.

The first book that I chose was called Where’s My F**king Unicorn?, and I took this picture looking confused over having somehow misplaced said unicorn.

 

I had some trouble finding a weird book related to something I liked, but I eventually settled for this book about hating Trump:

The bookstore itself was pretty amazing. It had a coffee shop, multiple gift shops, and an incredible amount of books. I would have liked to have had more time to explore or buy something, but it was a great place to get a chance to see.

 

Another interesting place we went was an art museum in Washington, known as the Maryhill Museum of Art. Some of their displays included essentially a displayed storage room for mismatched or broken pieces, a display of chess sets from around the world, and a collection of miniature clothes made by famous designers.

 

However, the exhibit I found most interesting was a collection of pieces created over several decades, which had been sparked when the artist had a nervous breakdown. Of that series, my favourite painting was this one:

When we were done at the art museum, we also visited a replica of what Stonehenge may have originally looked like. Aside from being interesting, the replica also provided some shelter from the incredible amount of wind messing up our photos.

 

Other than our main project, there was one stop on our trip that we devoted multiple classes to preparing for– this entailed watching instructional videos, looking at websites online, answering questions, and receiving detailed instructions on what to do when we got there.

As you may have guessed, the thing we were preparing to do was eat shrimp.

 

Now, I don’t eat seafood, so I can’t say for sure, but this seemed like a lot of preparation for one meal. However, as we were informed, this was no ordinary shrimp– this was endless shrimp, and those who participated in eating it would go forth like warriors and soldier through as many plates as they could stand.

 

 

As prepared as we were, however, we still had to wait to get into the restaurant. Naturally, we took this time to enjoy one of the only things the States has better than Canada: the continued existence of Target. It was early October at the time, so there was a plethora of Halloween decorations available. I love Halloween, so I decided to get a decoration while I was there, as did my friend Parker.

 

After a lot of work, some new experiences, and as many lollipops as we could steal from our hotel, it was time to turn around and come home. I enjoyed this trip, and although we didn’t go to the same places, it was interesting to visit Oregon with this class again after all this time.

Toodles.