Off to Oregon

Hello Everybody, may I (Ethan Stranger) be the 1st to say that after a Good Needed Break:

And now, to tell y’all where I was for Spring Break, a place with colorful buildings, big bridges, and…Self Delivering Robots, well look no further for that place is none other than Monmouth, OR, but to my surprise, you can easily just either walk or do a 1-hr drive and BOOM!, you’re in another part of Oregon (either Salem, Independence or even Portland), well to be honest, it was so hard keeping track of all the mini-cities I passed through while in Oregon, thus, allow sharing with y’all the experience I enjoy while in Oregon (and how I may one day wanna live there)...     

But first, a brief history of how Portland got its name (Picture: Bottom Center) 

Do you “Believe it…or not!”?

Well, to start things off, this whole trip was the idea of both my Dad and his side of the family (whom I mentioned in my “Joys of Juneau Post”), originally we asked if my other cousin (my aunt and uncle’s kid would like to visit us, but he wasn’t a traveling-kind of guy, which I can respect), so instead, they decided that I come over to Oregon over there Spring Break (as their spring break starts on the last week of March compare to back in TX).   

Arriving in Oregon was a bit of a Challenge, from India, I flew all the way to London and from there, flew all the way to Oregon (while having to put up with a crying baby behind me and the parents were forced to change its diaper even behind me rather than taking their baby to the bathroom to do it, was forced to put up with the stink behind me).

Upon finally arriving in Oregon, I was so new to the Airport but managed to finally be reunited with my Aunt (and later my uncle and cousin) before crashing for bed, but it was nice to finally be reunited with the family that I’ve ever interacted in-person (mainly through emails and facetime).     

(again, read about me being with them in my “Joys of Juneau Post”)

So Saturday was kinda a rest day for me (after a long/tiresome flight), but my aunt invited me to tag along with her Dog, Juneau (Picture: Bottom Center) around her neighborhood, it remained me a bit of Denton, TX (where my Mom’s side of the family lives), only there’s still some farm-land and Downtown Monmouth (which was also a bit like Downtown Denton, TX, due to several old building that has been modernized), but their downtown was just a short walk down from the neighborhood (super rare).  

Sunday, she and I (alongside my Uncle) took a walk out to Silver Falls (Pictures: Bottom Center), where I had a chance to walk under a waterfall and witness Snow (despite the fact, it was spring, but there were parts of Oregon where it was still snowy). 

(The Hills were alive, people…with the sound of running water) 

Monday, my aunt, uncle, and I went out on a good long along the Beach, (Pictures: bottom Center),, and what a walk it was. We were also looking for these glass floaties that people would land along the beach but found none, instead, we found a dead sea lion and a rusty pocket knife that my Uncle took in and decided to scrub off the rust and have it good as new for himself (he’s known to collect rusty scrap-related things, scrub off the rust and later put them to good use), So I guess you can say that in Oregon,                

“One Man’s trash is another Man’s Treasure”.   

(Perfect Beach-related Song) 

After the Beach, we went up to “Ripley’s Believe or Not! Museum”, and this one was completely different from the one I visited in LA (read more about that in my “Conquering California Post”). Mu Aunt told me how different it was from the last time she brought her boys and my grandma to this place, I was surprised o come around to the “Story of the Late Mark Gruenwald (my favorite Comic Writer who I mentioned in several Posts), in how his ashes were mixed with printers ink and used to print the trade paperback of Squadron Supreme (his magnum opus as he called it). Other interesting Believe it or Not stories involved a Six-legged baby Zebra, a Rabbit in an astronaut suit, Trash art, lots of wax figures of strange people Mr. Ripley himself encountered throughout his travels, and a Moose that crashed into a cabin widow and died after failing to free himself (I always liked reading about the Animals stories from the Ripley’s Believe or Not! Books, for I am an animal lover and some of that stuff I just find it difficult to believe…but it actually happened, believe it…           

Tuesday, we all headed to the Zoo, Again my Aunt told me how much the zoo changed from the last time she and her family went, as the train over to the zoo was just a short little ride compared to the previous time, as she mentioned the train was a bit longer and would take them to a playground, where the kids would play before jumping back on the train and that there used to be a “Tundra-section of the Zoo”, but that got removed, but there were still some Mountain Goats (as well as Totem Pole), Plus I remember seeing there black bears with white-furred collars (which was rare, for I thought the Astistic Black Bear had White-furred collars, I’ve seen black bears in Juneau but never ones with White-furred collars). My Aunt also told me that when her boys were young, they went to Zoo Camp and that one of my cousin's favorite animals was the cheetah. Also, it was raining (which is very common in Monmouth and throughout my time in Oregon), but my family had gotten used to the rain and wasn’t gonna let the rain slow us down for anything.

 

(Perfect song for those walking in the rain)

 

(Perfect Zoo-related Song) 

Wednesday, We headed out to a Marvel Comics Exhibit being held over at the OSMI (an Oregon Museum of Sciene-kind of place), When my Grandma and my other cousin came over to Oregon for a visit, my Family took them to this place, though I never thought my Grandma would really wanna go to a place like this (as she isn't a fan of Superheroes nor superhero violence) and I would think that either she or my Grandpa would be fans of the Golden Age Superheroes (like Captain America) or read some of the Pulp magazine stuff at the time. Sadly, I didn’t encounter any famed comic writers or artists over there (MCU actors would’ve been difficult to display at this exhibit), but I did enjoy meeting the many models of everyone’s favorite heroes (just like any comic nerd) and learning more about the history of Marvel comics (and comics) in general.   

(which Marvel Superhero/Superteam would people want me to do a run on if I had the chance)?

Plus, Ethan Stranger had a quick pic with America Chavez (Read more about her in my “America Chavez: Star Power”), those Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Gamora drawings are actually from Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum (I just thought they’re more fitted for this Marvel Exhibit) and I really enjoyed the Dr. Strange part of the Exhibit, after all, I was an extra for the Movie (Read more about that in “The Strange Untold Origin of Ethan Stranger Post”) and read my other hero-related posts with my blog.  

(March Along, March Along, March Along…to the Merry Marvel Marching Society) 

(Shame that my HS Band could play this for we were cheap, but I’m sure the Alaska Band could try for their 4th of July Parades)

Thought I to throw this (Picture: Top Center) in for a bit of historical fun, since I’m actually writing about Comics Studies as my Academic Topic for my college and surprisingly found this piece at the Marvel Exhibit, as a guy named Fredric Wertham really destroyed comics all together due to his book (Seduction of the Innocent), as he believed that comics were poisoning the minds of children, thus the Comics Code Authority was put into place, but today, the CCA has disbanded and I personally like to describe Fredric Wertham as a “boring version of Mr. Rogers” 

Also, I thought this piece of Marvel history for fun, as I believe this is a good way to write (especially for those on the spectrum)  

Thursday, was just a relaxing day at home, where I played some D&D with my cousin (where I created my own D&D character, I’m an Aarakocra Bard named Zeed) before heading off to watch D&D: Honor Among Thieves Movie:   

(Look out…here comes Aarakocra Zeed, just like Mighty Eagle)

And finally, Friday, we all went out snowshoeing (Pictures: Bottom Center), as an Alsakna Man, snow is silly soft stuff. It won’t stop me…but since this was my first snowshoeing experience, it kinda slow me down, even at one point, one of my snowshoes came loose (that was no good), but overall, it was fun (been a while since I’ve experienced snow since that Snow Apocalypse back in TX of 2021) and I always thought that (even in Springtime) snow only happened in Alaska.    

(Perfect Snowshoeing-related song) 

Then, Saturday was the big day, it was time for me to head back to Hyderabad, India (Read my “Hooray for Hyderabad Post that explain my reason for being there”) and it was sad to say goodbye to the family you were just having fun with and had hardly interacted with them throughout your life (and you just wished there was a way to turn back the clock and have a chance to interact with them), plus I was going through a hard time, especially following the passing my dog (read my “The Life of Chewie Post for more detail”) and just personal stuff surrounding my parents, so being in Oregon with my family helped bring out some happiness within myself and I also challenged myself in not using my iPhone for social media/youtube (something that I’ve been struggling with for a long time), so I would only use my phone for Spotify, Reading on google, texting and taking pics, plus when leaving OR, I played that “Mr. Rogers Song”:       

Overall (despite the rainy weather), I really had a great time in Oregon, I was surprised at how Monmouth (in general) reminded me of my birth home of Juneau (mostly the weather and the friendly community-like areas), plus being with my Oregon family were so kind, encouraging and understanding of me and my interests and helped me learn more about my grandparents from my Aunts Point of View (like how my Grandma was into ABBA), something that I didn’t know:   

(For my Grandma) 

Plus, Oregon’s university (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), their mascot is a Wolf, similar to my High School’s Mascot (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), looks like another showdown coming soon…

And now to just feature several  random pics from my trip to Oregon:

In the future, I wouldn’t mind going back to OR, though despite a homeless community problem and that marijuana is growing like crazy in OR, I still believe Oregon is a lovely place to visit for those who wanna escape the stress they’re suffering and try to find some peace within themselves, cause sometimes (even when you’re at you own home), it’s so difficult to maintain peace among yourself, though just look on how much peace Al Jarreau has:

(Check out my “Morning…With Al Jarreau Post for more music from this Guy”) 

Plus (even outside of Ripley’s Believe or Not Museum), you’ll tend to find a lot of weird stuff in Oregon (like a truck hauling a toy truck on the back, A Lego House, a Golden Stautre of Marylin Monroe a drawing of a man with an ape body, more weird paintings, Candian Geese outside of a Marvel Exhibit), need I say more (especially to Texans who I doubt would find any of these weirds things back in TX, remember what Spongebob and Patrick would say about Texas). But whatever the weather nor no matter where you are, remember what Barry Manilow would sing whenever he was walking through the rain and feeling down in the dumps...Speaking of Rain, there are days in Oregon where there was clear skies and sunshine, and yet the rains keep on coming, but Oregon residents have adapted to these types of weather conditions, even I myself was slowly adapting before having to return to India (where there’s a certain season when it rains, known as Monsoon). 

And Finally (I know I’m repeating myself), a big thanks to my family in Oregon (even my uncle's Sister) for making my time in Oregon so much fun, I just wish we had more time (even wishing we could turn back time to when both my cousins were young and so was I, then we can play more with Legos, snuggled with stuffed animals, go to Zoo camps, do many boy scout camping trips, etc). I remember watching “The Simpsons Movie”  during my flight from coming to Oregon and going back to India and (despite being only for the Movie), I felt like I was in Bart Simpson's shoes when he saw Ned Flanders as more of a “Father figure” than his own father (Homer Simpson), where in my case, I enjoy the company of my Oregon family more so than even my Mom’s side of the Family and even my own parents (at times whenever we’re at odds with each other). Thus, I do hope I get a chance to return to Oregon and maybe my Grandma, my other cousin (who joined the army) and my other aunt/cousins (from California) come to Oregon for a visit whenever I come…           

(Perfect Song to go with the heartwarming moments) 

(this would make my Grandma and My Late Grandpa Happy) 

So Until My Next Adventure in Oregon, Spider-Man says (Picture: Bottom Left Corner)...

But I (Ethan Stranger, Picture: Top Right Corner) says “Make Mine Marvel”

Ladies and Gentleman, Ethan Stranger is your new Captain America