Bright and early on a Saturday morning, Jieqi and I hopped onto a car
that brought us to the apartments at Old Redmond, where we gathered with eleven
other DigiPen folks whom we’d be traveling with for the next couple of days.
"Are we there yet?"
Once everyone was done packing and hyping themselves up for the
journey ahead, we each got into our assigned cars and rode off. Farris (AKA
Drift Daren) was our designated driver for the trip, which was going to be
tough on him because nobody else in our car could drive. With only a thumbdrive
worth of music and our imaginations to entertain us, our little road trip would
soon prove to be quite a memorable adventure.
Our first pit-stop was for lunch at Izzy’s, just across the carpark
from Three Rivers’ Mall. The incredibly affordable all-you-can-eat buffet
boasted a selection of pizzas, pies, salad, mash potatoes, pork ribs, chicken
and ice cream. We ate to our hearts’ content, while listening to Kok struggling
to describe to us the premise of a PG-13 manga series in Mandarin so we wouldn’t
give the Caucasian family within earshot multiple heart attacks.
All you can eat, and more.
I was completely stuffed by the time we left Izzy’s, having spent just
shy of USD11 for a more than full meal. We got on the road once again, blasting
music and having our own private karaoke session in the car. At one point we
waved at a random Asian girl who was staring out the window of her car, then
proceeded to race her boyfriend along the highway. Breath-taking views of trees,
hills and crystalline lakes flanked us on either sides of the road as we
cruised on.
When I'm on the road.
Two hours flew by quicker than I’d expected, and before long we were
pulling up at Woodburn Premium Outlets in Portland, Oregon. An entire row of
storehouses hocking goods of varying brands stood before us. Nike, Fossil,
Aeropostale, Under Armour, Coach Etc. It was so massive we wound up having to
split the group up. I wandered off with Kok, one of the guys from our car, and
made off with wallets from Levi’s and shirts from Gap. Kok got a new jacket for
himself at Adidas for an amazing steal (USD12+).
The first time I actually got excited about clothes.
Since Kok and I weren’t natural shoppers, we decided to stop for some
Auntie Anne’s before it was time to leave. We waited for the others to finish
up their last-minute shopping before driving to a nearby mall for dinner. The
mall was pretty huge but lacking compared to the malls in Singapore. A couple
of us spent quite some time at a Lego store building our own Lego people and
admiring the amazing Avengers: Age of Ultron set display, complete with
spinning rims.
Avengers, Assemble!
For dinner, we went up to the foodcourt. Again, foodcourts in USA have
nothing on the Kopitiams of Food Junctions back in Singapore. For one thing,
there’s no dedicated drinks store. And the worst part? No one sells any hot
drinks! I had to settle for some bubble tea without ice despite suffering from
prolonged brain-freeze due to all the cold stuff we’d had earlier. To go with the
Jasmine milk tea, I ordered a chilli cheese coney dog from Sonic, an American
fast food chain.
Couldn't get a focused shot.
Night had already fallen by the time we finished our dinner, and the
mall was like a ghost town. We got back in our cars and made our way to the
Aladdin Hotel/Motel/Inn, where we would be spending the night.
Anyone seen Psycho?
We showered and caught a few episodes of Family Guy on the TV (they
had cable in the motel). It was hard to fall asleep sharing a room with two
megaphone snorers, but I must have done so somehow. After all, it had been a
long journey.
One more day of adventure was still ahead of us. Click here to see what happens.
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