Today I will be talking about the incredible past field trip I went on to Oregon. As you may know I live in Vancouver and Oregon is a decent length from home. We were to set off on October 19th and come back on October 25th. The furthest south we went was Newport Oregon, before we went here we took a stop at Astoria for a night. Overall I though this trip was very exciting and would definitely go back to Oregon if I had the chance. 

For this trip we had three driving questions, the first was how did you manage your impulsivity. The second was how did you persist and the third and final was how did you work interdependently.

For managing your impulsivity I think that this happened on the bus. At some points on the ride it got really loud, so loud that I just wanted to yell “shut-up!”. I managed my impulsivity and did not shout out, I just put my headphones on and pumped up the music. The second question was about persisting, when this really showed the most I think was when we were at Fort Stevens. Don’t get me wrong, this place was really cool and I got a good bit out of it but my legs were just aching, I was hungry and my feet were uncomfortable from wearing boots. The third question was about working interdependently, this happened in two groups of people. One was for an Oregon business interview and the other was a group for quests. The interview group was with Julien, Erin and Quinn. I think that this group was very good because we have been in that group since the start of the school year. In this group at our interview we worked very well, everyone had a job and we executed it well. For our quest group I think that we got better each quest we did. I think the reason that we got better is because everyone got a task and when everyone stuck to that task we did well.

Day one started off with an early wake and early departure as we left school on a Saturday at 6:15 in the morning. We set off all half asleep but excited for the journey ahead. Our first stop was the USA and Canada border. This took longer than expected and actually made us miss a stop in Washington. We drove for a few hours and stopped at the Columbia river and the Astoria-Megler Bridge. This bridge is the longest truss bridge in North America and goes from Washington to Oregon. We made it to Astoria and checked out the Astoria column and went inside. At the end of that day we went to have pizza on the beach and that was the day. We slept at Fort Stevens State Park in yurts and that was day one. As this was our first day we had to learn to work together with the five people in our yurt. I think that we all had to manage our impulsivity because there were people in the state park that might have actually wanted to sleep so we had to keep the noise level down. I think that this day was the loudest out of any of the yurts but I think we were still relatively quiet.

Day two started off with breakfast of course and then we went to the mouth of the Columbia river (the south jetty to be exact) and we took some photos. Next we headed to Fort Stevens historic area and we got a tour of the fort and this was a pretty cool opportunity. After taking the tour we headed to what I think the highlight of the trip was and that was Highlife Adventures Zip-lines. This place was awesome and like nothing I have been to before. This place had a Zip-line spanning 1000 feet and some through the trees and one even into a lake. We were all pretty worn out after this and so we ended the day off with some Thai food at Nisa’s Thai Kitchen. This food was amazing and also it was cool when Nisa come out with flaming beef, yes beef that is literally on fire. We spent our last night in Astoria at the same state park. This day for managing your impulsivity was better, we learned to work together and kept the yurt at a low noise level. 

Day three was jam packed, it started off with a stop at the Columbia river maritime museum and this place was really cool. We got to try on suits that the Coast Guard uses to keep warm while swimming in the freezing cold water. Next up was a long drive to canon beach. When we arrived it was super windy and rainy. We decided to still go even though it was terrible weather. When we got on the beach it was even more windy, so windy in fact the wind held me up when I fell back into it. I thought that was pretty fun but I don’t know about others. Next was a drive from Canon Beach to Tillamook. We made it to Tillamook and we went to the Tillamook creamery. This is the main Tillamook cheese factory and you could see the steps in making cheese and people actually working through glass. We then drove from Tillamook to Newport and stayed at South Beach State Park in yurts again. This day for me was a lot of persistence, the bus was loud and I could feel the sound but I just tried to let it go and focus on something else.

Day four we did some looking around at the state park and the beach. For lunch this day we had really good fish and chips. These were one of the best fish and chips I have ever had if not the best. Our afternoon was taken up by a visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. We had three classes, Animal Adaptations, Speedy Science and Assemble A Whale. These were all very fun but my favourite was the Speedy Science because you got to race crabs and what’s more fun than racing crabs. This day ended at the same state park as before. This day had lots of working interdependently, I think that I could have been more into the working and gave in some more ideas.

Day five was another visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and this was awesome. We made R.O.V machines (remotely operated vehicles) and and drove them around in some water tanks. After this we checked out the visitors centre and this place had some cool stuff like a tsunami machine, an octopus and a pool with sea stars, sea anemones and sea urchins. Our next stop was the Yaquina Head. This place was unbelievable, the views were breathtaking. Words couldn’t describe how amazing this place was. There was a cobble beach and it was super natural, there were seals and urchins and we even saw a dead bird. This place was probably my favourite destination. We headed to a place called Beverly Beach so see the sunset and wrap up an incredible day. This day I think my working interdependently got better, our group didn’t argue and we finished a our R.O.V before everyone else.

Day six was a lot of driving, we stopped at Depoe Bay where the worlds smallest harbour is and we went to some shops to check them out. What I noticed about this place is that the community has quite a strong bond. There were lots of nice people and that’s what really stood out to me. After taking a stop here we drove up to Washington where our next stop would be John’s Incredible Pizza Company. I don’t know who John is but I sure know that he has an incredible pizza company. This place was a buffet but it had and arcade and even rides inside. Next we had another long drive to Ike Kinswa State Park this time we stayed in cabins and they had lots more room than yurts. This day was more of a just chill day so I didn’t have any situations that were part of the driving questions.

Our on our last day we went to northwest trek and this place had some cool animals like bisons, moose, elk and deer. This place is not like a zoo though, they have animals in here that can just roam free in the forest and that is why this place is so amazing. We were on the final stretch and had about a four hour drive but it didn’t feel that long to me, probably because we had so many long drives that I just got used to it. We made it back home all in one piece and we were all exhausted after that amazing journey.