Love Letter to Oregon

As the time of my departure for Boston is close, I am giving to you the Ten Things I Love About Oregon.

Unless otherwise noted, I am speaking of northwest Oregon and the Portland-Metro area. In no particular order, here are just ten reasons I am proud to be an Oregonian...

1. No sales tax. The sticker price that you read is the price you are going to pay, and that's that!

2. No self-serve gasoline. I still look awkward when I am in another state and I have to pump my own gas. We have people to do that for us in Oregon! And it does not make the gas more expensive, either!

3. Green. The fir trees of northwest Oregon stay green all year long. I cannot picture living without the green. It makes a gal feel alive!

4. The Oregon Coast. For those of you who have been there, this isn't your bikini-wearing, sun-bathing type of beach. It's cold, windy, rainy and rocky. But I love it more than any other place in Oregon. The waves crashing onto the beach, building sand castles and burying your friends, the rock cliffs, bonfires and kite-flying are what you do here. The best coast isn't only the west coast, but it is the Oregon Coast.

5. Mt. Hood. True, I don't ski, snowboard and I generally avoid all snow if possible. But I grew up with Mt. Hood in my backyard. I, like many folks, consider it to be "my" mountain. It is a beautiful site and helps me figure out which way is east (mountain = east, ocean = west).

6. University of Oregon. Of course I am biased because I went to this school. It is also where the movie Animal House was filmed (watch it with me and I'll point out all the sites that I know) They have the best journalism school in the west (which I graduated from), a beautiful campus and an exciting football team. I was never into college football before I became a Duck. Did you see us cream WSU last Saturday? Yeah, awesome.

7. Awesome town names. The best one being Boring. Yup, Boring, OR. I went to middle school here. There is also Drain, Zig Zag, Rufus, Tangent, Halfway, Dundee (Like Crocodile Dundee), Progress, Fossil, Ontario, Paris, Phoenix and more. All states have crazy town names, but can any of them beat Boring?

8. Everyone played the Oregon Trail game on the computer in grade school. C'mon, you know you always went hunting and shot too much for you to carry back to your wagon train. It wasn't until later in my k-12 experience that I realized that there weren't Montana Trail or Florida Trail games in the respective states.

9. Delicious Beer! Oregon and Portland in particular have more microbreweries than you can shake a stick at. Yet Portland is the #1 marked for Pabst Blue Ribbon. Oregonians know how to drink!

10. Oregon is hip. Especially Portland. And I get to be hip by association. Oregon is beautiful, diverese in geography, newly trendy-ish, and it is the state I grew up in. On the west coast, there isn't anywhere else I'd choose to live (except when I buy that B&B in Napa Valley ;)).