My brave friend Abigail is teaching school in Oregon – 2,500 miles away from home. She wasn’t planning to travel for Thanksgiving, since Christmas was only 4 weeks later and she’d be going home then. After many hopeful ticket-checking sessions and logistical discussions, her sister, the fabulous Elizabeth Worthington, and I decided that we would take a few days off work and have a Friendsgiving in Oregon.

After finally buying our tickets, we booked an Airbnb near Medford and immediately began the never-ending “we should” conversations.

“We should go to Crater Lake!”

“We HAVE to go to the coast.”

“Can we go through the redwood forests on our way to the coast?”

“I found the cutest bookstore we need to go to.”

“Let’s climb Mt. McLoughlin!”

“We should try to go to every coffee shop!”

On Thanksgiving Eve, I went to Charleston, WV where Liz’s family had brought her to meet me. It was fun to be together at my apartment before our trip began.

We woke up around 3:30 the next morning and headed to the airport. Parking was a bit of a nightmare since the green lot was completely full and we had to drive for a good while before we found a spot in the red lot. Once we made it to the end of the long security line we learned that since I had TSA Pre-Check and Liz was a minor, she had the privileges of it too. We could have skipped that whole line, but oh well, at least we didn’t have to take our jackets off.

After all that, we made it to our gate with time to spare. Even though it was only 6 A.M. we were hungry. To be specific, we were craving biscuits and gravy, which we found at the airport Bob Evan’s. I’d rate them a solid 6/10.

We flew straight to San Francisco and even though we bought tickets together, our seats weren’t beside each other. That didn’t faze us, though. We were simply going to ask one of the people beside us to trade seats. There was no way we weren’t going to sit together on a 5 hour flight. However, my courage failed me as soon as we got to our seats. I felt so bad for the people already settled in with their headphones on, and I just didn’t have the heart to ask them to move. I’m trying to decide if I need to work on building up my courage for the next time or if I should just pay the $80 per seat to choose our own spots. Hmm. Probably we’ll just avoid United Airlines in the future.

In San Francisco we had a contest to see who could spot Mennonites in the airport first and then got some delicious lunch even though it was 9 A.M. in our new time zone. We had just enough time to eat before boarding our flight to Medford. This time we got to sit together.

The airport there is small, and only 10 minutes from Abigail’s house. The parking lot is right next to the terminal, so she came inside to welcome us. It was so fun to have her there to meet us.

The mountains and the weather were gorgeous. It was so much warmer than it had been at home, which I wasn’t expecting. There were still pretty leaves on the trees and it felt like autumn.

We started off with a dash through the tiny Human Bean drive through for coffee and chai. (There are an extraordinary amount of tiny Dutch Bros, Human Beans, and other drive through only coffee shops in and around Medford.) We couldn’t check in to our Airbnb until 3:00, so Abigail gave us a tour of her school and the Rogue Valley community. We also got our first view of Mt. McLoughlin, which we came to recognize and love. We picked up groceries and other supplies at her house before heading to our weekend vacation home.

Abigail had been to Thailand this summer, so she made cashew chicken for us. It was delicious and just the right amount of spicy. We had a great time eating, reconnecting, and making plans for the next day.

Liz and I were still functioning on Eastern Standard Time and woke up incredibly early. Abigail was a good sport and joined us. We decided to go on a hike, so after blueberry bagels and yogurt, we headed to Roxy Ann and hiked around 4 miles. The views were lovely! We could see the entire Rogue Valley, the mountains around it, and we even picked out Abigail’s school. We didn’t get to see any elk though.

After our hike, we joined Abigail’s church community in a Thanksgiving meal. It was so nice to meet her students and the families there. There were puzzles and games, a relay race, and good food and conversation. The tables were so pretty with greenery and grapes and beeswax candles in the middle.

That afternoon we got açaí bowls and went to a park to play Authors. We did a little shopping, then decided to get dinner and head back to our house. We found an amazing local vegan restaurant where Liz got the best organic matcha. Abigail had a sandwich with some delicious vegan gouda on it and I had nachos with jackfruit which I had been wanting to try for a long time. We also had hot cocoas made with organic cacao powder, maple syrup, and a house made marshmallow. 10/10.

The next day we left for the coast around 8:00. We had a two hour drive through beautiful pine forests. We also saw several areas that were destroyed by forest fires and dead black bear beside the road. Soon after we came into California, we were directed to a checkpoint where an officer asked us if we had any produce. We said no, and he waved us on through.

Our route took us through the California Redwoods, so we drove back a very narrow, winding road to Stout Grove and had a magical wander through the wood. It was very quiet and shadowy since the trees were so tall. There were lots of ferns and moss and a thick pine needle carpet. I couldn’t decide if I should be enchanted or creeped out, but we all agreed that the grove was very atmospheric.

We found a restaurant for lunch in Crescent City. After lunch we walked out on the pier and up to a lighthouse. We saw an elephant seal that was busy molting on the shore and heard sea lions barking across the bay. The sounds of sea gulls and a fog horn added to the coastal atmosphere.

After re-caffeinating at a local coffee shop, we headed back north to the beautiful Harris Beach State Park. We went to a Google Maps location marked as Sunset Point and stayed there for several hours. The tide was coming in as the sun was setting, and it was stunning. The water was cold, but we hadn’t come all the way to the Pacific Ocean for nothing, so we took off our shoes and waded for a while.

Sunday after a lovely church service held in the local library’s conference room, we had a picnic lunch and decided to take one last hike. We picked Table Rock, which was another iconic mountain we could see from Rogue Valley and was a deceivingly difficult hike. We stopped halfway up for a rest and to play a few more rounds of Authors. Liz and I complained most of the way up, but we finally made it to the top and enjoyed the gorgeous views of the valley and the surrounding mountains (including our favorite Mt. McLoughlin).

Monday morning we headed for the airport at 4 A.M., sad to be leaving this beautiful place! Several canceled, delayed, and rerouted flights later, we made it home soon after midnight. The jet lag was worse than I experienced coming home from Europe (thus I’m writing this an entire month later), but it was definitely worth it!

x

Ella