Yesterday afternoon after the Portland Fair we headed off out of Oregon, through Idaho and on to Salt Lake City, Utah to stay Friday night. It was dark heading in to Salt Lake last night, so on our way out this morning we took a drive through the city to have a bit of a look. Unfortunately because we were pushed for time we couldn't go exploring, but maybe another time! It was still really good to see all the mountains all around with snow covering their peaks. T...

Last night it was Walla Wallla University's turn to host all the recruiters to dinner. Donny (WWU recruiter) chose an Indian Restaurant in downtown Portland and it was awesome - he even let us all have ice-cream afterwards! Plus it was a good chance to get a bit of a look at Portland. Through Nadine Fischer (Clark), we were put in contact with Andrew and Jessica Lee who live in Vancouver, Washington, so after dinner we drove across town and over the border into ...

About 300km of the drive from Spangle, Washington to Days Creek, Oregon yesterday afternoon was along the Columbia River Gorge, which was awesome to see. Something else which is really cool you can see along the I-85 is Multnomah Falls, which is 40-odd km's east of Portland. The waterfall is actually the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the nation, and the water of the Falls drops 620 feet (nearly 190m) from its origin on Larch Mountain. We were told that i...

Today we're up at a place called Spangle, which is back in Washington State, and the school we're visiting is Upper Columbia Academy. This school is amazing - the grounds are so well kept and the buildings and facilities here are top notch. It's a boarding academy and consists mainly of students from the nearby states of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. Our next school is in Oregon and is about a 9 ½ hr drive from here.

Last night we stayed with Ross and Jodi Giem in Nampa, Idaho. Neither of us had met them before, so we felt a little odd rocking up on their doorstep expecting a bed for the night, but they were great and very inviting. Idaho really is the potato state, and Caldwell is an interesting city - it's like farming meets suburbia, because as you drive through there are just paddocks all around the streets. Another thing we found out is that you can even get substitute m...