Cruisin' USA: MEET & GREET MONDAY AND OREGON TRAILS

Monday was a crazy day since we had back-to-back-to-back Meet & Greets; Seattle, Portland and Eugene. But thankfully both turned out great! Our Seattle Meet & Greet was held right under the Space Needle. It was so cool to finally see the iconic symbol up close and it was a good time to do it since the city is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Visit Seattle, Visit Oregon, Boeing and Expedia staff members all came out to our event. And we even had local press; the NBC Affiliate, Seattle Times and an ABC affiliate. Great team work by all, both on the East Coast and West Coast!

As soon as the event ended we had to quickly hop on the bus and get going to make it to Portland by 2:30pm. Jimmy did another great job getting us to our destination quickly and safely. I have been so lucky to have been assigned to this tour with such great leaders, Jimmy (our driver) and Roy (our fearless leader) have had us to every single event either on time or early. These guys are absolute pros at their jobs!

We pulled into the city of Portland and parked inside their Pioneer Courthouse Square, which is one of their public gathering spaces. Portland's Meet & Greet was a small gathering which was kind of nice since our morning was so busy in Seattle. Travel Oregon and Travel Portland staffers came out to the bus for lots of pictures and of course to tour the bus and get some swag. They shared fun facts with us about Portland and all that it has to offer. #1 thing I heard... the State of Oregon does not have sales tax. I spotted a Nordstrom out of the corner of my eye but Roy gave me a choice, shopping or frozen yogurt, I figured that food was more important. Roy really does keep us on a tight schedule, before we knew it we were saying our goodbye's yet again to another city.

We had one last stop at 6pm in Eugene, OR and we had no idea what to expect, all that was on our schedule was "Adventure Center." Personally I thought it was going to be an amusement park or something like the "Rides" down the Cape but it was actually the Eugene, OR Visitor Center. As we pulled in their staff came out of their office holding props; some had fishing poles, bikes, wine, the Oregon Duck and even snowboards. They were so funny they each wanted to hold something in front of the bus for a picture that represents all the "adventures" you can take in the Eugene area. They even had some small snacks and drinks out for us, which was wicked nice of them. We didn't stay there very long but we were so glad we stopped because they were so much fun and so great to talk to. Oregon really does have a lot to offer, it has the best of both worlds the ocean and the mountains and you can visit both in the same season!

We finally got to our hotel in Roseburg, OR and Michael and I ran to get a quick dinner before we all just crashed. It had be a long but very productive day! Today's stop this morning was another small Meet & Greet in Medford, OR but I was particularly excited about this one because a) Medford, OR is my co-worker Lindsay's hometown and b) our event was at the original Harry and David! I can't even tell you how excited I was when I saw an employee of Harry and David coming out with a giant basket, just for the bus! It definitely was the highlight of my day =) The people of Medford are so sweet and were so excited to hear all about our travels in the Northwest. We even had an ABC affiliate there to cover our gathering. I shipped some goodies home to Clairebear and Bill for them to share with my family and I picked up some treats for my Hamilton Place family too!

Before we knew it we were back on the bus and headed to San Francisco where we have an event early tomorrow morning. I can't believe this is my third week on the bus, seems crazy that I am driving across America on a bus but it's been a lot of fun and a great work experience. I fly back to DC on a redeye Friday night but here is what my schedule looks like this week:Wednesday San Francisco Meet & Greet in front of City Hall, Thursday San Diego Meet & Greet at the Padres Game and Friday morning is our Palm Springs Meet & Greet in front of their visitors center. Lots of pictures below of my Northwest travels, looking forward to seeing all that Sunny Cali has to offer!