Post Offices & Small Towns.

I decided the other day that it would be nice of me to send poor little Kep some postcards while I was away. Which meant that I needed to buy some stamps and postcards.

Today we had some free time so I figured it would be a good time to get those two things.

I googled Post Office in Charleston and it told me that there was one literally 5 minutes, away. If you walk. Perfect.

So I recruited Courtney to come with me on an adventure and we headed through the seafood packing plant and across the pier and down the marina and found a weird shed turned post office. We walked in and the entire walk was PO boxes, except for a little window where you could see the office behind it. We walked up and waited for the post guy to come and help us.

He came up and asked if he could help us with something. I told him I wanted to buy some postcard stamps.

He then asked me if I had any money. Which, typically, when I want to buy something, I make sure I bring money with me so I kind of thought that was a silly question.

I said that I did. He then explained to me that they only take the kind of money that has president's face on it. Not the plastic kind. I told him that I only had the plastic kind. He said plastic money wasn't money, it was just the illusion of money.

He then asked if we were from OIMB, to which we said yes. He then looked at me and said "you look trustworthy". He then confirmed that I was a biologist and said that because his son was a biologist, he could trust us. He asked how many stamps I wanted and I told him 3. He then gave me 3 postcard stamps and said "Just come back next week and give me $1."

So I now have an IOU with the guy at the Charleston Post Office.

We then went shopping at some of the little shops down the road, which are kind of interesting. It's an interesting little town we live in. The guy at the antique store told us that a second casino is opening on May 8th but that we probably weren't old enough for that anyway.

The woman at the gift store at the end of the road (which also wanted cash) told me that she rode her first escalator when she was 5 at a mall in San Jose, California. ha so that was presh.

And another woman at a little boutique on our way back gave us quite the look when we told her that we weren't going to the Oyster fest happening at OIMB today. {Technically, we were a part of it because it was in our backyard and the band was right below us.}

Today was the day that we got to see the real side of a typical Oregon small town.

And it was just as weird as I suspected.