For the past week I have been visiting my sister in Oregon. She and her husband have a cottage on the McKenzie River outside of Vida, Oregon, some 30 miles to the east of Eugene. 

The cottage is an idyllic location, nestled under towering Evergreens, overlooking the roaring McKenzie River filled with salmon and trout. Compared to the Miami’s bright skies and heat and humidity, Vida has seen cloudy skies, rain and cold nights which call for an extra log or two on my sister’s fireplace.

Vida is a particularly great location to get away from Miami, and all of the hustle-and-bustle which comes from being the cruise-ship-capital-of-the-world. It’s in a rural location connected to the outside world by a meandering river road traveled by log trucks hauling fallen hardwood trees to the paper mill in nearby Springfield.

Today, I took a 25 minute drive into Springfield with my sister to go to a Fed Ex facility. Nearby I noticed a nautical looking building with a mast-like structure and wave-like roof line which caught my attention. We drove over to the building and, to my surprise, there stood three words that suddenly brought me back to Miami: "Royal Caribbean Cruises." 

The building appears to be designed to look like a cruise ship. We got out of the car and I look a few photos, one of the dramatic, cantilevered entrance (above) and one of my sister standing in front of cruise line sign (right). 

We went inside and I introduced myself. I learned that the building housed a calling center for the cruise line which handles reservations.

I took photos of the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises model ships and toured the lobby before we left to return to the cabin.