With just a few weeks left and after completing the first draft of my second project (the Rural Tourism Studio) I began my final project – updating the Orb. The Orb is a platform that can used by businesses, communities, or individuals to upload their content to share online. They simply have to create an account, be approved, and start uploading their information. Although it is currently just updated by some Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and a few statewide groups, the aim of the Orb is to allow anyone to be able to share information about local deals, lodging, events, attractions, or photographs for any place in Oregon.

One of the products of the Rural Tourism Studio – now the produce sold at Bandon farmers market is a part of a network of local farmers that make up the Wild Rivers Coast farm trail.

This creates “a centralized collection of data of all the tourism assets in the state…” (Davidson 2016) that is then shared onto the Travel Oregon family of websites, mobile apps, and many other locations. It allows smaller, community events to be easily showcased to the world, to “Tell the Oregon story” and make it easier than ever to attract locals and visitors alike.

For my third project, I am updating the datasheet of the Wild Rivers Coast, which includes the coastal towns from Bandon to Brookings. I am now making sure that the existing information on lodging, deals, and attractions in the region is to up-to-date, allowing more visitors to take advantage of the regional assets.

This past week I also got to check out a few neat places close to Bandon, such as the West Coast Game Park Safari, a walk-through Safari where I got to hold a baby Bobcat and Caracal!  They also had some large cats, like snow leopards, tigers, and panthers. One of my favorite parts (aside from holding baby animals, which is always awesome), was the free roaming deer. They were Mediterranean/European deer, and many had very large antlers. Although having such large antlers walking towards me was intimidating at first, all of the deer were super friendly (probably because they hoped that I had food for them). Some of them were also trying to get rid of the felt on their antlers, so they were as happy as a dog being scratched behind the ears to be pet!

Aside from that, I agree with Claire’s last post, that I am definitely missing studying in my favorite coffee shops. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching for my senior project, studying for the GRE, and generally trying to prepare for post-undergrad life (woah). Since Bandon is a pretty small town, all of the coffee shops close at either 3 or 4 pm on the weekends, leaving me little room to procrastinate and/or sleep until the afternoon. I was able to make it the library (closes at 5:30) on Saturday, and settled for the “McCafe” on Sunday, but I can’t wait until my all-day study seshs in Springfield. Didn’t realize how much I loved those, and just generally studying. (But check out the great wildflowers spotted while procrastinating/playing Pokemon Go on Saturday, below!)

The projects for Oregon Sea Grant are winding down, and I’m getting ready to jump into my own projects for my senior year – pretty exciting!

Final presentations on Friday! Stay tuned!