Oregon, June 2014: Eugene and Portland

Sunday the 22nd and Monday the 23rd.

Molly has a house in Eugene that her parents live in and maintain.  Well, maintain is too mild a description.  Her Mom  and Dad have created an oasis in the neighborhood.  Kathy has a phenomenal  raised bed garden while Dan is a master craftsman, having remodeled the house and built a garage.

New garage

After snacks, we traveled downtown and visited a couple brew pubs.  Eugene is a college town, home to the University of Oregon.  As noted on the Wikipedia page, "The city is noted for its natural beauty, recreational opportunities (especially bicycling, running/jogging, rafting, kayaking), focus on the arts, activist political leanings, and residents with "alternative" lifestyles."   We stopped at the Ninkasi Brewing Company for some craft beers and lunch.  The weather was warm and sunny, so we ate outside on the patio.

We ended the afternoon with a stop at Falling Sky Brewing, another of the neat craft brew pubs in Oregon.

Monday was our last day in Oregon.  We were scheduled for an 11:30 PM red eye flight out of Portland.  Cory and Molly had to work, so we had the morning to ourselves to pack.  We decided to check out a couple of things in Portland.  First was the Japanese Gardens.  This is a beautiful and serene park in the midst of a busy metropolitan area.

Located next to the Japanese Gardens in Portland are the International Rose Test Gardens.  We didn't have time to tour them, but they looked beautiful from an overlook.

Then we visited the Powell Bookstore.  This place is HUGE!!  They claim to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world.  We only spent a short time there and saw only a small part of the store, but the elections of books that we did see was amazing.

Before dropping the rental car off and catching the flight home, we stopped at the Deschutes Brewery for a light dinner and a brew.

So ends our week in Oregon.  We lucked out with perfect weather, and Cory and Molly were great hosts.  We can't wait to visit again.