Eugene Rambles

Friday, we went out west of Eugene, around the Lake and surrounding countryside. LOTS of boutique nurseries and fruit-stands. We took the highway out towards Florance, and went over the pass as far as Noti and some other little quaint town. On the way back, we stopped at some BLM land near the top of the pass and had a little hike through true pacific northwest rainforest, with tons of ferns, hazelnuts, Berberis, Thimbleberries, and fir trees. And the mushrooms were awesome too. Too bad we didn’t find any boletes or chanterelles!

On the way back into town, we got a call from the couchsurfing guys in Eugene, Chad and Craig, who invited us to stay at their place Friday and Saturday nights. We were saved! We arranged to meet up at their gorgeous house. We stopped off in Downtown Springfield at an obviously recently renovated park by the Willamette River. Very cute! But some of the other park patrons kinda gave us the willies. (and not in a good way!)

Upon arriving at our hosts for the night, Chad and Craig made us feel really at home, which we badly needed after three consecutive nights of having plans not work out. Chad made a fabulous gourmet meal of chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and pine nuts. Absolutely delicious. We had time for a little tour of their garden. Chad is in landscape architecture, so he and Tony had a lot to talk about. Their backyard is beautifully landscaped, with a stately Styrax tree (was is japonica?) setting off one corner. Chad had grown quite an array of tomatoes, and the recent cold weather meant they had harvested a bounty- tasty peach tomatoes, and a bunch more varieties I can’t remember now (just a week later!) We had carted up a Gunnera plant for them, which Chad had been looking forward to growing. Hopefully it will do great there and grow the 6 foot wide leaves that it is famous for!

On Saturday, They took us to the farmers market in downtown Eugene. It is such a wonderful mix of food and artisans, mixing everything from flower bulbs to metal sculpture, organic veggies to gourmet doggie treats. We picked up some stuff for that evening’s meal- something Tony now calls Brocco-flower (looks like an alien cross between broccoli and cauliflower) and some blackberries.

We then took a little drive by ourselves out to Mt. Pisgah Arboretum, southeast of Eugene/Springfield. This delightful garden is more or less a native habitat sort of garden, featuring trees and plants mainly from the Pacific Northwest. It is set on the Willamette River, and it was a gorgeous warm day. We hiked and talked for two or so hours, and had lunch on a bench.

That evening we (we meaning mostly Adam) made Chad and Craig dinner, Adam’s family recipe for teriyaki Chicken, the romanesco “Brocco-flower”. Unfortunately we also made a quick cheesecake, which ended up being way too sweet for us when combined with the teriyaki chicken. After the initial sugar spike, we all collapsed to bed.