Stop #3: Eugene

Friday night it was back to Eugene for the hand-off from Mizu's crew to Emily's. Emily suggested a kid-friendly place to meet for dinner, and it was indeed - kids everywhere and a herd of plastic dinosaurs on the tables to entertain them. And then off for further adventures with Emily, Dom, and Iva (age very-nearly-two).

Emily and I have had lots of prior adventures, starting in college. Many took place in the geology labs, where we spent untold hours. We were also the unlikely co-captains of an intramural broomball team. (Less unlikely if I tell you that broomball games were conducted late at night on an outdoor rink in the center of campus in the Minnesota winter, our team was called The Big Orange Splot for a favored children's book, we communicated with our players in rhyming email, we all tried to outdo each other with outlandish orange clothing, and I don't recall that we ever won a game. But I definitely remember winning the coveted Broom Award for our enthusiasm.)

Post-college, we lived together in Minneapolis for a short spell, worked temp jobs, got to know the bus system and bike lanes, made a lot of pottery, alarmed our poetic third roommate, Sarah, with the composting worm bin in the hall closet, and, as a trio, spied on our neighbors and invented Spanglish yoga moves with names such as "La Vaca Muerta."

After that, our semi-parallel paths around the country have allowed for lots of memorable visits. We made pickles in Stevens Point and strawberry jam in Madison, we climbed trees at Shenandoah and watched stormy seas in Quincy, we wandered around DC and Boston. My last visit to the Oregon coast was for Emily and Dom's wedding, and Maisie and I made a road trip up the eastern seaboard to meet Iva after she was born. Then, right about the same time that I moved to Michigan, they moved to Eugene.

It was great to see them settling into their new west-coast lifestyle. They recently bought a house and have lots of plans. They have stuck an abundance of reflective dots on their rain jackets so they can bike around town in the dark of winter. Emily lives out her Eugene dream on the days when she drops Iva off at daycare in the Burley trailer and continues on to her job as a Montessori teacher. Dom, it seems, bikes almost anywhere, any day.

We started our weekend with a Saturday hike. Spencer Butte is the highest point around, and after climbing upward through moss-laden, dripping forest, we emerged at the rocky top for a view and a windy picnic just before the mist closed in.

Other Eugene highlights: Saturday evening squash and Sunday morning waffles....Sitting by the pellet stove reading to Iva, each book fetched industriously from the bookshelf and carried over to me, followed by "uppies!" for a lap lift....A rainy Sunday walk around the neighborhood with Emily and Iva and Iva's baby doll, stopping off at a playground and then a little bakery where we sat outside on a covered porch with a crowd of other undaunted-by-rain Oregonians....A soggy tour of the small backyard, which so far is mostly a large leaf pile but is the stage for an ambitious drama, with visions of fruit trees, raised beds for veggies, cold frames, a shaded arbor, a berry patch with a fort for Iva, a mushroom farm, and a chicken coop.

Given the amazing garden these two grew in the narrow flower beds surrounding the lawn of their rented house in Quincy, I have no doubt they can turn these visions into reality. Stay tuned - there will be incredible things to document by the time my next visit comes around!