August was a busy month. Eric started his big-boy-masters-degree-required job in Portland. I stayed in Eugene and wrapped up my nannying job, while packing up our apartment for our big, never-ending move. And I spent as much time as possible soaking up the glorious running and biking trails in Eugene. Eric came home on the…
olallie mountain.
Almost everything about this hike was completely awesome. A beautiful trek through the woods? Check. Solitude? Check. A glorious view from the top? Check. Flies that continuously circle your body and bite any and all exposed skin? Check. Seriously. I have no idea what was going on with the bugs on this particular day, but…
opal creek.
Big surprise: It’s been raining in Oregon. We went hiking on Saturday and got really wet. I, a woman who never leaves the house without checking the weather, checked the forecast for Opal Creek Wilderness and saw that it should be snowing during our hike. Apparently we weren’t hiking at quite the altitude of the…
trail of ten falls.
Let’s all give a big “Hooray!” for sunshine. We got a big ‘ol dose of it in the Willamette Valley today, so we ventured out for a hike. We drove about 1 1/2 hours to Silver Falls State Park. We’ve lived in Eugene for a year and a half, and somehow, we’d never heard of…
four-in-one cone.
This weekend’s Ally Day killed it. Now that grad school is back in full swing, we’re back to celebrating Ally Days on the weekends (if Eric is in town, which is becoming increasingly rare). This means we go do something really exciting for a day, with no homework allowed. It’s the best. For this adventure,…
clear lake: the hike that would never end.
On Sunday afternoon (another perfect day of summer weather), we headed east into the Cascades to visit Clear Lake. It’s about an hour and a half away from Eugene, providing plenty of time to listen to the new Relient K album about a dozen times. It’s a fun listen, if you haven’t checked it out…
a day trip to portland.
People around here love Portland. I’ve never had a super awesome Portland experience, as it generally rains the entire time we’re there, but we keep giving it another chance to impress. Most of our Portland trips have brought us downtown, which isn’t exactly the most pleasant part of Portland (although it is home to Powell’s…
hiking horse rock.
Let’s just start by stating the obvious: Oregon is gorgeous. Seriously, it’s a blessing to live in such an amazing place with so many things to do. There are so many beautiful hikes around here that I don’t think we’ll ever conquer them all, but we’re knocking out what we can. In planning last weekend’s…
a mini-vacation (day 3).
Our final day of vacation started with another enormous breakfast from Chef Jerry (almond belgian waffles, Canadian bacon, scrambled eggs with swiss cheese, and fresh fruit) and a walk on the bed and breakfast’s grounds to take in the amazing views. The B&B is home to a flock of sheep and chickens, as well as…
a mini-vacation (day 1).
I have my husband back! School is out for a whole month, so Eric and I are taking advantage of all this marvelous free time with a few little excursions. We all know that we do most of our vacationing with Groupons (or Living Social, in this case) to do lots of fun things on…
touring oregon with the family (day 2).
We started our Saturday with breakfast at the Humble Bagel, which is quickly becoming my favorite breakfast place in Eugene, mostly due to the enormous quantities of marionberry cream cheese they generously slather on my whole wheat cinnamon raisin honey bagel. Oh, so good. I’m drooling a little bit. After carbo-loading, we headed west to…
touring oregon with the family (day 1).
Eric’s parents and sister came to visit over the weekend, acting as our first guests in this new state. Of course, this gave us a great excuse to get out and explore. We started our Friday morning with breakfast at Glenwood Restaurant, where Eric and I ate on our University of Oregon visit a little…
when in oregon…
…do as the Oregonians do. I’m running the Eugene, Oregon marathon on April 28, 2013. I signed up. I paid for it. Now I have to run it. 26.2 miles, here I come. -Ally
wine country.
Saturdays are “Ally days” around here. This means that Eric abandons his homework for 24 hours and we get a full day of dating. On this particular Saturday, we headed to wine country. There are a ton of wineries only 20 minutes from our apartment, so we just picked one that we had heard of…
hazelnut farming.
Well, I can cross “working on a farm” off the bucket list. Remember a few weeks ago, when a friend and I accidentally wandered onto a hazelnut farm? Well, the owner told us that they would need help with the upcoming harvest, so after exchanging a few e-mails, I ended up working on the farm…