Last weekend (8/10-8/13) Diana and I went up to Oregon to visit her mother who lives in Eugene. It was a quick trip, the days were fairly busy, and the both of us wished we could have stayed a little longer and had a more relaxed visit. Despite this I believe we had a great time. I know I did. I’m going to put some pictures up here, don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with inane pictures. Every picture I put up is going to be great. I promise.
So let me break it down for you. Friday evening one of Diana’s friends drove us to the Sac airport, where we flew through security and then waited for the plane. The flight was uneventful. We arrived in Portland 10 minutes lates, Patty, Diana’s mom, picked us up and then there was the 2 hour drive to Eugene. We all went to bed. The next morning I got up late and was served a lovely batch of scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies and sausage, it was delicious. Then we went to Smith’s Family Bookstore, a wonderful lovely place that I could spend an eternity in. it makes the Davis equivalent look like a dung hill, though I will admit that I’ve found one or two things there. At Smith’s though I found what I was looking for and I kept finding! Oh, how I wish for unlimited funds. Let me see if I can paint a picture for you, since I don’t have any pictures of the bookstore. It’s two stories, looks like it’s an old fire station or something. The shelves go up to the ceiling, you need stools to reach the top. There are stacks of books next to these shelves, some go as high as my hip. We spend a few hours in the bookstore, but not nearly enough, could there ever be enough time? Used bookstores and libraries are amazing because it’s an adventure, a trip of discovery.
After the bookstore we walked around downtown, we looked into a a Oriental art gallery, which had nice traditional furniture. I thought the art on display was nothing to get excited over, certainly nothing to pay thousands of dollars for. I made the comment to Diana as we left that I should have kept up on my art. I wasn’t anything special either, but apparently you don’t have to be, you just need someone willing to put your work on their walls. Next was the farmer’s market where we bought a jar of organic honey that I was very excited to try out. A hunger that will forever go satiated now, the brown shirts with the TSA didn’t allow it on the plane, they just threw it away, fascists. Afterwards we went to a lingerie boutique that Diana had a gift certificate to (birthday present from her mom). I was mostly useless here, Diana did find a great bathing suit that was just her size though so that was good! We visited other stores as well, the day was spent wandering around downtown and chatting about inconsequentials. As the sun begin to set we returned to the house. That night we had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken, salad , vegetables and pie. We shared the meal with a good friend of Patty’s named Nancy, who was a good conversationalist and a dog person. Card games followed.
The next day we set off early with our cameras to visit the local college, University of Oregon, and the river (the Willamette). We visited one of the galleries at the college, mostly the gift shop. Ok, we just wandered around taking pictures of whatever stroked our fancy. I haven’t developed my film yet, but the pictures posted are ones Diana’s mom took. The river was a lot of fun, even if we just poked around and got our feet wet. The night continued with more good food and conversations, though we might have stayed up too late.
Hence us not getting up early enough. Eugene is two hours from Portland and Diana’s mom doesn’t seem to believe in speeding… We arrived 30 minutes before our flight departed. Rushed through security, where we lost several items because they weren’t in the proper plastic bags. I’d rant about the ineffectual masturbatory efforts of our government to “protect” us, but this isn’t the blog. Besides, if you have half a brain you already know it. We did make it on the the plane, and safely back here. All in all a good trip, if a little rushed, next time we’ll take it a little slower and enjoy ourselves a little more.
