Blublogger: Road Trip - Corvallis, Eugene, and the Oregon Coast

So after our night in Bend, we headed West towards Corvallis and stopped in at Black Butte in the Deschutes National Forest for a quick hike. From the trail we could see the Three Sisters Wilderness, where three peaks that are more than 10,000 feet dominate the horizon. They were cloud-covered while we were hiking, but still beautiful.

Lacey and Smokey at the ranger station

One of the Three Sisters shrouded in clouds

The fire watch tower at the top of Black Butte

After the hike we finished our drive to Corvallis to meet Kari, Peter, Shale, Jack and Rainer. Lacey was Jack and Shale's nanny in Marquette, MI and the family has since moved to Corvallis. We had an amazing time hanging out with them. The list of great times included a bunch of awesome meals, playing outside with the boys, reading stories at night with the boys, picking fresh fruits and veggies in the garden, and a whole lot of great conversation with Kari and Peter. Those were definitely two of the best nights of our trip so far.

Reading a TinTin book before bed

Lacey picking some berries for the road

Excellent raspberries, some of the best we've ever had

Breakfast with Rainer

From Corvallis we headed South the Eugene to meet up with the Skovs. Josh was one of my professors at UCSD when I took extra classes in the school of management and lives in Eugene where he co-founded an environmental consulting (to put it overly simply) company. Lacey had never met him and I had never met any of the other members of his family, so were a bit apprehensive about staying. By the time we had been in Eugene for a couple hours that nervousness was gone. They were great hosts and we had a blast staying at the "Hotel Del Lynn/Skov." We had a great dinner with the family, got to hear Aria read a book (very fun), had some great times listening to Jasmine tell stories, and had some more great conversation about how Josh was completely appalled by our lack of planning on this trip. :)

We were also able to go over to the University of Oregon and check out the US Olympic Track Qualifying for a while! The tickets were not cheap, but they had a free fan zone outside the stadium where you could watch the events on big screens and check out some cool exhibits. That was a great time!

Aria reading a book for Lacey and I

Lacey reading to Jasmine

We parted ways once again and headed further West to the Oregon coast. We spent a few days there taking in great beaches, awesome cliffs, and some good camping. We also took in a movie in Lincoln City, OR. We went and saw Ted, the new Mark Wahlberg and Seth McFarlane movie. Let me save you some trouble, it has its moments, but it is definitely not worth the money to see in the theater. We also got to tour both the Rogue Brewery and the Tillamook Cheese Factory! That place gives away free samples like it's going out of style. Or, at least we took advantage of their free samples like it was going out of style. Either way, the cheese was really good.

Anyway, the coast is beautiful and Oregon has now overtaken Colorado as our favorite state on this trip.

The Oregon Coast dunes