Two days in one. Spokane to Eugene, and our first full day in our new city.

The ride from Spokane, or Spokey as we a ride full of contrast. what i mean by this is that it had mountains, but was the easiest drive, had grasslands and gorges, valleys and rivers, foothills and flatlands. It was the easiest and most beautiful drive we had so far, as well the last part of the drive being the hardest. it was the hardest, not because of the terrain or the roads, but due to the weather (crazy downpour and wind) and hitting portland rush hour traffic.

but im getting ahead of myself...


When we left Spokane, it was after a very restful evening. we had a really wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant and it was just what we needed. The drive from Spokane to Portland was long but amazing. we were in-between mountains in a great grassland, full of dry rolling hills.

once we entered Oregon, the land was similar but things started to change. it was amazing to see the land go through so many stages. we followed the river most of the way, the Columbia river through the Columbia gorge and it was breath taking. we went through mountains along the river and below cliffs. it was one of the coolest parts of the drive. 

 

 
 
 

Portland was killer, we got in around 5, which meant rush hour. we drove and drove and pushed through the crazy ran until we made it to Eugene. it could have been a great part of the drive, but all i was paying attention to was not getting blown into another lane. 

we did get to see some farms, grass seed farms, lots of horses and sheep and the mountains to the east. once we got to Springfield, we saw a sign for Eugene, but didn't actually turn that way. it was killer for my family to hear me say that we didn't make it yet, that we only got to Springfield, not Eugene. but i took a picture anyway. 

that night we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and shared a king sweet with a pull out bed and rollaway bed. it was cozy but nice. 

our frist real day in Eugene was relaxed. we tried to sleep in, but that didn't work. but we took our time anyway and decided to check out of the Courtyard Marriott and stay at a local Inn that Davita and i stayed at when we were in town in March. after we checked in and put or stuff in our rooms we went to the Original Origial Pancake House for brunch. we ate ourselves silly! 

THEN! THEN we went to get our key and unload our car. the carpets were still wet so we put all our stuff in the kitchen. out place is nice, and all the locals say its far from things, but that is all relative. really its less then 10 minutes in a car from campus, is on a bus line as well as bike path, we are a block away from a gas station and a grocery store, across the street from a park with a killer frisbee golf course (though we dont play), and has nice green space and picnic tables for grilling and relaxing. 

 
 
 

After we unloaded we went to campus. it was hard for Kevin to get a feel for where the school was due to nothing being tall. it is hard for us to see through all the trees, so we went to campus and walked around. i showed Kevin and Adam the ES building and talked with Gayla the administrative director for the program. once we were done with that we decided to go look for beds, since Davita and i don't have one. we went to Mattress Mania and they were having a HUDGE sale and we got really nice beds. my bed will be delivered today and Davita's on friday. we then went to the home depot and got keys made and headed back to the hotel. by this time it was about 6 and we all wanted to relax. For diner we went to a Thai place, Adam Kevin and I and brought Davita back some food.

Until next time: where we will talk about our second full day and going to the Saturday market and anything else we do. if there is no post for 9/7 dont fret, on sunday we are taking kevin to the portland airport and going to IKEA and the APPLE store and maybe a few thrift stores so there may be a lot of updates about the apartment coming in the next few days.

thanks for reading!