Saturday, November 3, 2007

Road Trip Socialites

First things first, we have to let you know that Dennis used to be a duck. In addition to being known for its large hippie contingent and as the setting for Animal House, University of Oregon was also the place where Dennis graduated college (pre-Phil Knight buy-up, thank you very much).

Our first destination was visiting our recently relocated friends from DC, Craig and Deb. Our trip "mentors" Dave and Lolo were also in Eugene, so we got to shake more knowledge from their road-weary brains in prep for the international legs of our trip. We had two wonderful days hanging out, watching soccer and eating delicious food. In addition to the wonderful homemade food (thanks Deb), we also partook of the delightful Pizza Research Institute--definitely a recommended stop for any student of the illustrious pizza eating arts. Think you can't put every vegetable known to man, and corn, and peaches, and sweet cream on one slice of pizza? Naive pizza lover--you should visit the PRI and learn a thing or two!

Craig also took us on a hike up Spencer's Butte, and while Dennis and Lolo had been on this hike before, none of us where prepared for the accidental freewheeling/ off-trailing experience that Craig (or perhaps Maggie the dog) led us into. In the end, it was a much more fun and adventurous route and still resulted in a great view of Eugene at the top. The flora reminded us slightly of Endor, but not as much as in Sequoia, where 'Return' was actually filmed (geek check!)

The second stop on our social calendar was to our lovely and talented friends, Eric and Stephanie. We also got some more doggy love time with Molly the dog. Dennis got to take a walk down memory lane (or a squirm, depending on which story Eric or Stephanie told) when we headed to campus for some Espresso Roma coffee and to the falafel cart outside the bookstore...surprisingly still delicious! Our only regret was not visiting when Eric's band, Station Wag, was playing a show. Long live bass guitar!

Our last night was spent at dinner with all of our Eugene friends around the table, including our friend Anna, who we wish we could have spent more time with. Ah, that's what you get for trying to stay on a schedule. See you all in about a year!
-K & D

1 comment:

Fantomenos said...

Yes, a wonderful round-table dinner of specialness!
Oh, and my fiance's name is spelled Stephenie, named after her uncle Stephen, who goes by TT, for reasons that passeth understanding.

Oh, and thanks for the link!