Portland, OR

We spent 12 days in Portland, centered around the 10 day Village Building Convergence #9 put on by Portland's City Repair Project. The project

Oregon Coast

We drove along the Oregon coast to a friend of my mom's who lived in a forest near the ocean in Newport. We spent the evening sharing stories about ma, drinking wine and sitting in a hottub outside. The house was in a beautiful forest, and in the morning we walked down to the ocean. We tried seaweed and I did yoga on the beach. So grateful.

Eugene, OR

We spent a day and a half in Eugene, OR first with some yoga and Thai dinner with a friend from Iowa. The next day we split and checked out the neat downtown. I, of course, in my need to understand the local culture went to thrift stores to find some funky oregon clothes, and then got a salad at a groovy eatery where they serve locally grown veggies and such. We met up and had a beer in a funky bar with jackelopes on the wall (which Scott Insists are real) and lots of Oregon beers, which they are so so proud of. I was first introduced to this jackelope character when we were taking a break in a bar in the boondocks in Nevada on the trip out on a bar walls, what a silly thing to see again!

Bend, OR

Heading on into central Oregon, we stayed a day in Bend. For all the things I have heard of Bend, the city itself seemed a bit steril to me, with new typical mall construction along the river, although the downtown was neat. I loved the fabulous tea selection at a tea shop downtown, and people were friendly. We got a beer at a local brewery and had a few nice chats, canoed a bit in the river that runs through the town and went to check out some nearby falls. We camped in a national forest nearby.