Quick trip to Eugene

Ella and I took a quick trip down to Eugene to visit Uncle Joe and Aunt Zee (Lindsay), and also to give Michelle some uninterrupted work time at home. We rolled in to town around 2:30pm after a quick stop at the rest area right outside town for a potty break (Ella’s 95% done with potty training!). We stopped by the park to stretch the legs, then went to Skinner Butte to watch rock climbers. Ella was so enamored that we spent nearly an hour there with her climbing the smaller columns to the north end of the wall. She would climb up with some guidance on foot placement, then scold me for getting too close. Dad’s get to do stuff like that. Ella really wanted to actually try the main routes but I told her that she’d have to wait her turn. When there were actually unused ropes, I had a hard time talking her out of climbing. Instead, we went by the train yard to see Joe at Oakshire Brewery before heading home with him for dinner.

After dinner we played with duplos for a while then hung out, reminisced and complained about getting old over a few home brews and a bottle of Deschutes’s Abyss. Yum.
Breakfast in the park
The next day we grabbed bagels and went to Alton Baker park and wandered around for a while before we had to get Lindsay back to her doctoral program grind. Ella chased seagulls around the park, then chased cats when we got back to Joe & Lindsay’s until we had to get underway.

On our way out of town, we tried to catch up with Travis and learned that Beth and Mirabess were also in town. (All our friends are moving away from Portland) Ella and Mirabess played with soft dough and ate some pizza while us adults caught up. A nice surprise before the surprisingly quiet and uneventful trip back to Portland.