Mini Road Trip

Our buddy Chris is in town post Hood to Coast race. We decided to do a little tour de Oregon. We hit up Crater Lake, Bend, and the lovely McKenzie River trail.

Hood to Coast

28 and some odd hours trapped in a van and forced to run at all hours...
The Hood to Coast relay was an amazing experience. In what other situation are you in a van with a bunch of people for 28 hours, eating nothing but PBJ sandwiches and goldfish, not sleeping, and running three 4-8 mile legs? I can't think of a time or situation where that is not absurd to the average person. Can you?
Here are few pictures that I stole from Jason's blog. They show our awesome team and some of the beautiful Oregon scenery that we ran through...in our new state! If you're really interested, you should check out the documentary Hood to Coast. It does a great job showing the history behind the race, as well as the conditions. Do it!

Aviso!

Every trail we've been on in Oregon displays this sign. Aviso! Be Advised! Ok, I am advised. But what am I supposed to do if I see a bear or a cougar?

A Jeans Aside

Before we moved, Durham got a Madewell store in which I purchased my new favoritest pair of jeans.

The Madewell Rail Straight in Dark Wash.


Me Likey!

I don't wear them with boat shoes, OK.

In Oregon...*

It's so beautiful here!

-people pump your gas for you (I think it's illegal to pump your own gas)
-there's a sandwich cart called Sammitch
-when a person walks up to you in a store and asks if you need help, they genuinely want to help you
-90 degrees is unheard of kind of heat, 75 degrees is a warm summer day, and 50 with light cloud cover is the norm
-trails and parks and parks and trails... everywhere!
-local pet stores will deliver your dog food via bicycle
-there's a vegan or vegetarian option at every restaurant
-there's so many local breweries
-life is life wherever you live it, but you can live it in awesome places while experiencing new things
-you can't learn everything about a new town in a week...patience.

My coffee

O!

*What I've come to realize from living in Eugene for 1 week.

Here at last.

Well, we made it. On Sunday afternoon, we rolled into Eugene. It was bright and sunny and about 93 degrees.  We must have brought the NC weather with us. So far, I am loving it here. I'm like "Dude, why didn't you move here years ago?", and then I'm like "Oh yeah, I was dumb." Some people are like "Wait until the rain starts...". So, OK, that might be bad. We'll see...

Our stuff got here yesterday.  With only a few broken dishes, I think we did pretty well.  Unpack.

Our new place

Blaine street!

Our awesome porch

Guest room: YOU could be sleeping here!

My amazing lunch from yesterday

Sanipac! In Eugene, you have to pay for your trash and recycling service. Notice all of the different containers for different type of waste. Small green on the left: trash (to be picked up every other week), grey: yard waste, big blue: co-mingled recycling, little blue: glass recycling. Pretty cool.

Now we unpack, do crazy errands, open new bank accounts, register our cars, and oh yeah, get ready for school. And, zounds!  Hood to Coast is next weekend!! In case, I haven't mentioned it, Jason and I were crazy/awesome/bad/good decisiony enough to sign up for the Hood to Coast relay race many months back.  We figured that we'd be here, and why not?! Plus, it's one of the most famous and hard to get into relay races in the country: what an opportunity! So now, next weekend, we will traverse Oregon (198 miles from Mt. Hood to the coast) in a van and running, with 10 other people.  Basically, 198 miles divided by 12 team members in 24 hours.  It's going to be intense. I have legs 4, 16, and 24- 7 miles, 3 miles, 4 miles.  I hope I don't die. Or turn into a crazy person from lack of sleep. Why would anyone do this, you ask? Well, much like the marathon, running relay races is another masochistic way that runners enjoy camaraderie, scenery, and that good old fashioned feeling of accomplishment.  As if the high from moving was not enough...

Boulder to Salt Lake City to Lake Tahoe to Ashland

Woah! A lot happened in the past few days.  I must say, I was far too busy hiking, seeing an old friend, and generally riding in the car to post properly.

Boulder, CO turned out to be pretty awesome.  I would most definitely live there.  At first it did seem a bit like Wilmington, NC as we rode into town on a very long two lane road that was plagued with traffic and strip malls.  But then I began to realize what filled these strip malls.  Not Bed, Bath and Beyonds and Best Buys and Jamba Juices. No. But, amazing coffee shops, awesome beer stores, cute little restaurants, and one of the best running stores I've ever seen.  Also, Boulder is not all strip malls.  They have a pretty cute little downtown area, too.  And, hey, the city is at the foot of the rockies!  So, my new assessment for Boulder is that it is a cross between Burlington, VT, Chapel Hill, NC and a little bit Wilmington, NC.

Awesome hike at the Flatirons

Great Coffee at The Laughing Goat

Jason contemplating rock domination

Pretty Pretty Pretty

Crazy eyed Blaine for a beer Sampler at Mountain Sun

Boulder, the Burlington VT walking around part

An Amazing Pizza with Black Truffles and Pork Belly, from PastaVino

Salt Lake City was beautiful!  Utah is still one of the prettiest states in my opinion.  And, it made it even more special that I got to enjoy it with a great old friend.  

When I went to Thailand in 2004 for Yoga Teacher Training, I was paired with an awesome girl as my roommate for the month.  We spent a great deal fo time together and really bonded during that month, realizing that we had so much in common.  We really became good friends during that time in Thailand.  After I returned to NC and she to California (at the time) we emailed for a while and tried to stay in touch, but you know how that goes.  Eventually, we moved on to other things and kind of forgot about each other. I still though about her every now and then, the way you think about people who have been good friends over the years. She went on to open up her own coffee shop in Salt Lake City where I surprised her during our first trip out west in June.  We decided then that Jason and I would stay with her on this trip out.  We had a blast!  We got to meet her super sweet boyfriend, Dan, check out some awesome food and beverage, and do a pretty crazy hike.  Salt Lake City, I would definitely live in you too!

Erica's cafe, The Rose

Adorable little apt. under The Rose

Jason posing next to Dan's El Camino

Beautiful Utah

Amazing!

Looks like Alaska

Chipmunk friend

Moose friends

Chillin at the summit

Wow

hike hike hike

Hiking along this ridge line was a little scary

Reunited...and it feels so good

Then, on to Lake Tahoe where a beautiful lake is vacationed by rich people.  We camped here, got up walked around a bit, did a mini hike on the apparently famed Tahoe Rim Trail, and then headed out.  I would definitely like to go back and vacay there.

pretty pretty lake

glistening waters

tahoe rim trail

old truck

Weed, CA at the foot of Mt. Shasta

Awesome Inn in Ashland

Ahh...Oregon, our new home!