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!

South Dakota to Boulder, Colorado

Finally, out of South Dakota!

The "ooooooh yaaah"s and "doon't cha know"s were beginning to get to me.  The plains too! There's something about extremely flat prairie and grassland that creeps me out. I prefer my horizons to be spotted with trees, or at least tainted with a building here and there.  It's interesting to think that my preference for trees and aversion to flatness is shaped by where I grew up and what I'm used to. Those who grow up in the midwest are probably extremely freaked out by trees...because there are none.  With that said, the western part of South Dakota is actually very pretty.  We did begin to see some trees in the mountains and areas around Rushmore.  The rocks are amazing too.
     After another look at Mt. Rushmore and some disgusting coffee, we headed south.  We drove through some pretty desolate parts of Wyoming on our way to Boulder, CO.  Colorado is quite beautiful.  Strangely, though, the town of Boulder (which is nestled at the foot of the Rockies) reminds me of Wilmington.  Maybe I'm Wilmington way too much credit, or Boulder not enough,  but that's my assessment so far.

And again, I poach pictures from Jason.  His camera is far superior to the iphone camera, so I just gave up trying.

Mt. Rushmore is so cool!

GW's profile

Boulder campsite

Camping beers

Giant Burritos

How we cuddle

Milwaukee to South Dakota: Many Changes

Yesterday we started off the day with a nice little 3 mile doggie run to get some energy out of us and out of the dogs before being trapped in the car for 9 hours. We then proceeded to ring Milwaukee out right by eating a gigantic Saturday morning breakfast at Cafe Hollander. A giant BEALT (Bacon, Egg,Avocado, Lettuce, Tomato) Sandwich was quite apropos since we'd done nothing but eat and drink all things in the city of Milwaukee. I now solemnly vow never to eat again.

LAst brunch in MKE

Brunch Kiss

Why dont we always live in the same town?

 The ride to Sioux Falls was plainsy.  We passed through Minnesoooooooota. South Dakota is eh.

Supposedly, we camped. Here is the evidence. But I find it hard to call it camping because we were literally sandwiched between highway 90 and a truck warehouse thing on a service road. KOAs are weird. I felt a little like I was camping in the 1980s.

Quite a shift from our little upstairs apartment in Milwaukee

 But one really can't complain when stuffed into a small tent with a sexy husband and 2 wonderful smelling dogs. So all was well. Until... a band of bikers rode in at midnight with their loud midwestern whiskey drinking accents and their fire that seemed to be purposefully blowing smoke right into our tent. DISMAY!!!  Jason promptly roused himself to whoop* some SD ass. And everything was OK.

Camp site, notice the scenic warehouse landscape

Disco 80s camping

A moment with my wolf

*Nicely ask the perpetrators to quiet down

More Milwaukee Fun

We started the day with some delicious coffee and a disturbingly unhealthy lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in MKE, Comet.  We ate here before the Milwaukee marathon a few years ago, and loved it! Of course, at that point we had much less reason to feel disgusting about our food choices since we'd been marathon training, but hey...when in Rome!


I ate "AJ's Compact Turkey Dinner", which were little beer battered deep fried balls of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing smothered in gravy (I said it was bad...).

Turkey balls not pictured.



Then, a little fun times with my favorite 8 year old. Pictured here in the awesome birthday shirt from Jason and I.


Then, department cookout with Kurt's lab people.  Lots of eating and wine here.



Edie and Viktor love their new temporary home!



Still doesn't feel like we've moved. Just feels like vacay.