Shred Oregon Day 4-5: Family time

After our lovely hike through the waterfalls, we stopped for lunch snack and a beer in Salem at a wonderful old bank building that housed McMenamins. Then a quick stop to pick up some Willamette Valley pinot noir to take to Aunt Mary’s house near Albany for dinner.

My Aunt Mary is the kind of woman I hope to be some day.  She holds down the farmstead she has lived on for over 50 years,

makes a gourmet meal for for a dinner party,

can make a mean craft project,

and has a garden worthy of Sunset magazine.

We had a wonderful visit with her and my cousin/artist Ruth Armitage (ArtistRuth=ArtIsTruth).  Ruth was teaching an art workshop the next day in Salem but still found the time to come down from Portland area to help with the meal and enjoy dinner with us.  It was so good to see her!  We were also lucky to meet a more distant cousin Laura and her husband and friend. 

Day 5 – continue the family tour in route to Eugene.

Day 5 of vacation started off with a leisurely breakfast at Aunt Mary’s and then we drove the very short distance to Corvallis to meet Drew’s uncle Gray at his old stomping grounds the Squirrel’s Pub.  We are happy to report that Gray is looking great and doing better than ever and is as fun and interesting to talk to as a favorite uncle can be.  If only he and wife Sam lived closer to the dry desert of Utah, but alas, his heaven is the Oregon coast. 

Next stop was in Eugene to get some “city vibe” on this wilderness vacation.  We pulled into

where we had reservations for Friday and Saturday night. I for one was looking forward to WiFi, hot showers and laundry if we needed it again, but due to misinformation on the Internet (it happens!) the facility having the hot water was not yet complete and the Wi-Fi didn’t reach the camper very well. Boo! Poor WiFi is my excuse for week-late posts about this vacation.
But the park was right along the McKenzie river with a nice trail and the typical Oregon mossy-ness


The campsite was nice

and made all the more lovely by flowers given as a parting gift, along with tasty apple butter, from Aunt Mary.

We took care of some scheduled maintenance and cleaned up the van in anticipation of a ride and a meet up with friends the next day.

More interior shots of Dewey. See how tall the inside is when the pop top is up!

Sink to the right and microwave and fridge to the left. They look Barbie sized compared to Drew.