Shred Oregon Day 6: Eugene riding and friends

Our friends were headed down from Portland to visit with us later on Saturday but that left us time to explore the Ridgeline Trail System in the foothills surrounding Eugene.  We parked Dewey downtown and rode a bike path out to the trails.  The Ridgeline is a multi-use trail, so we ran into a lot of hikers and few real mountain bikers, but the 2 hour ride was just what we needed to spin off a day of inactivity.

Ridgeline Trail outside Eugene

Nice views from the Ridgeline Trail system.

We needed a shower at this point to clean up for our one night on the town, but because of Lane County/Armitage Park’s false advertising, we had none and just sponge bathed in Dewey in the middle of downtown Eugene. Thank goodness for tinted windows. Ha ha.
Sandy and Bobby soon joined us at the Eugene Saturday market and we browsed the stalls, sans beer due to the fact that none was for sale, a fact I found odd for an event in a region where breweries are proud and plentiful.
We soon found beer though at the Oakshire Brewery’s Bikes and Brews Week kick off party, where bikes may have outnumbered patrons.

And were certainly more useful than the patrons. 

Next stop on our night out was some dinner at a taphouse on Broadway.  It was here that Sandy and Bobby spilled the beans on how they had each lost tens of pounds on the paleo diet. Turns out beans are not involved at all. 

Paleo or futuristic, they both looked great and it was fun to see them so happy about life.

The paleo diet may be impossible for me due to my affinity for these evil morsels:

Just down the street from the restaurant is the Eugene outlet of Portland’s famous VooDoo Doughnuts.  I went to get just one maple glazed for dessert, but once I saw this twirling display of ecstasy,

VooDoo Doughnuts carousel of happiness.

my impulse doughnut buying disease flared up and I ended up with a whole box.
I walked back to the van as my blood sugar skyrocketed to dangerous levels in complete doughnut oblivion. Those are the best doughnuts on the planet.
The four of us headed to the campground for civilized dessert of fresh strawberries from the Hood River area and sophisticated chocolate bars.  I was pretty much ruined by the doughnuts though.

We had a great visit under a crescent moon and Jupiter and hugged goodbye late in the night.

State Fair 2010

We've been absolutely up to our necks in trying to get the house done, but I bought discount tickets to the State Fair last month, and we could not let them go to waste (Scottish!) .  We took a few hours to experience the Utah State Fair.

We saw my friend Elena's blue-ribbon winning painting

And of course the animals

 

as usual. But there were some nice surprises this year like a cool activity center for kids 

called "Super Science: Family Fun With Physics" that was well attended.  I was trying to be the beer-swilling roll-model scientist in this picture.

Another great addition to the fair, or should I say subtraction, was that the whole event went smoke free except in designated smoking areas, which were uninviting and not well attended.

Some things I really love about Utah!

We topped off the night with a stroll along the midway

and a look at the butter sculpture.

It was a nice little break for us.

We love the Utah State Fair

Last week our date night was an evening at the Utah State Fair.

We played games,

had fun with vegetables,

especially really large vegetables,

and viewed the butter sculptures of dancing cows.

Then it was off to the barns to look at real cows. Check out this humongous bull!!!,

this nice looking goat,

family time at the pig barn,

and the video of real farm action! (Turn up your sound for the full effect.)

But be careful where you put the mess.

One foot-long corn dog, one over-priced beer, a fresh Utah Pork Producers pork tenderloin sandwich, and a powdered-sugar/cinnamon-sugar funnel cake later, we just strolled the midway. We could not ride after eating all that!