Meeting My Match in Eugene

Since we had the car on Saturday, we drove to Eugene (about an hour away) for dinner at Sushi Domo.

 They do a big selection of interesting and imaginatively named vegie rolls, as you can see below:

I think The Guido and Crop Burning were tied for the favourite of the evening.

There was a Wal Mart across the road that, of course, was still open when we finished dinner at 9pm. Having never been into a Wal Mart, and being curious about strange retail experiences in this country, I insisted we venture inside.

 

 Look, a wall of Jillian products! 

Unfortunately for my common sense (and my digestive system), the influence of Jillian wore off as the Desserting Hour approached. Loyal followers of the blog will recall that dessert in Eugene means... 

 

 

Here is a handsome man with a very sensibly proportioned doughnut.

 And here I am with a monster as big as my head.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Memphis Mafia - described on the Voodoo Doughnut website as:  

Fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon sugar covered in a glaze with chocolate frosting, peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate chips on top!

 How could I resist?!

With a little help (and some cajoling) from Paul, I finished the whole thing, but this bad boy pretty quickly turned from incredibly delicious to completely nauseating, and I spent all day yesterday lying on the couch, watching back to back episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race and nursing my doughnut hangover. I am two days late to write this post because the thought of even looking at the photos turned my stomach, which, by the way, has still not quite forgiven me despite litres of digestive tea and a healthy dose of probiotic yoghurt this morning. Needless to say, I will be going easy on the eating for at least a few days so my poor internals can recover!

Oregon Exploration

We hired a car this weekend to explore our slightly more out-of-town surroundings. This morning, we took a trip to Eugene, OR. First stop? Cinnabon.

We were very restrained and shared a classic cinnamon roll. As much as I love these things, I have no idea how anyone could manage to eat a whole one. Perhaps that could be my next food challenge, once I finish working my way through the Shari's pie menu?

 After some mall crawling, it was time for lunch at Dickie Jo's. Don't worry, we're going shopping at the co op tomorrow morning for plenty of organic vegetables to make up for this!

After lunch, it stopped raining for a few minutes so we enjoyed a little sunshine (coincidentally, right outside the Buffalo Exchange store).

I love it how it is pretty much open season on the Amtrak/freight train lines around here. None of those pesky security fences and cameras that we have back in Sydney!

This incredible house was right across the street from the train station.

After Eugene, we hit the highway and headed towards the coast. Our mission? Sunset over Newport. 

 My camera is chockers full of blurry photos of pine trees and curvy roads that I snapped from the car, that of course can't capture how truly beautiful and awe-inspiring the woods of Oregon are. You just have to imagine that it was a hundred, a thousand times more colourful, vast, and incredible than this.

So many of the trees are still covered in a layer of moss and lichen from winter, I presume that will drop off as the weather warms up? I will check back in May and see.

 The river and the railway line run along the highway for most of the way. Having really only ventured out of the city into drought-ravaged Australian landscapes in recent memory (or probably in my lifetime, if I really think about it), it was pretty incredible to see such a wide, deep and fast-running river, especially since it was at times only metres away from the car.

 We made a pit stop in Mapleton and picked up some delicious salt water taffy.

More river observation

After an hour or so in the pine forest, suddenly... the Pacific! 

I tried to think of something erudite to say about it, but all that comes to mind is, the ocean is so freaking big. 

At this point in the trip, I became obsessed with photographing the many art deco bridges that feature on this part of the 101. The 1930s is one of my favourite periods in architectural history, and it appears that decade saw some major works in the development of this highway. I think these photos might warrant a separate post, for brevity's sake (and so those not interested in civil engineering are spared the boredom), so I'll save them!

Finally, it was approaching dusk and we arrived in Newport, starving for dinner and, as Paul said, full of scenery! We decided on Mexican for dinner, and I was delighted to find this particular restaurant served the kind of Baja cuisine reminiscent of our time in the Princess Diana tribute restaurant in Ensenada:

Mexican doesn't really photograph well, but I assure you, this was DELICIOUS.

Back down at the water, digesting our burritos and waiting for the sun to go down.

Stay tuned - tomorrow we're hiking up McCulloch Peak (so expect more photos of pine trees).