Day 67 - Eugene, Oregon

I've been here in Eugene for two weeks, but the weather has been pretty bad - rain almost every day - so I haven't done much other than swim three times a week (the redhead in the picture is my Mum!), drink a lot of coffee, visit friends, have breakfast with Joan Ash at the Hilton, and listen to a wonderful seminar on a trip to archaeological sites in Turkey by Vivienne, one of my parents' friends (she is 75 and this is the first time she's been out of the US for about 40 years).

However, today dawned fine and sunny, so after a great breakfast at Elmer's, we drove north on OR-99W through small Western towns: Monroe, Corvallis, Monmouth, Rickreall and Amity to historic McMinnville (home of the Evergreen Aviation and Aviation Museum, which houses the "Spruce Goose", built by Howard Hughes' aviation company), then on to Carlton. This road is in the Willamette Valley between the Coast Range on the west and the foothills of the Cascades on the east, so the broad fertile plain is full of the marks of agricultural activity - fruit orchards (particularly apples and blueberries), nut orchards (hazelnuts and walnuts), and vineyards, especially once we were past Monmouth and at higher altitude. There are also lots of cows and sheep, and some rather chubby goats (they don't have to work all that hard for their food here); also some alpaca, which look distinctly out of place here.

All the way up this highway, there are signs for wineries and winetasting, but we had a goal in mind: Cana's Feast Winery! We really enjoyed tasting the six wines on display today - Rosato, Pinot Noir, Red Wine, Riserva, Two Rivers, Syrah - and drank a toast to Bev, who introduced us to this winery but is sadly no longer with us. And of course we couldn't resist buying a few bottles (Rosato, Pinot Noir and Syrah)!

There are olive trees in the garden here, and they made me quite homesick for Crete!

Home by a different route - through Lafayette and the very charming and historic Dayton, and thence to Salem, capital city of Oregon, and onto the I-5S. There's a Ducks football game tonight, so there was a lot of traffic bearing green and yellow flags, scarves, etc.