Jen's Visit

Last month Cliff's best friend from college, Jen, presented at a conference in Portland.  She is super smart and just graduated from medical school in Buffalo, NY.  When we found out she was coming to Portland we let her know that we wanted to come up and see her one night.  Well...she one-uped us and instead rented a car and came down to Eugene.  The last time as saw Jen was our wedding and we sadly didn't get to hang out long.  It was so nice to see her and she was totally game for jam-packing her 24 hours with all the Eugene-goodness we could fit.

Photo by Jen Cheung

Upon her arrival we went to Falling Sky Brewery.  They just opened up within the past few months and we were excited to try their beer.  Well let me say that their beer is good but their food is even better.  We got two samplers, a mushroom pate appetizer, and sandwiches.  Jen and I both got the field burger which is a garbanzo bean, barley and mushroom patty with pub sauce and field greens.  It comes with fries or a field green salad.  It is amazing.  Hands down the best thing I have eaten in Eugene so far.  Honestly, I sometimes day dream about eating this burger.  Cliff got a roast beef sandwich with cheddar, horseradish, and caramelized onions.  It was a wonderful night.   Good food and a great friend.  Jen (who is a pretty great photographer) took some photos at Falling Sky including this one.  I honestly think it is the best/worst photo of us ever.  Jen really captured us.  It makes me so happy.

The next morning we got up early and hiked Spencer Butte.  It was the foggiest that we have ever seen it.  Seriously, we have hiked it like ten times and have never had such poor visibility.  It was cool though as we realized that the brain does some pretty odd things when there is only white all around.  Cliff noticed it first but when you starred into the fog eventually you started to see sparkles.  Jen and I both tried and sure enough...there they were.  Oh science.   On the way down we saw a huge slug. 

After the hike we hit Laughing Planet for food as we were headed west to go wine tasting.  The best prep for this event is a hearty burrito filled with beans, rice, and other semi-local organic goodies.  We went to Sweet Cheeks and Silvan Ridge as they are literally right across the road from one another.  Silvan Ridge has the amazing peachie-o's wine and Jen was so much of a fan that she bought a bottle.  Cliff and Jen decided to look very somber for their wine tasting photo.  At Sweet Cheeks we had a long conversation with the lady behind the bar about one of their wines that has an evil looking koala on the label.  Seriously, it looks possessed.  It was so creepy that I needed to take a photo.

On the way back home we decided to end the whirl-wind visit with Red Wagon Creamery.  We had never tried it before and we knew Jen would be up to some non-traditional ice cream flavors.  We found the cart and sampled almost all of the flavors they had left.  I'm pretty sure we all got their smoked salt caramel #6 plus another flavor (I got chocolate and I think they both for the frozen goat coffee).  So fun.  I know we've chatted about them before but their flavors are really interesting.

It was so sad when Jen had to leave.  In a few weeks she will be moving from the east coast to Los Angeles where she is going to start her residency in family medicine.  We are set on finding a time to go down and visit.  Oh!  Also, Jen brought us a Buffalo treat called sponge candy.  Sponge candy is like crispy caramelized sugar dipped in chocolate.  Between Cliff and I the box of candy didn't last long. If you are ever in Buffalo...do yourself a favor and try some.