Day 1: Eugene, OR

After a great farewell breakfast with my favorite Regence peeps (thanks everyone!) Tim and I went back to the apartment and finished packing and cleaning. After a minor freak out that we wouldn't be able to fit everything in the car, we hit the road for Eugene. We were looking forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight. On the way we managed to dispense with roughly 3 Voo Doo Doughnuts. Once in Eugene we checked into the hotel and headed for the University of Oregon campus. We were immediately reminded of Madison. We spent a few hours walking around and seeing the sights we had an amazing dinner at a cute little Italian Trattoria. Then it was back to the hotel to relax and plan out tomorrow's trip. Thankfully we don't have far to go so we can take our time. I'll leave you with the pictures we took on campus.

Bare necessities

For the last 3 nights Tim and I have been "roughing" it on the floor. All we've got is our sleeping bags, sleeping pads and pillows. Its been an adjustment but we're making do. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and am not able to get back to sleep. But at least we've only got a few more nights of this. Thursday we're back to real beds at the Holiday Inn in Eugene. Yay!

Primitive baking

Although the apartment is almost bare I've been in the mood to bake. Tim and I had packed all of the baking supplies with the exception of the perishable foods, so we weren't completely without the basics. After a quick run to Goodwill we had some mixing bowls and needed to find a recipe that would work with the few items we had. Luckily I remembered that we had some Baker's chocolate in the cupboard and went to their website to see what recipes they had to offer. A quick browse returned the Santa Ana Cookies. Simple. No vanilla, no baking powder. We could do this. So I whipped the butter and sugar by hand (measuring everything with a liquid measuring cup). Brewed some coffee in our french press and set the oven to 375 degrees. The first batch didn't have enough flour and turned out a little more like a muffin than a cookie. But that's an easy fix. The second set was much more solid and cookie like. Tim says they're great with coffee or tea. I just loves the simplicity and the fact that these are truly from scrath!