It was a nice day in Eugene today.
We arrived at the hotel fairly late again last night (surprise, surprise) and slept in a bit but not too late as the kids really wanted waffles for breakfast and the kitchen closed at 9:30 am! So we were up and eating waffles at 9:25, and soon were ready for the day.
The kids decided to go swimming after breakfast while we waited for Clint and the girls to come over. For those of our friends who don't know, Clint Anderson married Kathy Grasso, Jill's cousin, and they have two adorable girls, Katelin and Kasey. Below is a picture of the Anderson family:
Clint and the girls arrived and swam with the Lillie kids until about noon, and then came in the room for lunch.
We quickly ate lunch, checked out, and headed over to the University of Oregon campus. Although we are BIG Stanford fans, we are also PAC-10 fans, and we were looking forward to visiting the Duck campus. Plus, with Nick only 5 years out from college, it's fun to check out the different campuses so he can get a feel for the different schools.
We started out by visiting the football stadium...all I can say is WOW. The first thing that you see when you drive up is the massive yellow "O" on a green background. Check it out below:
The second thing you notice is how much parking there is and how there are duck footprints everywhere. I took a picture of a couple of them -- they were pretty funny:
Clint said that the town is INSANE over Duck football, and on game day in the fall you can hear the stadium from a couple of miles away. He said when the Ducks win, the people are incredibly high, happy and upbeat. But when the Ducks lose, it is like someone took their birthday away!
The football field was open and we had the good fortune of going down onto the field inside the stadium. It was beast! The seats were really close to the field and went pretty high up, creating an imposing field for their opponents. Of course the kids all started running around on the artificial turf, racing and tackling each other. It was fun and gave the kids a chance to burn off a little energy. Take a look at some of the pics I took in the stadium:
After being on the field today, I can only imagine how it feels to go into Eugene to play the Ducks in that stadium, with their fans. Good luck, Stanford and Cal!
After the visit to the football field, Clint took us to the famous Hayward Field, where track legends such as Bill Hayward, Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine made history. Eugene is known as "the track capital of the world," and the 2008 Olympic trials were recently held at Hayward Field. We spent a decent amount of time there, reading the information at the field, walking the track and climbing the stadium stairs. Of course I took several pictures while walking around -- I hope you enjoy them:
At this point we decided to actually visit the academic part of the school (!), and we walked over to the center of campus. It is a lovely campus, with mostly brick buildings and lush, green trees and foliage. The grounds people have also done a very nice job planting flowers around the campus, and there was no trash or litter anywhere. I took several pictures as we walked through the campus -- below are just a few of them:
Nick and I had a nice walk alone through the campus as the others went to get the cars. We talked about college and how to choose the right one for him -- it was a wonderful talk, and one he wants to spend more time on with me. I am happy he wants to talk to me about it -- it warms my heart. All-in-all, I was pretty impressed with the Oregon campus. It is a nice place with friendly people and as Nick said, "I could go here." Well said, Nick.
After our visit to the U of O, we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim and then it was off to dinner at Kathy and Clint's house. We still had not seen Kathy (she was at work all day) and we were really looking forward to seeing her. On our way to their house we picked up fixins' for dinner at Trader Joe's and snapped a couple of shots as this is where Clint works -- take a look:
By the time we arrived at the house, Kathy was home from work (she is an occupational therapist in Springfield). It was great to see Kathy, and we all prepared dinner together while most of the kids played in the yard. I say most because Natalie was making earrings for Kathy and Katelin (Katelin was helping). It was really cute to see both families play and work together so well:
We ate our meal together in the backyard, with the 6 kids at the big table and the 4 adults at the little table, a complete table reversal! ;-) It was fun to catch up with Kathy and Clint and to watch the kids interact with one another. In fact when it was time to go Casey said, "I am going to miss you guys." Ohh, so sweet! It was a very nice family night.
After our hugs and kisses goodbye and promises to stay in closer contact, we headed off with Clint as our guide (he led the way in the Anderson van). Unfortunately, I had forgotten my Verizon wireless modem at the hotel so we needed to take a small detour before heading out of town. Clint led us back to the hotel (Eugene can be a bit tricky to navigate, especially at night) but only after a quick loop around the block...I had forgotten my wallet and Jill's laptop at the house! Man, I am losing it -- fortunately in one more day we'll be home!
We have arrived safely at the Springhill Suites by Marriott in Medford -- thanks for your prayers!!!
Peace,
Brian
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