Where it All Began

My family and I had a fun-filled day in Eugene. Eugene is still a magical place in my mind. It’s the place I met my husband, the place I really felt comfortable being me, and the place where I had my daughter. It’s also the place where I had my first real full-time job. We’ve been back many times to see family or friends, but haven’t had the chance to just hang out with our immediate family.
We stopped first at lunch for the best tomato cheese soup EVER at the Glenwood. The soup is so darn amazing! I’ve tried numerous times to come up with their recipe but haven’t found their secret to the shredded cheese that stays shredded and doesn’t melt into the soup. It’s so tasty! Let me know if any of you have a recipe that is similar. I’d love to know!
Then we walked over to Metropol (now why in the world don’t they have a website???). We drooled over the delicious cakes at the counter trying to decide which to order. It’s actually the place where we ordered our wedding cake. Too bad they didn’t have our cake from our wedding out by the slice. I was in the mood for some yummy lemon poppy seed cake with cream cheese frosting…too bad. I’ll have to make a drive down another time.
But we where deciding what to get when I looked down to see a large puddle on the floor. I proceeded to scold my son and then barked some orders to my hubby about what cake to pick out and to notify the staff about the bio hazard. I hauled little man for a quick change in the car. Lovely! Little man had already gone to the bathroom at the Glenwood, but since he has issues about tucking “things” into place, his pull-up didn’t quite cut it. I’m SO ready to be done with this potty training stuff.
We did get two slices of cake. One lemon and the other chocolate amaretto. The chocolate was by far the best and the frosting was delicious. So very good!
The next stop was for the University of Oregon campus. That’s where hubby and I met. We strolled around campus and discovered lots of new things. There was a new living-learning center built since we lived in Eugene, a new basketball arena under construction, and a new building off of Agate. We also checked out some of the residence halls that we had lived in and was happy to see all of the updates. And it made us feel OLD! We checked out one of the living/learning center classrooms and saw some strange looking white board with a large arm thing coming out of it. Maybe a projector? Maybe a hologram projector? Who knows. I’ve only been out of school for 8 years and so much has changed. We saw in one of the lounges a gigantic flat screen TV and also a dining hall sign that looked like it should be at the Ritz-Carlton. There was also a place to check emails in place of the old phone booths. Hell, with the amazing technology, all the food joints, and comfy lounges, I might just move into the dorms again!

Here’s a picture of our kiddos running on the Humpy Lumpy Lawn by the dorm where my hubby and I met. We both lived in McClain. He lived on the first floor and I lived on the second. It felt great going back and knowing that other students where falling in love, making life long friends, and really enjoying learning. I do hope our kiddos are as fortunate as we were!

Then we went off to see the movie at the dollar fifty movie theater. I remember it opened when I was a student and it was a place we visited often for a cheap date. Today we choose to see The Tale of Despereaux which was a really cute movie. The kids loved it, and I enjoyed the cuddle time holding my kiddos during the movie.

On the way home we saw an amazing full rainbow with a second faint rainbow next to it. It was the perfect ending to a near perfect day. How lucky I am to be living this charmed life… even if it includes the occasional potty accident.

The amazing rainbow we saw on the way home. I pieced this picture together since we were so close to it in the car.