Off the Bagel

Sometimes looking at restaurant menus is a good source of inspiration for cooking at home. Tonight, I was thinking about Eugene, which made me dig up the menu for Off the Waffle, an amazing waffle restaurant. Somehow, I ended up making a bagel topped with a fried egg, spinach, avocado, paprika, and pepper:

It wasn't bad, but it was no Liège waffle. Luckily, I might soon be writing for a Eugene daily paper, which would enable waffle-related field trips.

In other news, here's a photo of Tiny Weasel eating food:

It kind of makes me think of the Alien movies for some reason. That's all for now.

Waterfalls and Lava Rock

Busy week! Ben and I cruised over to Clear Lake on Monday night and spent a cozy night at Coldwater Cove Campground. The next morning, we did a drive-by of the waterfalls on the McKenzie Highway and then went up the mountain pass. Our hike up Black Crater was cut short by Ben not feeling well and snow at the top, but we still had fun. And we discovered that it's definitely worth stopping at the observatory tower at the top of the pass. Inside, tiny rock windows outline each mountaintop beyond with its name underneath. It was hard to take photos that captured both the mountain and its caption, but I did get a good picture of one window:

Today I finished the first short story I've written in quite some time (nice to take a break from a different project!) and then Katie and I went down to Eugene for their weekly sunset hike of Spencer Butte. Needless to say, it was gorgeous and a good hike with a nice friendly crowd of people.

Now, Ben goes back to work and I go back to writing articles... with another chance of a hike and a possible trip to Portland this weekend. I love Oregon!

Sausage Rolls and Voodoo Donuts

I love Corvallis, but when it comes to food Eugene wins. Today Ben and I drove down to see our friend Ben P. and did what we always do in Eugene: eat awesome food. At the Whiteaker Block Party, I devoured a sausage roll while Ben F. made short work of a meat pasty and Ben P. worked hard (OK, not that hard) at making himself a bicycle-powered smoothie. Afterwards, a potluck with burgers, mussels, shepherd's pie, lemon meringue, and other treats. And then, because we hadn't eaten enough good food, we went to Voodoo Donuts where they happened to be selling boxes of two dozen donuts for $5! Flavors range from questionable (bubblegum) to amazing (Mexican chocolate). We've invited a few people over tomorrow to help deal with this delicious problem of too many donuts. Win!

Salt Creek Falls and See's Candies

On Tuesday, Ben and I drove down to Eugene to bring the moped to the Vespa dealership and to accompany our friend Ben on a trip to Salt Creek Falls. The falls themselves were stunning --  at 286 feet, they're the second-highest in the state.

We also did a six-mile loop hike on the Diamond Creek Falls Trail, which would have been amazing if it weren't for the nine million mosquitoes who ambushed us along the route, particularly devouring my friend Ben who logged more than 200 kills (leaving approximately nine million alive). The cool breeze at Diamond Creek Falls kept the mosquitoes away briefly, so we took a quick snack break at the base of the falls.

Eventually, the mosquitoes overwhelmed us with their numbers and we turned around. On the way back I found what I thought were morels:

but they turned out to be the false morel --  tragic! Afterward, we ate out at a random British pub in Oakridge, which had a brochure of tons of local mountain biking trails that look neat. Back in Eugene, we hit the See's Candy store and I used the gift certificate my aunt gave me to get a pound of our choosing. The See's Candy experience is pretty amazing when you get to choose all the flavors from a menu! Best of all, next week the moped will need picking up from Eugene, so we have an excuse to have adventures down south all over again.