It’s Saturday night and I guess the police in Eugene, Oregon, will be as busy tonight here as their counterparts in any other small American city.
But during the day, when you are strolling through the Saturday Market downtown, you can’t imagine how people so obsessed with organic food and the styles of the 1960’s could possibly have the time or interest in anything that would cross the line. (Smoking dope doesn’t count.)
Plus, it must take time to get all those tattoos, find new places to pierce, walk your dog, take care of your infant, tie-dye your tee-shirts, and find new restaurants where they even make their own salt and pepper. So another glorious sunny Oregon day found us walking through downtown and enjoying the feelings of the past – with dreadlocks everywhere. No – I can’t see a lot of violence in this town.
It was an altogether lovely day. We woke up to the sun glistening on the snow surrounding the lodge and Crater Lake, which had a slightly different personality this morning.
We first headed off to one of the best-rated waterfalls in this area. (There are so many, you just have to consult a version of Zagat’s for waterfalls to decide which one to focus on. ) On the way to our goal, we stopped at Diamond Lake and took in Mount Bailey and Mount Thielsen – both stunning. Our destination was Taketee Falls, which required a lovely walk of about a mile to have a special moment in the quiet and gorgeous woods.
I don’t think we have ever had as much delicious oxygen to breathe as we have devoured in the pine forests of California and Oregon. But the Umpqua Forest should bottle their stuff. Wonderful thing, clean air.
