Hippie Heaven

When you step into Eugene, Oregon, you step into another world. Not in a geographic or ecological sense, but in a Rocky Horror Picture Show sense. No transvestites, but please, “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.” You are immediately back in the 60’s. As one who came of age in the late 60’s, this is great. It has a very laid-back look.

Eric and I spent 3 days in Eugene so we could see our niece, Julie, and her 3 men. As always, I got pictures of everyone but her husband, Adam. Believe me, he is a good-looking guy. I’m not sure how he is missed by the camera. We went to bookstores and the library, before having this lunch with Julie and Torin, her youngest. He is a high energy cutie. Eric was gob-smacked by him. That’s good because he has a bit too much energy for me, I need to observe him from afar. They played and Eric read books to him.

Palmer and I cooked breakfast one morning. Actually, Palmer cooked it. I just helped. He has a very precise and unique way of cooking. He explains every step and poses to make sure I get a good picture. I’ve never seen anyone crack an egg with a fork. That must be something learned in this house. He made his world renowned French Toast. It was very good. He puts cinnamon in it and usually adds vanilla, but there was none that day.

Later in the day, he and Julie worked an experiment. Julie’s patience is amazing. Wow. Wow. Wow. She was fantastic. Not just patient. She let Palmer do everything. The experiment was to purify old coffee to make clean water through evaporation and condensation. Palmer set everything up, Julie just helped when needed. She let him strike the match to light the little alcohol burner. He was no more successful at that than I would have been at his age if I had been allowed to light a match. But he did everything else, including lighting the burner. Bravo, Julie, I know he will appreciate this when he looks back on what helped him to become a great scientist.

All-in-all, we enjoyed our trip back to the future. The boys are happy, Julie is doing well at University of Oregon, and Adam works hard. As I love to say when chatting to my friends, LIG. Life is Good, especially in Oregon.