Eugene and the Dirty Dash

Zirk, named after a car part

June 29-30

Mom popped down for her first visit to Hood River this weekend.  She made it in on Friday and brought the new pooch, Zirk.  Zirk is a rescue, and your general American mutt.  Mainly he is healer, cattle dog, among a bunch of other things.  He is black, furry, and a general wuss.  He got along great with Thomas!  Go figure.  We didn’t really show Mom downtown Hood River, but grilled out that night.  Pulled out some salmon and introduced mom to grilled corn.  Fresh corn with olive oil, salt and pepper, wrapped in foil, and 20 minutes on the grill.  You will never go back to boiled corn.  Mom was nice enough to bring some fresh lettuce from her garden for salads.  She had it all set up for us to keep our own fresh lettuce in a shallow bin to pick right off the plant for salads.  Unfortunately, in the coming weeks, Lucy had other ideas.  Lucy ravaged our new lettuce bin like Godzilla over Tokyo.  It was good while it lasted, though.  Thanks, Mom! [...]

We took off for Eugene and the Dirty Dash Saturday morning.  This is our second year running the Dirty Dash.  Samantha called us The Dirty Ducks and made wings out of poster board and feathers .  She also bough us orange bandanas to look like beaks.  It looked great to start the race, but the wings didn’t last past the second mud pit.  But, hey, the shirts were Oregon green this year!  I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

After the race, we hit up Ninkasi, which is becoming our usual tradition after the Eugene Dirty Dash.  Despite having a nice outdoor seating area, dogs are not allowed.  We learned this fact after taking Zirk into the outdoor seating area and sitting down to order a beer.  The manager was nice about it though, and set Zirk up just off the property, with water and a shady place to be tied up.  It worked out rather well, as Zirk got more attention from people coming and going than he would have otherwise.  

A trip to Eugene isn’t complete without breakfast at Glenwood before heading out of town.  On the way back, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. Mom needs to make another trip out here so we can solely spend it in the gorge.