Back In Eugene

Howdy folks.

I'm back from my grand weekend adventure.
I had a great time with my family over the past few days. A lot happened, so I figured why not give a quick play by play.

On Friday, I skipped the afternoon lecture for my math class (I know, shame on me...). My parents picked my up on campus and we drove back to Portland and grabbed a quick dinner at home before heading downtown on Portland's quiet and efficient light rail system. We went to the Rose Garden (the big auditorium where the Portland Trail Blazers play) and saw a great concert featuring the David Crowder Band, Mercy Me, and Michael W. Smith. It was a bit weird to be at a concert with my parents, but after I got through my "I must be back in Junior High" flashbacks, it was a phenominal concert, and all kidding aside, I was glad to be able to share the experience with my parents. That, and it was an incredibly good concert. If it comes near your area, I'd say go!

On Saturday, we got up, and got my parent's RV loaded up and headed for Seattle. This was another slightly surreal experience. I have never travelled in an RV before. Ours is not a huge one - its more like an oversized van and actually gets around 15mpg, unlike the 5-6mpg the "motel on wheels" type get, so I didn't feel too guilty about it. Still, it was just one of those things I never pictured my self doing.
Incidentally, its actually kind of nice to travel with a refridgerator, a bed, a small kitchen, and a fold out table available. One really could get used to travelling in that kind of comfort. I was actaully able to swivel the passenger side chair around and play cards with my mom while my step-dad drove.
In Seattle, we stopped by my brother's house for a few hours and got to see Bethany, my 5 day old niece. It was a really nice visit. I got to hold her for a little while, but she was a bit sleepy. She is a beautiful baby - really tiny, and quite mellow. We decided not to stay too long as Lisa (my brother's wife) is still recovering from labor, and a newborn takes a lot of energy to care for.
I forgot to pack my camera, so sorry, no pictures (curses!). I'll get my brother to email me some in the near future so I can put some up.
For the remainder of the day, we drove down to catch a ferry out to Anderson Island, which is located near Olympia Washington, out on Puget Sound (a better blogger would have a link to a cool map here). The ferry out to the island is pretty big. You can just drive your car onto it and park, and then either sit in your car on the main deck, or take the stairs up and stand on the upper deck. It's about a 20 minute ride across the sound out to the island. The island itself is about 7 miles across (or was it 7 square miles - I forget). The reason we went there is that my parents just bought a 1/5 acre plot of land in a new development there. It is in a forested area, and has a view of beautiful lake Josephine. They hope to build a cabin on this property sometime in the next few years, and by this I mean they want to buy the materials and build it mostly themselves. As my stepdad worked as an engineer before he retired, they should be able to pull it off without too much trouble, but it will be a lot of work.
The island is a really cool place. Only a couple of thousand people live there, and of those, only about 800 are there year-round, while the rest are part year or just have a vacation property. Its a relly quiet, safe, and friendly community. We camped out there overnight, and came back over on the ferry today.
After that, we drove back to Eugene (not quite 5 hours) so that I could get settled and get a good night's sleep before class tomorrow.

All in all it was quite the weekend.