Travel Tips & Adventures

On first glance, Eugene, Oregon would not appear to be a vacation destination. It is home to the University of Oregon and is located in the Willamette Valley.

Just being in Oregon is an advantage since the scenery, the forward thinking of its citizens and the lack of a sales tax make Oregon a great place to hang out – or live. We were considering Eugene as a possible part-year relocation site.

Arriving in Eugene

After our auspicious arrival at Eugene Airport (see September 14 blog), we began a three-day exploration of Eugene. Our usual stops include the Chamber of Commerce, shopping destinations, the main library, and a drive around town.

Disappointing Boulevard 

Stopping to drop our suitcases at the very attractive Comfort Inn at which we were staying, we were referred to the Boulevard Grill for dinner. Although the hotel obviously has a connection with the Boulevard, since it was printed on a map they gave us, we were quite disappointed. Service was indifferent (the waiter was spending quite a bit of time chatting with the bartender, which we could see from our seats), and didn’t show up for at least ten minutes. The hostess had talked up their Kobe beef burger upon our arrival. When we ordered it, the waiter informed us that they were out of them!

 
I opted for the short ribs and my husband tried the mushroom ravioli. The short ribs were not the fall-off-the-bone tender as I anticipated, but were tough. The highlight of my meal was the clam chowder, which had fresh clams and a taste of thyme. The mushroom ravioli were good, not great.

 
In general, I think we spent more time waiting to hear back from the waiter than enjoying our meal. We chose not to have dessert.

Exploring Eugene

Some of the excitement of Eugene may have been lacking since we arrived when the university was not in session. A city that has over 130,000 population was awfully quiet on Labor Day weekend and early that week.

U of O stadium from Skinner Butte

We stopped in at the cute and attractive 5th Street shops, including their international café, a food court with unique restaurants. Restaurants ranging from sushi to Italian to fish to French cuisine were in the food court with an upscale attitude and dark wooden tables. Some advertised the use of local foods. We always like that approach.

Other tenants in the small outdoor mall were a dog boutique and salon, a toy store, a sushi restaurant and more.

Other shopping

The Valley River Center Mall was not impressive. Dark and tired-looking, my husband remarked that it looked like something out of the ‘60s.

 
Oakway Shops was more upscale with Old Navy, the Nike Store, Coldwater Creek and a restaurant area. We opted for a Café Yumm! to keep the budget down. A “healthy” menu restaurant, Café Yumm! could have dropped the exclamation point and the second “m.” They were out of brown rice – in a healthy menu restaurant! I did like their special salad dressing, which had ground almonds as its base, and their bread. Café Yumm! is a regional chain that uses counter service.

Neighborhoods

Crescent Village had a charming look to it and was a mixed-used area with townhouses, apartments and attractive shops on the ground levels.

We also drove around the area near the campus and saw a mix of older, well-kept homes, patrician homes likely owned by university staff and educators, and some older homes that had seen better days.

Downtown

The highlight of our visit downtown was the dinner we shared at Adam’s Sustainable Table. (See blog on September 18.) Perhaps that may actually have been the highlight of my visit to Eugene.

We saw the usual mix of banks, businesses and shops. Parking is metered, not our favorite approach to parking and probably counter-productive when downtown competes with shopping malls that don’t charge to park.

Final thoughts on Eugene 

People we spoke with were friendly, so we have decided to give Eugene another chance.  Tourist info mentions the Hult Center for the Performing Arts and many other opportunities like their Saturday Market that we missed because of our timing.

They say 50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong, so there must be something about Eugene that keeps 130,000-plus residents liking Eugene. We figure we owe them another visit to see what keeps everyone there.

Tags: Food, Oregon, Restaurants, Shopping, Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Food, Oregon, Shopping, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.