Honeyman Memorial State Park
We had such a fun weekend. Mike made an illuminating comment. He said we have to put effort into having fun. What a sad comment, but true. We put effort into this weekend and got the reward of feeling the release and relaxation of being away from Portland and doing something we love. It almost feels comfortable, like we’re at home, while camping in the Casita.
After a really busy week of User Conference for Viewpoint, Mike was fried. We took Friday off of work and went camping in Florence, OR. We waited until Friday morning to clean the house for Maggie and pack the Casita. Not our best move. Mike had a worked-too-much hang-over and was a little slow in getting moving. But, we left about 9am and got to Eugene in time for an early lunch at a McMenamins that we need a stamp in our Passport. It just happened to be the McMenamins where Mike and I decided to try to make my move to Portland work for our relationship just after we started dating. It was nice to be back in Eugene and at a familiar place.
We camped at the Honeyman Memorial State Park, which was fine. The spots were a little small and the campground was little busy but it was in a nice area. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon, took a nap, and watched half of the first Terminator before falling asleep.
Saturday morning, we went for a run through the dunes. Mike and I didn’t handle running in the sand as well as Iris. She loves running in the sand. We let her off leash and she ran all over, at least, as far as we’d let her. We then went kayaking along the Siltcoos River, which extends from Siltcoos Lake to the ocean for three miles. The canoe trail was cool, though, a little too busy for our taste. It was our fault that we started a little later in the morning than we wanted. Our theme for this weekend was “what we forgot to pack.” On Saturday, we realized we forgot to bring water with us to the lake. I drove back to the campsite, not too far away, to get water while Mike and Iris prepped the kayaks. We kayaked through the dunes and some cool coastal forests and saw herons and birds a plenty and a family of otters playing. We also portaged our kayaks over some fish ladder thing. We didn’t expect it to be fun, but it was fun to ride the kayaks down the portage ramp into the water. We didn’t make it to the ocean because the tide was out and the river was too shallow to kayak right at the end, despite Mike’s impressive attempt to push himself through with his hands. Perhaps 6 miles of kayaking was a little too long when we haven’t kayaked for a year. I was tired at the end.
We left Iris in the Casita and went to Florence for lunch. Our first choice restaurant was packed. We were trying to find the Oregon game on TV. The second place was a dud, so we left. We made it to Homegrown Pub, which was fantastic. Good food, good local beer. The only problem was it didn’t have the Oregon game on TV, but Oregon was way ahead anyway in a non-conference game. We took another nap that afternoon and finished Terminator.
We decided to leave early this morning (Sunday) for a number of reasons. We noticed several typical “Smith-isms” from this weekend – the failure to pack appropriately and bring important items like camping chairs and dinner for the second night, and waking early and leaving after coffee to move on to the next event. The Tennessee Titans played at 10am this morning (with Marcus Mariota) and I had to run 12 miles for my marathon training influenced our early departure. It was an easy trip back. When we got home, I went for a run, and Mike and Iris met me half way with water. Apparently, Iris was none to happy to leave me to run home. What a great trip. We’re ready for next weekend and planning our next fun event.
