Moving, Brewfest, and a Camp-out

Brianna G.

July 31, 2011 - 10:58 PM

It has been a busy week! Lots of parts of it have been a ton of fun, and an equal amount been a ton of work. I moved out of my house of the last year this week and I started work on the big group project we have due at the end of the term for my psychology class. I also headed up north to Portland this weekend for the Brewfest and went camping for a night to celebrate our friend Natalie's birthday.

Moving out started on Wednesday, when my mom came down to help move all of my big belongings back to my parents' home in Oregon City. Her and my youngest sister helped me finish packing up and loading a whole bunch of heavy furniture into our truck and trailer and hauled the whole thing back to Oregon City. It was a very long day, full of lots of sweat, some frustration, and a delicious dinner at Agate Alley to celebrate our hard work. It was also incredibly sad to see our house slowly disappear, and was made worse when the next day Kate and her dad moved her furniture out the next day. Thursday was spent cleaning around Kate and Randy, working at AGP, and finishing up details for our group project outline.

After all of the hard work of the week, the weekend finally arrived and we had big plans. Leslie, Kevin, Lydia, Lizzy and I left in the early afternoon for Oregon Brew Fest in Portland. We arrived in that afternoon, spending a few minutes and tastes inside until we met Kate there. She came bearing the gifts of a bag of free tokens (the beer tastes work on a wooden token system), and we promptly enjoyed a wide array of beers. Some of the other McAlister gang met us there as well, and we enjoyed sampling beer into the evening. Then, the girls retreated back to Kate's home in Vancouver to eat some pizza and get ready for an evening out in downtown. We met back up with a couple of the guys, enjoyed the night and headed back to Kate's for the rest of the evening.

The next morning was spent laying around Kate's pool and enjoying an amazing breakfast thanks to Sue, Kate's mom. It was a perfect lazy Saturday morning, and was followed by a quick drive our friend Natalie's home on the Colombia River. We joined a few other friends already there for a camp out on her family's property of about 1600 acres, much of it filled with beautiful wetlands and a reserve for white tailed deer. It was an absolutely gorgeous area, and with the exception of some forgotten tent poles (which led to a night spent with some of the most ferocious mosquitoes I have ever seen in the Pacific Northwest), a wonderful evening was spent with great friends in a incredibly beautiful place.

This busy week ended in the same way it started, packing up the last of my belongings and taking them to the room I'll be subletting for the next two weeks while I finish up my classes. I can feel my time in Eugene ticking away, and I intend to make the most of the last few days I have here!