This was one of the better mornings of our lives. People up here take their coffee very seriously, and Alicia (Aimee's peace corps friend and our current host) made us one of the best cups of our lives. But the real treat was not the coffee, it was where we drank it. With our mugs filled and our eyes slowly opening, Alicia and her husband, Isaias, invited us down to the riverbank that happened to be 100 yards from their front door.
And this was not just any river bank. This was the wide, wandering Willamette river. Seriously beautiful. Aimee and I wondered how anybody could go to work in these conditions.
As we walked along the river, Isaias told us fishing stories, and it sounded as if he had lived his whole life along the banks of the Willamette. But he hadn't. Alicia and Isaias met in the small Nicaraguan town that Alicia was sent to as a Peace Corps volunteer. Isaias grew up there, and he moved to Oregon with Alicia a couple of years ago when they got married (she grew up there). The last time we saw them both was in Nicaragua, and Isaias was clearly right at home. But flash forward a couple of years, and Isaias is wearing his Oregon Ducks cap with a fridge full of IPAs, while telling me about how the fish are biting in the Willamette. He seems to be fitting in just fine.
His fishing stories were actually pretty enticing, and we made plans to go back out the next day. But first, we needed some Kombucha. When in Rome...
If you haven’t heard of Kombucha, you’re not alone. And really, there’s no reason that this stuff should exist. It’s rancid tea. Really. That’s how you make Kombucha. You brew a batch of tea, put some extra sugar in in, and leave it on the counter until it gets infected and the sugar ferments. So when Alicia suggested that we head downtown for a cup, Aimee and I agreed, but mostly out of politeness. And also because her food recommendations so far had been absolutely amazing. This was breakfast:
But back to Kombucha. The shop felt like a craft beer bar, with a rotating crop of styles, and some growlers on the wall.
And the big surprise was that we liked it! I've had some less-than-appealing batches of Kombucha in the past, but true to form, Alicia didn’t dissapoint. The Kombucha I picked was a light, slightly fizzy green tea concoction, and it was actually pretty tasty. The fermented character was pretty mild, and it really just tasted like a less-sweet, more-acidic soda.
But the real treat that morning was walking around downtown Eugene. Of course, “downtown” is a relative term in Eugene, but it was a great place to wander around. It's made up of the bars, restaurants, shops, and batmobiles that you would expect from a Pacific Northwest college town, and Aimee and I felt right at home.
But as fun as the morning was, it just got better from there.
Alicia and Isaias drove us to the wine country just outside of Eugene. We had lunch and wine at the King's Estate winery. It tasted as good as it looked.
We spent the evening sitting in their backyard, with Aimee and I fawning over life in Eugene. I mean, Alicia and Isaias even had their own fig tree, just in case the paradise analogies weren't obvious enough. This was our kind of town.
