After the Van’s Aircraft tour, we began heading towards Eugene, where Jennifer’s cousin Joe and his wife Elica live. Since it was still early in the day, we decided to stop by a pumpkin patch / fall festival; there were plenty of them in the area. After a quick Google search, Jennifer told me which way to drive to get to what would be the most ridiculous pumpkin patch of them all – Bauman Farms. This place was more gourd-themed Disney World than it was Farmer-Joe-stuck-a-few-hay-bales-around-his-pumpkin-patch-and-lets-you-come-pick-your-own. Once you get past the admissions booth complete with iPad point-of-sale machines, there were zip-lines, a train, a huge hayride, petting zoo, three different corn mazes, and laser tag, among other more normal attractions; not to mention a full on food court that served beer. Since it was a weekday, all of the attractions weren’t open, thankfully. Once we were done with that zoo, we continued south to Joe and Elica’s place.
At Joe and Elica’s we were quickly welcomed with a glass of wine, prosciutto-wrapped melon, homemade sodas, and the most irresistible concord grapes the kids had ever tasted, apparently. Our awesome hosts constructed a brick/clay pizza oven on their back patio, and were firing it up for a night of pizza making. I think the first pizza went in around 4:30pm, a simple margherita to get things going. A few of their friends joined us and we all continued eating pizza and drinking good wine and homebrew beer until close to midnight. We had pizzas with all types of mushrooms that Joe and Elica harvested from the woods of Oregon, peppers, cheeses, meats, herbs, and other awesome toppings. Desert was also cooked in the pizza oven: an apple-ginger cobbler with candy cap mushroom crumble. It was served with vanilla ice cream, of course, and the whole concoction was ridiculously delicious. From the wine, to the beer, to the food, it is a huge understatement to say that Jennifer and I were way out of our league. Not that it mattered. We learned a lot, had a ton of fun, and were glad to (re)connect with Joe and Elica.
The next morning, we were again treated to really good food. Joe used the veggies and cheeses left over from the night before to make a fantastic frittata. Since they had the day off, Joe and Elica decided to join us as we headed back towards the Oregon Coast to show us some of their favorite local places. We checked out the tide pools and jagged rocks near Thor’s Well. From there we hiked up to the visitor center to see the exhibits and to see if we could spot any whales migrating past – we did not. We then had one last meal together, at a restaurant this time, before saying goodbye and a million thanks for their admirable hospitality.
After that, it was a familiar task of finding a campground for the night. There were a few in the area that we drove through before ultimately deciding on Jessie Hayman State Park. Per usual, we got there late in the afternoon, but were able to take the kids on a short walk over to the sand dunes to let them play for a while before heading back to make dinner and a fire. The park seemed a lot like Croom back home in Florida, in that you are allowed to ride dirtbikes, quads, and RZRs on the dunes. It looked like a ton of fun.
