road trip: go ducks! (eugene, or)

The last stop of our road trip (although we didn't know at the time it would be our last stop) was the University of Oregon season opener football game. The passion, pride, and insanity for U of O football in Oregon is almost parallel to Penn State football in Pennsylvania. The RVs are not quite as creative in Eugene and there aren't tailgate parties with full-fledged DJs in Eugene, but U of O is definitely my adopted team on the west coast. The students hadn't yet returned to school so we may not have gotten the absolutely authentic U of O gameday experience. Regardless, the energy in the parking lot and stadium is incredible. Devin went to a college that did not have a football team (go York!) so it was his first college football game. We decided that this would be his warm-up to a Penn State game next year. A bunch of friends from SF were at Eugene for the game. Our friend Jacquie's mom lives in Eugene so we had a great place to crash and amazing people to show us the U of O gameday ways. No better way to end a first first anniversary 10-day road trip than a warm sunny fall day, football festivities, and great friends.

Paul and Jacquie hooked us up with all the necessary duck equipment. We felt like rookies but we looked like pros!

Fun with chili and duck lips.

Brother Hugh, Sister Jacquie, and Cousin Bobby. Thanks for being such great Eugene ambassadors!

Devin decided it was time for his first tattoo.

Not only did Jacquie and Paul hook us up with duck gear, we also had sweet seats.

Megan is another U of O transfer fan...she went to school in Boston and shares Devin's nutmeg state history.

Hugh is practicing some newly learned sign language.

Dan the Rager. We both cheer for U of O, but dan went to Ohio State. Booo...

Our plan was to go to Lassen National Park after leaving Eugene on Sunday morning. We were 30 minutes from Lassen when we stopped for dinner. Our best option was Olive Garden. Certainly not a bad option (we scarfed down 2 bowls of that endless salad), but for some reason it was here that we decided we wanted to go home instead of camping. Maybe it was that we were only 3 hours from Oakland. Maybe it was that we didn't want to set up camp. Maybe it was that we wanted to have a monstrous meal of fresh vegetables and homemade food. Or maybe it was that we really missed our ridiculously cute dog. It doesn't matter. We had an amazing time and it was the perfect celebration of our first year of marriage.