Road trip central. It’s been crazy around here. Let me explain. Wednesday, Jenny and I joined Tyler, Elizabeth, Ben, and his friend Sarah down in Newport for the yacht club’s weekly beer can race. “What’s a beer can race?” you might ask. It’s a casual regatta that yacht clubs typically organise to get people out sailing and enjoying the evening air. A member of the club leant Tyler a Catalina 25 for us to use, and we promptly came in last place. But, hey, it’s the experience that counts. The sailing was great, though. The wind was tearing up the place, the sun was shining bright. All in all, you couldn’t ask for a better day on the water. The course took us all over Yaquina bay.

After a great afternoon of sailing, Tyler and his folks put on a BBQ to die for. We dropped a crab pot before the race, and ended up with two wonderful pinchy creatures. Tyler had caught a salmon the day before. We also had halibut cheeks and oysters. It was sensational. So, thank you Tyler!

Jenny and I crashed at my folks’ place in Waldport (about 20mi south), which gave me an opportunity to see my parents and find out all the things I need to do. Yeah, it’s great going home, but there’s always a list, n’est-ce pas?

On Friday, my dream of going to the University of Oregon’s Pine Mountain Observatory finally came true. I took three astronomy courses this past year to help get my science credits out of the way, and I got kind of inspired about the stars, the cosmos, all that dreamy stuff. That inspiration was evident in my Info Hell project, which I never want to talk about again. Nuff said. So, I figured, as a treat for finishing the project, and for having taken all those courses, it would be good to actually get out to an observatory and see what all the fuss was about.

Jenny and I headed out Friday evening and made it to Pine Mountain, which lies about 30mi southeast of Bend. Arriving perfectly at dusk, which is when the tour begins, we headed up the hill to check it out. Through a 17in reflector telescope, we saw the moon in more detail than I can believe. We saw Jupiter with four of its moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede). Later that night, once the moon had sunk below the horizon, Andromeda was visible. We also saw several binary stars, and a nebula to boot. It was absolutely breath taking. On top of that, before the sun had fully set, Jenny and I were able to hike up to the very top of the mountain (a good 100 yards from the observatory, which is as far as I can handle) to see the sun shining its last rays on Mt’s. Bachelor, Washington, Jefferson, and Hood, as well as the Three Sisters, and Three-Fingered Jack. Absolutely stunning. We hail from a beautiful state. I had to get that line in there somewhere.

Anywho, we made it back to Eugene yesterday evening, after a fun and eventful trip. This week has been packed, to say the least, but I got a lot of things done that make a summer a truly great summer. I can now go to class on Monday content. I hope all of your weekends treated you well. Take care. More later, for sure.