21 July 2024

 

Becky and Gibson woke up far too early on Monday morning and drove to Corvallis so Gibson could tour a couple of Oregon universities. Our first stop was Oregon State University. 

OSU has maintained high design standards since its beginning in 1868. The tree lined campus is filled with red brick buildings.

OSU is home to the Beavers, as shown on these door pulls.

While on campus, people can order food from dining services and pay a small fee to have the food delivered by robots like these. At lunch time we saw small groups of the robots crossing campus. We thought the robots were cute, friendly and very polite.

We walked off campus and got lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Gibson was a good sport to let Becky take his photo in front of these wings.

We enjoyed our day at OSU and learned a lot about the school, especially the College of Engineering. At the end of the day, we drove about an hour south to Eugene. We ate dinner at the very charming Fifth Street Market, This former poultry plant has been remodeled into a lovely space that feels like it belongs in a European country.

On Tuesday morning it was was a short drive from our hotel to the University of Oregon, home of the Ducks. By this point, Gibson had decided he doesn't like college tours, but he was still willing to pose for a photo.

This is a photo inside the very impressive palace of science (our name, not theirs).

The U of O campus also had a lot of trees. 

And also had beautiful historic red brick buildings.

A unique feature of the U of O is that it surrounds three sides of a pioneer cemetery. The cemetery was not part of the tour, but we could see a grey rectangle outlining the cemetery on the map of campus we were given. Becky dipped out of the tour for about 15 minutes to find the cemetery and take these photos. Gibson stayed with the tour and visited the student union building instead of the cemetery,

The cemetery was built in 1872, four years before the University of Oregon was founded in 1876. About 5,000 people are buried in the cemetery. As the U of O expanded and outgrew its original location, it tried to buy the cemetery and move the bodies. Three separate bills have been introduced in the Oregon legislature to condemn the property and remove the graves. Another time the university proposed an elevated building on cement pillars that would float above the cemetery.  In 1997, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places which ended any plans for the university to claim the land.

The guest bathroom in the Welcome Center was disturbingly positive. The other two walls were painted with the slogans "Way to Go!" and "You Did It!" Given the narrow range of activities one would expect in a guest bathroom, the murals seemed out of proportion to the space.

Currently the Willamette Valley temple is under construction about 10 minutes away from the U of O. We swung by the temple site before we drove home Tuesday afternoon.

A windstorm on Tuesday blew a tree over onto a power line which started a grass fire less than a mile from our house. The grass fire quickly spread to a trailer, igniting propane tanks that sent black smoke billowing into the sky, triggering memories of the terrible fires of 2020.

Fortunately, firefighters from several agencies responded quickly and extinguished the fire after it burned about 15 acres.

Unfortunately, a couple in our ward lived in the trailer. The couple and their dogs survived, but they lost everything they owned in the fire, a devastating loss.

Our stake held a Pioneer Day celebration on Saturday which included a pie baking contest. Becky and Brandan made a Mango/Key Lime pie Friday night.

Here is the completed pie. We didn't enter our piie in the contest since Brandan was one of the judges. We had a great evening visiting with friends and learning how to square dance.

Gibson went to the temple with Ed and Jason on Saturday morning.

Angel made the boys waffles for breakfast and then they played The Princess Bride board game.

Today was Ed's last day at church before he leaves on his mission to Chile. After a week of home MTC, he is ready and eager to go.