Winter Weekend Getaway to Mount Hood

Trafton B.

January 16, 2011 - 3:36 PM

In my three and a half years at the University of Oregon I don't think I've ever set foot inside Knight Library before the fourth week of any quarter - unless of course my actual class is in there. It's not that I don't study during the first month of the term, it's just that I've never had so much work to do that I need the absolute silence and academically conducive environment of the library by then. Well, that all changed this week.

At the end of last quarter I agreed to write the report for the Salem Sustainable City Initiative that synthesized my classmates' research and analysis on bicycle and pedestrian transportation in downtown Salem. Sounds like a hoot, right? Well, actually it is really interesting reading about everyone's projects, but writing 30 pages and 11,000 words about GIS and transportation infrastructure can get really tiresome...really fast.

Needless to say I needed a break from academics - seriously, I had nightmares about organizing this paper - so this weekend I headed for Mount Hood to spend a couple nights at the Loftesness' Cabin in Government Camp with the McAllister crew.

It wasn't the typical adventure you'd associate with a weekend in Mount Hood, but, hey, I've never used the word ‘typical' to describe our group of friends. Friday night, after several incidents of missed turns and unsuccessfully driving through unplowed roads, everyone arrived in time for a late dinner and a collective desire to laze around the fireplace. We played card games and discussed things like how thankful we were for the long weekend and the Ducks' devastating loss last Monday.

Yesterday brought much of the same. A lazy morning with a late brunch and Toy Story 3, which I might add was my favorite movie of all three, and playing every board game from our childhood - Life, Stratego, Trouble, Duckopoly, Backgammon, Cribbage. Later that afternoon we strapped on our snow gear to spend some time sledding. It didn't last for too long for a couple reasons. First, it was pouring down rain all day, which consequently meant that our sledding hill felt more like a luge track. It was all fun and games until Kate's wayward tube launched her into a Douglas fir tree, and that was before Randy brought out the shovel to build a jump. Thankfully, yet surprisingly, we left the hill yesterday will only a few minor bumps and bruises.

Saturday night we enjoyed another few hours playing games in the living room while watching the Packers blow out the Ravens much to the delight of both Lydia and Steven. Later we checked out the local nightlife scene in Rhododendron, Oregon where we quickly discovered that we stuck out life sore thumbs against the regular crowd of townies.

Now I'm halfway home driving south on I-5 with Dana, Boo, and Winston. My conscience is telling me I should probably get some reading done tonight, but I might have to heed the advice of my Geography professor, Peter Walker, who says he lives by the motto of "Why do something today when I could put it off until tomorrow?" Sure do love three-day weekends!

Once again thank you to Randy and Sue Loftesness for welcoming us into their home. As always we appreciate your hospitality from the bottom of our hearts and hopefully we didn't trash the place too badly. The more I look back on my college experience, the more I realize how much of a role each of our parents plays in our McAllister friendship. Thank you, thank you, thank you.