Portland/Salem

I visited Willamette University today in Salem, OR. I’ve driven by Salem several times during my travels in Oregon, but I’ve never stopped in the state’s capitol city. I enjoyed some NPR on my way down – good liberal commentary J My visit was good. I had a table in their university center and saw a couple of students who passed by. Willamette is a beautiful campus – lots of green space and tons of trees! Gotta love Oregon!

On the way home I stopped at a Banana Republic Outlet and found some great items for work and a sweater for my husband. I’ve been avoiding buying clothes because my size has been changing, but these were items that will continue to fit even if I lose a little more. I’ve been working out while I have been traveling, but my eating has definitely not been as good as it was while I was at home. As long as I can maintain for the next 6 weeks, I’ll be happy and then once I return home I can resume the good work.

I arrived back at Alice and Nick’s to some wonderful smells. Alice was in the kitchen making a potato casserole with sliced potatoes and a wonderful homemade cheese sauce topped with breadcrumbs. She also made a fantastic fennel dip – based off of a recipe that my mom made a couple of years ago for Christmas. Except that she ended up changing just about everything in the recipe except for fennel and bacon. I think it is pretty difficult to screw up dip :) and this was no exception. Nick and Alice’s neighbors Shyler and Devin came to dinner along with their friends Joe and Becca. Devin is a chef at one of the wineries outside of Portland and contributed the chicken for the meal – DELICIOUS! It was incredible chicken to begin with, but was also topped with a fantastic homemade barbeque sauce. We enjoyed some great conversation, a wonderful meal, and lots of laughter.