Our first weekend in Corvallis was enhanced by visits from two different sets of friends. Salinda reconnected with an old high school friend, Laura Beckwith, who was down for the weekend visiting Corvallis with her husband Ulf. Laura and Ulf moved from Corvallis to Seattle last year, so they had plenty of great advice on fun things to do/see in the area. Salinda was treated to delicious French pasteries and coffee when she met Laura, Ulf and their friend Cory out for breakfast on Saturday. Later that afternoon, our friends Kelly and Jack drove down from Portland to stay with us for the night. Everyone met up around 4:30pm in downtown Corvallis to enjoy the Rhapsody Wine Festival - the deal was you bought a wine glass for $5, then walked around to all the local stores downtown (bookstores, clothing stores, bakeries, bike shops, etc...) to sample wines from local vineyards. It was a fun way to get to know the downtown-area shops and sample some of the Willamette Valley wines. What a treat for our first weekend i
n OR!On Sunday morning, Kelly, Jack, Nate and I drove up to Mary's
Peak - the highest mountain in the coastal range (between Corvallis and the Pacific Ocean), which happens to be
just a short drive out of town. We enjoyed hiking around for a couple of hours, watching for birds, discussing the various fir tree species that could be found there, and quizzing Kelly on the Cascade Range peaks we could see off in the distance.I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to the fact that mountains are now a part of everyday life!
