Eugene, OR. Places to visit

[Doug Littlejohn]

for old tools??

I am going to be up there the first half of Sept and am looking for any decent places to look at (or buy??) Galootish stuf??

Anybody know of any good places to visit in the area??

TIA,
Sherwood

[Ken Fitzgerald]

One of the prettriest drives in the N/W used to be along the McKensie River to Santiam Pass just west of Sisters Oregon.

[Doug Shepard]

I lived in Eugene 20+ yrs ago for about 4 years and loved the place. It's a gorgeous area. I wasn't much into WW at the time so I can't recommend a specific place, but if they still have the Saturday morning open air market there's lots of craft and food booths there and it wouldn't surprise me if someone is selling tools there. It used to be right downtown roughly near where the convention center now sits (they were just starting that project when I moved, so I'm not sure how much that area got altered). IIRC most of the lumber mill type businesses were more on the Springfield side of the river so you might find more WW type stuff there than Eugene.

If you're looking for just plain pretty or fun places to go, here's a few that come to mind:
The Rose Gardens - they're just slightly north of downtown on the south side of the river (Williamette)
Rent a bike if you can. At least when I lived there, they had more miles of bike paths and bike lanes on roads than any other city in America. It's often quicker to get to some place by bike than by car due to shortcuts on some of the bike paths.
You'll also only be an hours drive from the coast. There's lots of nice beaches out by Florence.

Enjoy - I envy you.

[Roger Bell]

Go here:

http://www.garymkatz.com/OnTheRoad/HullOaks.htm

to see a slide show of the last steam powered sawmill. If that interests you, it is not too far from Eugene, in Monroe, OR. Go to Google Maps, etc.

This is a real-life working industrial operation....not a museum, "interpreted" living history, etc.. Call ahead and see what the deal is on tours. They have them regularly.

If you want to do the Coast, go west to Florence then north on 101. Between Florence and Newport (about fifty miles) is an exceptionally nice segment of the Oregon coast including Cape Perpetua and a vintage Lighthouse. If you want to spend the night, choose something in or near the village of Yachats rather than in the cities of Florence or Newport. There is some neat stuff in Newport....a nice aquarium, for one. You probably already know that the ocean water is cold.

[Doug Shepard]

...
If you want to do the Coast, go west to Florence then north on 101. Between Florence and Newport (about fifty miles) is an exceptionally nice segment of the Oregon coast including Cape Perpetua and a vintage Lighthouse....

That reminds me - Newport is also worth a visit. It's easily the stinkiest place I've ever been but has some of the best clam chowder I've ever had. If you can get over the dead fish smell (you'll get used to it in 20-30 mins) there are a few restaraunts right across from the dock areas with huge bowls of fresh clam chowder for pretty cheap.

[Mike Leigh]

We lived in Eugene 8 years ago, until we got smart moved to Portland area.
Eugene is great place to visit, but we found it a little too sterile for us. It's a great college town if you like greeners and treehuggers and if you are into new age occult and wiccan candles. The scenery is great, and we used to like the duck races under the bridge. We went to the Polish fest in Springfield (Springfield is worse as far as rolling up the sidewalks at dark) it was great.
Visit Eugene, aye, live in Eugene, nay.