Armitage Park

Nestled in a small clump of cedar trees, a short basalt pillar supports a brass plaque that notes the property for this park was donated to the state for use as a park by Slyvanus Armitage in honor of his parents, in 1938. No wonder the park hosts such amazing old big-leaf maple trees! Many standing now are mammoth moss covered beasts, and there are amazingly huge stumps of those that have been cut or fallen down down. The park is truly a small forest, and with the McKenzie River running along side it's a very peaceful place to hang out for a few days. We're here for four weekends, and one solid week, as we attend Duck games and get a few appointments taken care of.

Armitage Park is so convenient, and the sites are so spacious, that it works well for having friends over for BBQ's and taking Shiner for walks. So we've done plenty of both!

We celebrated our return to Eugene with dinner out at the newly redesigned Sixth Street Grill. Its right across the street from the new basketball arena, Matt Court, and just oozes Duck history. We've been fans of the restaurant ever since it was really on Sixth Street, through their incarnation as the Villard Street Pub, back to their original name.

The beautiful metal art panels that were in the original restaurant have found a home here along with a variety of Eugene's historic memorabilia. The neon Lou & Ev's Chicken restaurant sign, the Romania scoreboard, murals, uniforms, everywhere you look there are historic items. It's a great way to start a visit to Eugene, and the food's great too!

We've always enjoyed Armitage park's many amenities, and though we never needed the dog park (Molly wasn't particularly interested in romping with other dogs) Shiner is another story all together. The McKenzie was a favorite playground this time. Swimming at the boat ramp, or splashing in the puddles at the side of the river kept her pretty busy.

The river is quite low this year, so we had more shore and less water than usual, but the river still makes that lovely rushing sound that can be heard all over the campground. Though it's late in the season there were still a few stray wildflowers hiding in the water worn rocks.

Shiner thoroughly enjoys visiting and playing with other dogs, and wasn't the least bit phased by the Great Dane we met this week in the campground dog park.

Last week she romped with the wolf-Malamute hybrid staying in the adjoining site. Suki (the wolf-dog) is three years old, and a beautifully mannered, very settled dog. They played and wrestled all day, took breaks to supervise the campground, and just sat around and visited for the three days her owners were here, and I think Shiner really misses her company.

Armitage Park has become a regular home-away-from-home for us during football season. This year we're in site 17 for all four weekends. We've tried several different sites and are still searching for the perfect combination of sun, shade, TV access (they do have cable but we like to use our own system, and we gotta catch those games!)

We are taking a break from Armitage to visit Crater Lake with our kids, who are flying in for a visit, and I'll cover that in another post. We took them to a game too..... little Jax's first football game! He tolerated his hearing protectors quite well, and seemed to enjoy the excitement.

Last year (see that entry for campground info) we just missed the folks who write the Wheeling It blog, this time they were parked right across from us. We had a great time sharing notes on places we have been and  swapping ideas for future travels. They do great campground reviews, so check out their blog.

Armitage Park, our rig on the right

We've had beautiful weather for most of our time here. It did rain one morning, but one should expect that as fall approaches, and the seasons are definitely changing. Every day there is at least one flock of geese overhead, drifting south, as we will be doing soon!