Make Mine a Duff

There are lots of trees in Oregon. There's even one on the state's car number plate.

And Eugene is quite a funky place - non-conformist, anti-establishment and tie-died. Without (a) tattoos, (b) imaginative piercings, (c) interesting facial hair or (d) any kind of headwear, we feel decidedly square.

We were open to suggestions as to how to spend our day here. A fellow guest in our hostel mentioned a trail that led to the summit of Spencer Butte, a prominent hill. So that's where we headed, after buying the ingredients for a packed lunch from the local organic store. We found a beautiful spot on the way up to enjoy it.

The trail was longer than we imagined, and the last bit in particular was very steep. But, once at the summit, we were rewarded with spectacular 360 degree views of Oregon.

The real reason for our stopover at Eugene, however, was down to a conversation back in Los Angeles. We heard that there was a bar in Eugene that had provided the inspiration for Moe's Tavern in The Simpsons, and we knew we had to see it. The bar is called Max's Tavern, and we could definitely see some similarities.

They hadn't traded on the connection - it just seemed like a normal, working bar. Even better, it was clearly happy hour when we went in as the first round - a pint of Coke and a Budweiser - cost $2.50. We had to get the barman to repeat it as we couldn't quite believe it. We couldn't see any Duff on sale unfortunately.