Summer: Day 18

Since the kids are down in California doing Camp Aunty, Matt and I took advantage of a kid-free weekend and took a road trip.  We drove down to Oregon, stopped off in Eugene, Corvallis, Salem and Portland.  Pretty much the only four cities anyone really needs to know about in Oregon.  Ouch - that may have been too harsh.
Eugene is home to the mighty Oregon Ducks, a funky bustling little city with the university, a cool downtown vibe, and all the typical suburbia amenities nearby.  While, Corvallis is a mere hour or so away it has an entirely different vibe to it.  We loved it.  Right on the river, this town is small, adorable, clean, and farmy.  Well, the town doesn't have farms but it is surrounded by them.  It is an absolute gem in the middle of seemingly nowhere.  Home to the Oregon State Beavers, this college town was adorable and definitely on my list of potential places to visit again.  If one of the boys decides that agriculture, earth sciences, forestry or other farmy stuff is their cup o tea...OSU is where its at!
I don't have much to say about Salem.  It is pretty big and I haven't really had a chance to explore the downtown area much.  By the time we made it to Salem we were tired and embraced the awesome air-conditioned room and memory foam mattress of the Hampton Inn.
Next up....Portland!  We've been to Portland a handful of times and each time we see a different corner of this crazy eclectic town.  Portland is like 30 cities in one.  Each area is so vastly different and yet they are all within a few blocks of each other.  Our trip here this time was less about the city and more about soccer.
A month ago on our last getaway Matt and I went to a Sounders game against the Whitecaps in Vancouver.  We had so much fun as a Sounder supporter in a visiting stadium.  There was something electrifying about being a Sounder in enemy territory.  I think that fueled Matt's decision to join the ECS (Emerald City Supporters) club and buy tickets to the Sounders vs Timbers match in Portland.  Now this may not mean anything to people not conveniently located in the Great Pacific Northwest, but up here...this is rivalry at its finest.  The Sounders' have been huge rivals agains the Timbers for decades.  Any time these teams play, it may as well be a cup match.  It's serious.  Game on.
The ECS is the insanely rowdy supporters group that travels with the Sounders wherever they go.  They stand the entire 90 minutes, they chant the entire 90 minutes, they wave flags, they have a song for everything, and they bleed Sounders blue and green.
So it follows that we would join them and fight agains the Timber Army in Portland.
We arrive in Portland and are given instructions on where to meet to get into the match.  This strikes me as odd.  We have a ticket.  Why would I need a special secret meeting place to get in to the match?  There is fear in the hearts of Portlandia police that the sheer numbers and enthusiasm of the Sounders fans will cause a ruckus so we were corralled into a special Sounders tunnel in order to enter into the stadium.  Once inside the stadium there were barricades set up that define the Sounders section and security standing along the barricades to ensure no mixing of Sounders and Timbers fans take place. It was a little amusing.
The match begins, the chanting starts and a whole year of my ability to hear was deducted from my lifespan of hearing.  It was exciting and fun, and I needed a handful of Tylenol to recover from the headache.
The Sounders got destroyed.  It was heart breaking.
We made our way back to the car and back home....sad little Sounders fans turning a wild chant into more of a blues song "Build a bonfire,  build a bonfire put the Timbers on the top, throw the Whitecaps in the middle and burn the whole lot!"


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