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Aquariums

Given Oregon's proximity to the Pacific Ocean, it should come as no surprise to learn of the existence of a first-rate public aquarium. The Oregon Coast Aquarium, located in Newport, is home to more than 500 species of animals in both indoor and outdoor exhibits. The Aquarium is probably most well-known as the former home of Keiko, of Free Willy fame. The Hatfield Marine Science Center, also in Newport, has numerous activities available for visitors.

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Biking

Commuting/Road Biking: There are 122 miles of bike paths in and around Eugene and Springfield and more than a dozen annual bike races and events. Maps are available online for recreational rides, Eugene/Springfield city bike paths and lanes, and Eugene's Riverbank Trail System. There's a local club called GEARS, which leads rides most every weekend and some weekdays.

Mountain Biking: There are dozens of mountain biking trails in the region, with the largest concentration in the Oakridge area. The UO Outdoor Program publishes a Lane County Mountain Bike Ride Guide online. Local mountain biking events include the Cascade Cream Puff, which is a 100 mile mountain bike race held every June, and Mountain Bike Oregon, which is a 3 day festival in August. Finally, the UO Outdoor Program

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Camping

If you are planning to head to public parks and recreation areas, be sure to know what fees are required.

Oregon's beautiful National Forests provide a plethora of camping opportunities. The Umpqua National Forest is south of Eugene. The Siuslaw National Forest stretches along the Oregon Coast. The Willamette National Forest is east of Eugene.

Forty-four sites in the Willamette National Forest collect a $5 day use fee. You often cannot pay at the site: you must obtain a day pass ahead of time. You can purchase a day pass at G.I. Joe's (1030 Greenacres), online at www.naturenw.org, or by calling (800) 270-7504. Alternatively, you may purchase an Annual Northwest Forest Pass for $30 from the above-listed sources.

There are more than 50 parks with year-roung and seasonal campgrounds in the Oregon State Park system. Many campgrounds offer yurts in addition to traditional campsites. You can reserve directly or through www.reserveamerica.com. Reservations are accepted from two days to nine months in advance.

Twenty-four Oregon State Parks charge $3 day use fees, or you may purchase an annual pass for $25.

State and federal beaches on the Oregon Coast require a recreational pass. A five-day pass is $10 and an annual pass is $35.

The Lane County park system has 71 campsites at three campgrounds.

Many Lane County parks charge a $3 day use fee, or you may purchase an annual pass for $30. Passes may be purchased at G.I. Joe's (1030 Greenacres), REI (306 Lawrence Street), Pleasant Hill Feed & Farm Supply (35817 Highway 58, Pleasant Hill), the Lane County Parks office (90064 Coburg Road), or Lane County Public Works (3040 North Delta Highway).

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Camping by Location

• South of Eugene (including Umpqua National Forest, Calapooya Mountains)
• East of Eugene (including Cascade Mountains, McKenzie River region, Willamette National Forest)
• West of Eugene (including Oregon Coast, Siuslaw National Forest)

Crafting

The University of Oregon Craft Center, located at Erb Memorial Union on the main campus, offers a comprehensive arts program open to UO students, faculty and staff, as well as Eugene community members. The Center is both educational and recreational, encouraging all levels of interest, from beginning hobbyist to serious artist. With well-equipped studios and extensive workshops in most areas of the visual arts, the Center augments and compliments the educational opportunities available at the University of Oregon.

Foodies

If you love to cook - or if you simply love to eat - Eugene's bounty is remarkable. Oregon-grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs are available Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at the Lane County Farmers Market, comprised of nearly 160 growers and producers.

Eugene offers a variety of restaurants, coffee shops and bakeries. For those interested in visiting traditional Eugene cafés there are Café Yumm and Glenwood.

Eugene also offers a lot of places that specialize in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, such as Zenon (898 Pearl St.), with its amazing desert selection, and Café Soriah, which was recognized by Eugene Weekly as the best outdoor dining and the best romantic dinner spot.

Chao Pra Ya (580 Adams St.), Café Seoul (1930 Franklin Blvd.), Sakura (844 E 13th Ave.) and Lucky Noodle present a variety of Asian cuisines in town.

For traditional Italian food check out Mazzi's, Beppe and Gianni's Italian restaurant, and Ambrosia (174 East Broadway).

There are also many sophisticated restaurants in Eugene: Marche, a French restaurant, and Adam's Place.

Eugene's bakeries are: Metropol (2538 Willamette St.), Great Harvest Bakery and Eugene City Bakery (19th and Agate), which is only a five-minute walk from the Law School.

Lotus Garden (8th and Charnelton) is one of the few vegetarian restaurants in town.

Pizza places: Bene Gourmet Pizza and Pegasus Smokehouse Pizza.

Best Brews in Eugene: McMenamin's - restaurant and pub, Steelhead Brewery, Rennie's (12th & Kincaid), Max's (550 E 13th Ave.) and Taylor's (894 E 13th Ave).

Coffee places: Espresso Roma, Café Sienna (853 E 13th) and Studio 1 Café (19th & Agate).

There is also a Capella Market and Newman's Fish Market (1545 Willamette).

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Golfing

There are dozens of golf courses in the area. For a list, visit Golflink.com or Oregongolf.com.

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Group Events

The Univeristy of Oregon's Club Sports Program offers opportunities to participate in more than 40 sports, including soccer, baseball, lacrosse, and many more.

For the more casual competitor, University of Oregon Recreational Sports offers a wide variety of intramural sports at all skill levels. If you simply want to work out, the Student Recreation Center is a stone's throw from the School of Law.

Altair Ski and Sports Club offers indoor and outdoor activities for adults over 21, including skiing, hiking, walking, jogging, bowling, tennis, volleyball, golf, biking and softball.

The U of O Outdoor Program, headquartered at EMU, sponsors low-cost kayaking, skiing, hiking, camping, and other trips. The U of O Outdoor Pursuits Program offers a comprehensive selection of outdoor-related courses for academic credit.

Oregon River Sports hosts many free events and also rents and sells kayaks, canoes and rafts. They also offer kayaking, canoeing and rafting classes.

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Hiking

There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails in Lane County. For hiking routes and trail maps, visit REI at 306 Lawrence Street, which offers many books of hiking routes for Oregon and Washington. A local group, called the Obsidians, leads hikes and walks nearly every weekend. For more information, visit the Obsidians' Web page at www.obsidians.org, or see the group's signup board at the YMCA (20th and Hilyard). Additionally, Oregon Wild (formerly the Oregon Natural Resources Council) plans hikes throughout the spring and summer. For more information, visit www.oregonwild.org.

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Museums

There are numerous museums in the area. Here on campus, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art includes galleries featuring American, European, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese art. The Springfield Museum features fine arts exhibits, both contemporary and traditional. Finally, the Maude Kerns Art Center is a non-profit community center for the visual arts that offers exhibits, educational programs, artists' facilities, public events, and support for community artists.

Located near the Lane County Fairgrounds, the Lane County Historical Society & Museum houses historical collections dating from the 1840s to the present. Similarly, Eugene's Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House, a historic Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion, also features historical exhibits.

There are also museums of science and natural history in Eugene. The University's Museum of Natural and Cultural History holds collections related to the natural history and anthropology of Oregon and the broader world. The Oregon Air & Space Museum acquires and displays aircraft and artifacts depicting the history of aviation and space technology. For children, the Science Factory Children's Museum and Planetarium features a small collection of experimental exhibits, as well as a regular schedule of planetarium shows.

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Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is rugged, rocky, and stunningly beautiful. Things to do on the Coast include hiking, fishing, bicycling, kite-flying, and whale-watching, or visiting the many attractions including aquariums, art galleries, festivals, and lighthouses. A visit to the Coast should be at the top of any new Oregonian's "to do" list. For information about the Oregon Coast generally, see Visittheoregoncoast.com or Traveloregon.com.

Florence: The closest town to Eugene on the Oregon Coast is Florence. Attractions include beach access from the north and south jetties, hiking trails, Carl G. Washburn State Park, Heceta Head Lighthouse, the Sea Lion Caves, kayaking on the Siltcoos River, beach horseback rides, and surfing,

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area: The Oregon Dunes is the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes in North America, providing numerous recreational opportunities including OHV use, hiking, photography, fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, and camping. The Dunes begin just south of Florence and extend 40 miles down to Coos Bay.

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Performing Arts

Located right on campus at the Erb Memorial Union, the Cultural Forum is a student program board that presents a broad selection of music, performing arts, film, contemporary issues, and the visual arts. Also on campus, the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance presents regular performances at reasonable prices. Finally, the University Theatre mounts several productions each year.

Farther afield, Lane County offers opportunities to enjoy the performing arts far out of proportion to its size. The Hult Center for the Performing Arts, located in downtown Eugene, has eight performing arts resident companies. Those companies include the Eugene Ballet Company, the Eugene Concert Choir, the Eugene Opera, the Eugene Symphony, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Oregon Mozart Players, and the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts.

There are also several independent theater companies in the area. They include the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company, the Actors Cabaret, and the Very Little Theatre.

Live music aficionados will want to visit the historic McDonald Theatre in downtown Eugene, a live music concert hall and community center that has hosted such performers as Arlo Guthrie, The Wailers, Pink Martini, Ani DiFranco, the Blue Oyster Cult, Elvis Costello, and many others. Another popular live venue is the WOW ("Woodmen of the World") Hall at 8th and Skinner, an all-ages venue that hosts approximately 15 events a month, including such performers as Modest Mouse, The Gin Blossoms, Bob Mould, Thomas Mapfumo, Chuck Palahniuk, Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes, and more. During the summertime, live music lovers will want to attend shows at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, located at the edge of Alton Baker Park near Autzen Stadium.

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Public Gardens

There are four City-owned public gardens in Eugene. Ken Nielsen Gardens is located in Alton Baker Park, near the Ferry Street Bridge and the DeFazio Footbridge. It features a pond, plazas, sculptures, and an alpine rock garden. The Hendricks Park Rhododendron Garden, located close to the Law School, is world-renowned, and includes thousands of varieties of rhododendrons and other ornamental plants. The Owen Rose Garden is located on North Jefferson at the Willamette River, and includes 4,500 roses of more than 400 varieties. Scobert Gardens is a community-created park located at 1180 West Fourth Street.

In addition to the City-owned public gardens, Eugene also has a large arboretum at Mount Pisgah. The arboretum is 209 acres and has riverside trails, forest paths, a water garden, and wildflower meadows.

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Running

Welcome to Track Town USA! There are miles of running trails throughout Eugene and Springfield.

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Shopping

Eugene offers all the expected shopping amenities of a town its size, including the Valley River Center, a large shopping center, along with the smaller and more-local Fifth Street Public Market. Eugene's best-known shopping opportunity, however, is the Saturday Market, a 38-year-old weekly outdoor market featuring locally handcrafted goods and live music every Saturday from April until November.

The newly renovated Oakway Center also gives a great opportunity to find a diverse mix of local and national shops and eateries.

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Snowsports

Alpine skiing/snowboarding: Three ski resorts are accessible to downhill skiers and snowboarders coming from Eugene/Springfield. Willamette Pass is 70 miles east of Eugene on Highway 58, with 29 runs and 1,563 vertical feet. Hoodoo Mountain Resort is located 75 miles northeast of Eugene on Highway 126, with 806 skiable acres. Mount Bachelor is approximately 2 ˝ hours from Eugene on Highway 126, and features 3,683 acres with 71 runs and a maximum run length of 1.5 miles. For information about skiing in other parts of Oregon, including Mount Hood and Eastern Oregon, visit http://skioregon.org/.

Dog sledding: Mount Bachelor offers sled dog tours during the winter. Briars Patch Sled Dogs offers sled dog tours in the Klamath Falls area.

Heli-skiing: Located near Crater Lake, Cat Ski Mount Bailey offers heli-skiing during the winter months.

Nordic skiing: Cross country skiing can be enjoyed on many public lands in Oregon. Additionally, several ski resorts offer groomed Nordic trails. Willamette Pass has 20 kilometers of groomed and trackset Nordic trails. Hoodoo Mountain Resort has two Nordic trail systems for cross-country skiers of all levels. Mount Bachelor has one of the longest Nordic seasons in North America, running from mid-November through mid-April, and features 12 trails.

Sledding/tubing: Tubing is offered at all 3 ski resorts as well. Willamette Pass has a "tubing center" located at the west end of its main parking lot. Hoodoo Mountain Resort has a "tubing autobahn" serviced by a tow rope and featuring up to 16 runs. Mount Bachelor also has a tubing park; for more information, visit http://mtbachelor.com/winter/activities/snowblast_tubing_park/index.html.

Snowmobiling: There are dozens of groomed snowmobile trails in Oregon. To locate maps of local trails, visit the Oregon State Snowmobile Association's Web site at http://www.oregonsnow.org/map.html, or see http://www.traveloregon.com/.

Snowshoeing: Mount Bachelor offers free 90-minute interpretive tours, with snowshoes provided. There are also many snowshoeing opportunities available on public lands, such as Swampy Lakes Trail (Bend area). Also check out The Mountaineers' guide to snowshoeing in Oregon: Snowshoe Routes: Oregon, by Shea Anderson (The Mountaineers Books 2001, $16.95).

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Special Events

The Eugene area is home to numerous seasonal festivals and fairs. Lane Arts Council's First Friday ArtWalk is held every month of the year and highlights various arts and art attractions in the community. The yearly art-and-wine festival Art & The Vineyard takes place in Alton Baker Park and features artists, wineries, food, and entertainment.

Lane County also has a yearly fair, which includes live music, a carnival, and farm-related exhibits. The area's most famous fair, however, is the Oregon Country Fair, held each summer in nearby Veneta. The Fair, an annual three-day festival, offers live entertainment, hand-made crafts, and food, in a wooded setting with its own water and communication systems, security team, recycling service, and more.

The festivals do not end when summer is over. Early fall brings the Eugene Celebration, a weekend-long event featuring indoor and outdoor performances, food vendors, a marketplace, and a "community causeway" showcasing dozens of local non-profit groups. The Celebration's most famous (or infamous) event is the crowning of the "S.L.U.G. Queen" (S.L.U.G. stands for the "Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod). The Queen is a popular entrant in each year's Eugene Celebration Parade.

Other local festivals in the autumn, while the weather is less reliably rainy, include Fiesta Latina Oregon, an annual street fair celebrating Latino/a culture that is held in mid-autumn.

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Spectator Sports

The University of Oregon is home to one of the finest collegiate athletic programs in the nation, the Ducks. With each season, the Ducks build on a tradition of academic and athletic excellence. In fact, the last five years have seen the ducks capture Pacific-10 championships in football, men’s basketball, and men’s track. The success of Duck sports teams parallel the accomplishments of University of Oregon student athletes. Famous athletes, such as Olympian Steve Prefontaine (track), NFL stars Joey Harrington, Ahmad Rashad, and Dan Fouts, NBA stars Terrell Brandon, Frederick Jones, and Luke Ridnour, and recent WNBA signee Cathrine Kraayeveld, all were Ducks. And best of all, students are entitled to free admission to Ducks games.

Swimming

Swimming Pools: There are three City-operated swimming pools in Eugene. For kids, the Amazon Pool is a wonderland with multiple diving boards, water slides, fountains, and shallower pools for the littlest ones. Other local pools include the River Road Pool, the Stewart Aquatic Center, and a pool operated by the City of Springfield,

Hot Springs: Oregon has numerous hot springs scattered throughout the state.

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Wildlife

The Cascades Raptor Center is a nature center and wildlife hospital for birds of prey, located in Eugene at 32275 Fox Hollow Road. The Center houses more than 60 non-releasable bird of 33 native species, including hawks, owls, and eagles. The birds are housed in large outdoor aviaries.

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Wineries

There are 200 wineries in the Willamette Valley, 16 of which are located in Lane County. Many of these wineries host special weekend and holiday events, including barrel tastings, open houses, and live concerts.

Sylvan Ridge - one of the oldest and finest wineries in Lane county, King Estate - a family-run winery, which organizes various wine tasting events throughout the year and has an exclusive restaurant on the estate.

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