Keizer

Mayor Lore Christopher autographed our map at the OMA so the least I could do would be to pay a visit to her city and figure out something to include here that doesn't involve the totally NC-17 night I had there in '96 at the Wittenberg Inn.  Or the boring fact that half my paychecks during my first few years of college went straight to the used record shop on River Road.  I think it was called "Rocket Donuts" or "Bodacious Donuts" or something like that.  Definitely was about donuts.

Keizer has spent most of its Oregon life trying to outsmart Salem into not annexing it.  Indeed, Keizer didn't even become an actual incorporated city until 1982--relatively recently methinks.  And to this day the only way you can tell that you've left Salem and entered Keizer is by the blue signs indicating streets instead of the traditional green ones like in Salem.  You might remember Keizer from an interesting news story from a couple years back.  I think it's worth clicking on that link if you're in the mood for a chuckle.  

This afternoon on our way home from the Oregon 150 Weekend (yes, I'm a nerd and made a whole Oregony weekend out of the deal), we drove up Broadway to River to Chemawa, ignored all the "park closed" signs, and hopped the gate to Spong's Landing Park just outside Keizer city limits.  Like most cities in the Willamette Valley you don't have to go far from town to find a nice quiet spot.  It's too early for dragonflies but we saw a great blue heron looking for frogs down on the shore, and what may or may not have been a beaver.  It was probably a nutria, but I like to think it was a beaver.  And then, best of all, we saw at least a hundred geese following the Willamette from south to north--a true sign that winter might come to an end again this year.  

11 down, 231 to go.