Scandi Fest!!! It's almost Scandi Fest time! Raise your hand if you are so excited that you can just hardly stand it!! 

Reasons why the Scandi Fest is the best:
1. It's free.
2. There are vikings.
3. One word: Aebelskivers.
What more could you possibly need? 

The Junction City Scandinavian Festival is celebrating it's 55th year, and it is such a great family event. This year it is August 6-9. The festival celebrates Scandinavian heritage - Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Don't worry - you don't have to be Scandinavian to enjoy this. If you like yummy food, entertaining performances, and beautiful costumes, you'll have a blast. Here's how it works: Junction City closes down traffic on a few streets. These streets fill up with vendors selling food and crafts. There are three stages with all sorts of demonstrations and performances. It is awesome. 

Tips:

• The festival is free, but I promise you won't be able to leave without buying food. Take cash. There's only one ATM nearby, and there's always a huge line.
  
• We usually go in the evening, because that's when my husband is home. Clearly that's how lots of other people do it too, because it is always SLAMMED. If you can, check it out during the day. I bet it would be way easier to navigate. This year I'm planning on taking the boys early in the morning, and hitting the breakfast buffet. Kids ages five and under eat free, and adults are $7. I'm hoping that we can get a wide sampling of food and skip standing in several lines at the booths. 
  
• I love how the festival is laid out: it's laid out over a few city blocks, which means it's a pretty straight shot to walk up one side, back down the other, and feel sure that you saw most everything.
  
• There are lots of parking lots where you can pay to park, but we have never had a problem finding free spots on the street.
  
• If you see the aebleskiver booth without a giant line, go buy some right that second. That line gets out of control super fast.
  
• Once you get food, there aren't really a ton of places to sit and eat. Take your food off of the main street (the one with the windmill in the center) and head to one of the side blocks. There are several small areas with picnic tables, but you have to look for them. 
  
• Go sit at the main stage (it's the one with the bleachers) and check out some of the dancing. It's pretty impressive! 
  
• Be sure to take water bottles from home, unless you want to pay a buck or two for a bottle from a vendor. 
  
• Even when we've visited the festival at it's busiest, it's been okay to take a stroller. You'd probably be able to move faster without one, but who wants to be in a hurry at a festival? 
  

The Essentials
Parking: Plenty, both free and paid
Cost: Free!
Food: So much food. 
Restrooms: There are several portapotties scattered around, as well as some flush toilets in some of the buildings.
Resting/Nursing spots: Behind the vendor booths/in front of the buildings, there are some benches. There are picnic tables scattered around as well. 
Push or Wear: Either one works. 
Time Frame: At least an hour.

The Details
Where: Junction City, about 15 miles north of Eugene on Highway 99. Once you drive in to Junction City you can't miss it, but specifically it's centered around 6th & Juniper with many blocks shooting off from there.
When: Thursday, August 6 - Sunday, August 9, 10am-10pm every day.
click here for specific hours & schedule of events. Each day has a different theme & it's just so fun!
How Much: Free entry, free dancing, performances & demonstrations. The meat pies & Fri-joes will cost you (but they're so worth it!).

Happy Adventuring! 

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Megan Defferding is the mom to two super fun boys who love to find great stuff to do all around Lane County! Check out her blog series, Happy Adventuring, weekly on GoMomGo.

Summer is officially in its hey-day for me once I’ve had the chance to visit a farm and pick my own berries. I’ve been known to drag my kids to a U-Pick farm every weekend through August and September, and here are two of our favorite spots so far:

Stillpoint Farms
86915 Territorial Hwy, Veneta
Monday-Saturday, 10am-5am – open seasonally

If you can find a farm recently acquired by a couple of visionary millenials, I highly encourage you to visit! Upon arrival the young farmers, Zac and Katie, gave a warm welcome then jumped right into hospitality mode. Katie delivered a personal rundown of the farm and toured us around the wooden storefront they recently built which boasts flats of picked berries, farm fresh eggs, homemade soap, and local honey. Zac handed us each a bucket fitted with ropes so we could enjoy the freedom of two-handed berry plucking, then tipped us off to what’s prime for harvest. 

We quickly gathered three pounds of blueberries in our buckets – quite a feat amidst all the sampling going on. Berry bushes that are peak for picking are marked with reflective ribbon each morning. 

Stillpoint is starting to grow various produce in their greenhouse (ask them about it), but for U-Pick berries count on strawberries in May, blueberries and raspberries in July, and culminating with all three berries in August and September. Blackberries are now ready too. Prices are very reasonable.

And yes, all their produce is Certified Naturally Grown – which is an “organic” certification that small, local farmers earn through a co-op of farmers across the U.S. In other words, no pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers ever used!
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Detering Orchards
30946 Wyatt Drive, Harrisburg
Check website for events and seasonal hours

I had no idea one could pick fresh peaches in Oregon. But, I got to do this at Peach Daze (August 1-3, 2014) at Detering Orchards, and it was a quintessential orchard experience.

While we were there primarily to harvest the peaches (only $1.25/lb), there was also a Vintage Festival with vendors selling all sorts of Pinterest-y treasures. We also sampled the farm’s fresh pressed cold apple cider and perused their farm stand store for locally made snacks and goods as well as all kinds of produce that they grow on their farm. One farmer took us on a 30-minute hay ride and in that time we only covered small portion of their vast farmland. He plucked a couple of ripe peaches for us from the trees as we tractor-ed on through the orchard rows.

I will be returning for Apple Daze which occurs every weekend in October. So much goes on and grows at Detering Orchards, so visit their website to figure out when you’d like to visit.

I know we all have our own U-Pick farm near and dear to our hearts, so please comment and share your favorite place in Lane County...especially if any farm is still doing raspberries!

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Christy Rice is a mom to two great boys. They love to explore all that Lane County has to offer & share their adventures with GoMomGo.

Thistledown is a diversified fruit, vegetable and flower operation. They are committed to minimizing chemicals and sprays and all seeds are non-GMO. The nursery at Thistledown is extensive and lovely, and I will return when new plants are on my shopping list. They also have a market offering local products and wine.

And, yes, it's a good place to bring the kids -- especially piggy-backed on a trip to Lone Pine which is just a mile south. One of my favorite things about Thistledown is the idyllic photo opportunities...think rusted-out trucks, split rail fences, a deep red barn, a water wheel, a covered bridge, stables with donkeys and horses, bunnies, chickens,
and a goat pen. My kids spent nearly an hour in the hay maze with tunnel slides.

Thistledown Farms,  Junction City
open daily May-October, 9am-5:30pm

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Christy Rice is a mom to two great boys. They love to explore all that Lane County has to offer & share their adventures with GoMomGo.

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?” 
–Thornton Wilder, Our Town

This question often lurks in mind as I go about the dailies of being a stay-at-home mom. The other day while on a walk with my boys, my 4 year old trotted ahead on his bike and I noticed him pause at a muddy ball field. He soon ventured out, squealing with delight as the wheels slid effortlessly through the grass, spraying him with mud. He begged, “Please mom, can we stay?!” And I had to physically stop my instinctual response (“No, we’re going!”) and ask myself if this was a Thornton moment worth missing.

But I have found one setting that allows me to effortlessly “realize life” while I am in it, and it never fails: the farm. I rarely am turned down if I invite a friend to join us. Being close to the primitive sources of life is absolutely cathartic. 

While I knew Eugene well as a college student, I left in 2005 for a job. I have recently returned, and am rediscovering my city through a mother’s eyes. The one thing I know is that we would be amiss to only haul our kids out to the farm for pumpkins in the fall. It’s June; the strawberries are ready! So over the summer, my kids and I will visit different farms and will commit to learn the various ways we can partner with the food-to-table movement deepening throughout Lane County.

Lone Pine Farms, Junction City. open daily May-October, 9am-7pm

Lone Pine is a farm stand that offers produce and products from Northwest farmers and vendors at a very reasonable price. You can shop their market, pick from their seasonal crops (currently there are no-spray strawberries and flowers), visit farm animals, and enjoy the many opportunities to play with your kids.

Humm Kombucha, Cafeto Organic coffee, and Breadfarm baked goods are among their local offerings. They also have the best prices on handmade Ghana baskets I have ever seen. Make time to relish a treat while you’re there: Umpqua ice cream, homemade pie, or our family’s favorite, a huckleberry cream cheese cinnamon roll. 

There is lots to discover with young children at Lone Pine on any given day: an updated, fenced play area, an outdoor picnic area, a gold panning adventure (extra fee), goat feeding (costs a quarter per bucketful of feed, although resourceful kiddos scrounge through the gravel for pieces of dropped feed), and saying “hello” to the sheep, chicken and their babies.

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Christy Rice is a mom to two great boys. They love to explore all that Lane County has to offer & will be sharing their adventures with GoMomGo! Hooray!