Things to Do in Springfield

Veteran artisan Suzie Liles had already been a reputable figure in the fiber arts community for nearly 20 years—teaching, chairing conferences, and being active in several design and weaving guilds—when in March 2008 she and a partner decided to open Eugene Textile Center. An MFA in Fibers from the University of Oregon, Suzie channels her training, experience, and passion for all things woolly into making the center a craftsperson's paradise of name-brand supplies and instructional workshops in various forms of textile conjuring. Local hobbyists and professional fiber artists alike are able to rent spinning wheels and other equipment on a weekly or monthly basis. Suzie also welcomes visitors to weaving and surface-design studios, which are equipped with looms and a dye kitchen.

After suffering from a back injury, former dancer and athletic fitness guru Elise Moore discovered Pilates during her rehabilitation. Her love for the exercise form continued to flourish even after she felt better, inspiring her to open her own studio where she could put her Pilates certification and 20-plus years in the fitness industry to good use leading group mat and reformer classes.

The dungeon masters within Evolution Gaming's dragon-haunted walls lord over not only a board-, card-, and model-game depot, but also a stadium that hosts campaigns, tournaments, and one-off games. Miniature battlefields both urban and rural might be rolled over by Flames of War tanks and infantry, or invaded by the elves, orcs, and humans of Warhammer. Aspiring game masters can peruse several walls of rulebooks before stepping into alternate worlds or eras of the past such as in Founding Fathers.

Chase Adventure Outfitters’s guides chaperone whitewater rafters and fishermen across the McKenzie River’s swirling waters on quarter-, half-, and full-day trips. Guides customize each route to suit their passengers’ tastes, gliding rafts down gentle stretches or whipping them through rapids as intense as a shower taken under Niagara Falls. As a gentle breeze hits riders’ faces, they catch sights of lush foliage along the riverbanks as well as gamboling area wildlife.

Owned and operated by glass artists and collaborators Alejandro Hernandez and Ciara Cuddihy, Studio West houses a gallery of fine paintings and glasswork attached to a full glassblowing studio. The cream walls and bright lights of the gallery give way to the industrial metal and stony tile of the workshop, where artisans can be seen retrieving white-hot gobs of glass from the furnaces. These mounds of molten potential are regularly rolled and shaped into handmade trinkets and vases, which can be immediately smashed and melted, completing their life cycle. Visitors can experience the process for themselves during workshops, where they receive hands-on training from the glassworkers in how to bend the superheated silica to their will.

At Firs Bowl Lanes, brightly colored house bowling balls glide down 24 synthetic and wood lanes as automatic scoring systems prevent exaggeration-prone players from claiming to have bowled a 3,000. Anchoring the bowling center’s concourse, these lanes attract both league and open bowlers, who frequent special weekend events such as Friday Family Night and the neon-lit Kosmic Bowl. The center’s amenities include bumper lanes, a lottery, video games, and a diner-style snack bar where guests sit on low-slung barstools while enjoying food, beer, and other beverages.