The quaint yet bustling town of Ashland, Oregon (one of the 3 towns that I consider my home town) is known for many attractions. Its food, it's theater and its local businesses in the beautiful and historic down town area. I've enjoyed the city and have leisurely wondered around Ashland my whole life but it wasn't until I moved back to Ashland for college that I found a store on accident called "Funagains." It was a pure accident that I found it but I was one of the best accident as of late.
My friends and I were looking for a specific video game store and were having trouble finding it. So our strategy was to visit every store that even remotely could have been a video game store. The name "Funagains" caught our attention initially because it was something unique sounding. Also because it was a tiny store nestled behind other stores in a parking lot that seemed to have no business being there.
We had a hunch that it probably wasn't a video game shop, but we decided to give it a shot anyways due to curiosity and being board college students. Little did we know we were going to find a new hobby and tradition for all of us
We walked in and first saw the front half of the store which was absolutely filled with pristine and neatly organized board games. The ambiance of the store felt homely and inviting and we spent hours shopping for games that sounded interesting.
After purchasing a game or two between the three of us, we wandered into the back of the store and discovered a whole other half of the business that we didn't know existed. There my friends and I discovered three shelves, filled front and back with as many board games that were free for us to sit down and play in the diner like booths that had been set up adjacent to the shelves.
The first game we decided to play was a card game called "Exploding Kittens" (if you've never heard of this, it's a very fun and despite what it sounds like, it's an animal friendly game) and we ended up staying there for hours enjoying ourselves.
After my friends and I decided to leave, we all agreed to make a tradition out of our experience. We now go every Friday night to our own personal game night inviting anyone we can. Funagains is a welcoming, stress-free and inclusive environment that allows bonding and friendly competitiveness that allows for friendships to be made stronger and new friendships to be formed.
I wake up on Fridays now and instantly begin thinking "TGIF because I get to go to Funagains today!".
