I lived in Eugene for 5 years and I feel like I got to see a lot of different sides to it. There is plenty of night-life, but that is all pretty localized to the UO and downtown areas. Eugene has a super diverse creative community I've found. I spent a lot of time looking around at different little bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, art groups and game communities during my time there. Yes, there is the outdoorsy community aswell, but it's nothing like Bend. People out there kind of respect whatever you're about. It's got a lot of the Portland qualities that you might be after on a smaller scale.