Stop and Smell the Roses

      Every town has its "must see" things. The things that no self respecting tourist would miss. Things that a town might even be famous for, but sometimes, when we actually live in the town, we put off visiting those things. Last week I got to play tourist in my own town. My mom was visiting from California, so I gave her the nickle tour of Portland.

     Portland is known as "The City of Roses", and we have a large and famous rose garden. Despite the fact that I am a floral designer, I had never been there. I decided it was time for me to visit, so this was the first stop on our  Portland tour. The Rose Garden is HUGE! 10,000 plantings of 500 varieties of roses grow on a terraced hillside overlooking Portland. What a beautiful place to wander around and smell the roses.

    The Rose Garden also has a  Rose Store. If it looks like a rose, smells like a rose, or has a picture of a rose on it, you can find it at the Rose Store. The only thing you can't buy there is a real rose. No rose bushes or fresh cut roses for sale. Oh, and the penalty for cutting or harming roses in the garden: $500. (...or was it more? I can't remember.)

     Near the Rose Garden is the Japanese Garden. We walked up the hill to the gate, but we didn't want to pay to go inside and see it. We can do that next time. I did take a picture over the fence, though. 

                 



Lush and lovely looking Japanese Garden

                                                                                  
     Leaving the Rose Garden area, we drove past some beautiful hillside homes, and made our way up to Portland's most famous home, the Pittock Mansion.

     The Pittock Mansion was built in the early 1900's by Henry and Georgiana Pittock. Henry was the owner of The Oregonian, newspaper.

    

  The mansion sits up on a hill with a spectacular view of Portland and Mt. Hood. Mt. Hood is not visible in my pictures, due to all the haze from wildfires in the Oregon Cascades.



My mom having lunch with the best view in town.
                                                                                                                       





    

As far back as I can remember, my mom has enjoyed looking inside houses. It shouldn't have been any surprise to me when her curiosity to see what was inside this house was much stronger than her curiosity to see what was inside the Japanese Garden, and she paid for us to go inside and have a look around. Marble staircases, intricate wood floor patterns, and fancy moldings. A very beautiful and interesting tour.

     We spent the rest of the afternoon in downtown Portland, poking around in stores and looking at the local oddballs. We took a quick peek inside the "Elephants Delicatessen", where we ogled all the fancy meats, cheeses, and desserts. They had 19 different kinds of salami! I just had to take this picture. Yumm!

    

We saw quite a bit of Portland. I think we covered most of the "must sees". I can't believe it took me this long to see the Rose Garden. I will have to get back there before winter comes and the roses are all gone until next spring.

      

Getting Back to You...

     In an earlier post, I said I thought some old western movies were filmed at Smith Rock, but I'd have to get back to you on that. I looked it up, and here is what I found:

 Much of the 1994 film adaptation of the 1976 book Even Cowgirls Get The Blues was filmed within view of Smith Rock. Partial filming for the 1997 feature The Postman took place on location, while it additionally appeared in Swordfish in following years. Several westerns have been filmed here, including the John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn film Rooster Cogburn. The Rockhard building at the park entrance was built as a movie set for this film, portrayed as "Kates Saloon".

Pretty impressive. Having just watched the remake of "Rooster Cogburn", I think this is a good time to add the original to our Netflix list!

Anyone visiting Oregon, really should plan to spend a day at Smith Rock. It's beautiful! I never get tired of going there, and I'm an eager tour guide! (Even the worst photographer can't take a bad picture here.)






                      
                                        Billy, at Smith Rock 2009

**Note: I guess the movie we just saw was "True Grit", but the Rooster Cogburn Character was in it.

How to Pick a Ride

     Billy and I each own a copy of a very dog eared road atlas. Every time we return from a motorcycle ride, we get out our atlases and highlight the roads we traveled.  Of course, the Oregon page has more yellow than any other.

    
     There is also a page in the front of my atlas, where I have highlighted the states and provinces I have ridden.

     So how do we pick a place to ride? That's easy; go someplace that isn't yellow yet! That's exactly what we did on Friday. We had a beautiful day ahead of us, and the desire to go for a ride. We pulled out the dog eared atlases and found a road to the coast that was not yet yellow. Packed a few snacks, filled up the water bottles, and away we went.

     The road from Hillsboro to Yamhill is one we've traveled many times, but after that, it was uncharted territory. We turned west, and soon came to a fork in the road. In my mind, we should have taken the left fork, but we took the right, and came to a sign that said "Pavement Ends". Don't get me wrong, we love riding off pavement, but two logging trucks came out while we were getting our bearings, and we decided it wasn't a good choice.

     Back at the fork, we got back on the right track. The road was beautiful, with lots of good curves and twisties. We did encounter a gravel stretch. It wasn't long enough to qualify as an "off road" ride, but added a little excitement. Our road came out in the tiny town of Beaver, where we headed north, on Hwy 101, toward Tillamook.

     Being Labor Day weekend, we did encounter some holiday traffic on 101. We took an impromptu left turn, to get away from the crowd. This route took us along the coast, to this beautiful lookout.

     We followed the road to Netarts. We've seen signs pointing the way to Netarts many times, but have never been there. It's one of those places that you have to go to on purpose; it's not really on the way to anything. Since we were so close, and it has that great, funny name, we made a quick visit to Netarts. Not too much to report, just your average seaside town, but it's fun to say Netarts!

     Heading north, we thought we would stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, for a bathroom break and a few samples of cheese. Not a good idea. Everyone and their dog was there. Lots of people waiting in line for ice cream and cheese samples.

     Crowds are not our thing, and besides that, Tillamook stinks. I mean it REALLY stinks. I know it takes a lot of cows to make cheese, and I know cows are kind of smelly, but this is a "you fell face first into a fresh cow pie, and got some stuck in your nostrils" kind of stink. Time to head home.

     We headed back to Hillsboro on a road that Billy had ridden many times, but was not yet yellow in my book. He said it was fun, and he was right. Lots of curves and good views! When we arrived back in Hillsboro, we got out the highlighters. 200 miles and more yellow roads. Pretty good day!

The Most Fun Weekend You Can Have Without Riding A Motorcycle!

Clearly, any weekend is pretty good if it involves riding my motorcycle, but the "Lewis & Clark" Deschutes float weekend, was an awesome good time, and because I had to drive the truck full of "stuff", it didn't allow any motorcycle riding.

On Friday, before all the other guests arrived, Billy and I took Bodean and Sheila, to explore the lava tunnel. The tunnel is about a mile long, very very dark, and constantly 42 degrees. In some places it is narrow and in others quite cavernous.

                                                              Sheila entering the tunnel

                                                          Billy and Stacie in the lava tunnel

                                                            Stacie at the end of the tunnel

The only way out of the tunnel, is the way you came in! All the way to the end and back, takes about an hour
....and yes, it's quite chilly!

After we emerged from the darkness and warmed up a little, we crossed the highway, and went to the top of Lava Butte.

                                                          Always fun to cover up the "E"!

The view from the top of Lava Butte is spectacular. On a clear day, you can see for miles. In this picture, lava flows, forests, and Mt. Bachelor is just to the left of the tall tree.

                  Billy and Bodean. Kings of all they see? By the way, that's a lip balm in Billy's hand.

On Sunday, it was my job to drive Bodean and Sheila to Portland, and drop them off at their hotel near the airport. Since their flight wasn't until Monday morning, we had all day to do some more sight seeing.Our first stop was Smith Rock.

 Such a beautiful place. You really can't take a bad picture here. Smith Rock is popular with rock climbers and I've heard that some of the old westerns were filmed here....not sure which ones. I'll have to get back to you.

                                                           Another view of Smith Rock.

We drove historic Hwy 30 out of Troutdale. A very beautiful, but narrow and windy road.

The highway goes past this building, where you can park your car and see views like...

                           ...this. The Columbia River Gorge.

A few more miles down the road is Multnomah Falls.

     Always beautiful. Looks better with less people, though!

An all around, pretty great weekend! I'm so lucky to live in Oregon!

         

2011 "Lewis and Clark" Deschutes River Float

This was originally posted on facebook, but since I have a few dear friends, who will never ever be on facebook, (cough, Sharon, Gina, Theresa, Maria...) and therefore never ever see it, I decided it would make a good first blog entry.

                                      2011 "Lewis & Clark" Deschutes River Float group photo

The 2011 Deschutes River Float is in the books. Our theme this year was "Lewis and Clark". We had a few explorers, we had a few Indians, but mostly, we had a good time! We call it the Deschutes River Float, but it's a weekend long party, with food, friends, and good times!
This year, we had a  50/50 raffle. The winning ticket would get half the money, while the other half, would go to The Doernbecher's Childrens Hospital, in Portland. By Saturday evening, we had collected $180!

                                          Hailey Perkins draws the winning ticket

The winner of the 50/50 raffle was Sheila, who generously donated her winnings back to the Children! Billy said he would match it, for a total of $360 going to the Doernbecher's Childrens Hospital.

                                               Billy thanking Bodean for coming out to join us.

The prize for "Participant who came the farthest to be with us" went to Lloyd "Bodean" Wells. Bodean and Sheila, flew in from Kansas!

                                                       Billy with Graham and Briana Perkins.

Our second prize for "Participant who came the farthest to be with us" went to the Perkins family, from San Jose, CA.

Doug and Carol Swanson



The Prize for "Participant who came the farthest from within the Pacific Northwest" went to Doug and Carol Swanson, from Veneta, OR. (...and thanks Carol for the awesome Texas Sheet Cake! Delicious!)

                                                                   Kathy with her prize.

The prize for best costume went to Kathy Jones, who enthusiastically shopped for and designed, not only her costume, but also Jennifer's.





                                      Stacie, presenting Doug with the "Host's Choice Award".

Last year, float participant Shelly Stager, did a perfect and unplanned back flip off the back of her boat. It was a thing of beauty! All we could say was "Wow, we should have an award for that"! That is how the "Host's Choice Award" came about. This award can be given to anyone we want, for anything we think is prize worthy. This year's Host's Choice Award, went to Doug Swanson, who demonstrated exceptional bravery and quick canoe paddling, to almost save an almost drowning child. Luckily, it all ended well, but there was a moment!

                                                          Kitchen helpers, Kathy and Jennifer.

Special thanks to Kathy, for all the extra food! We really appreciate it! We already have a food list started for next year, with some great ideas. Did somebody say mimosas?

                                                             Chef Billy, cutting up tomatoes.

Chef Billy made his almost famous spaghetti on Friday night, and BBQ'd burgers and dogs on Saturday night.

                                                                         Grill Master!

                                                                    Enjoying the BBQ.
The highlight of our weekend: The Deschutes River Float. What a beautiful day day for a float down the river! (....and our costumes were a big hit too!)

                                                                     Kathy and Jennifer

                                               The Perkins Family: Hailey, Briana, & Graham.

                                                       Doug and Carol, in "The African Queen".

                                             Bodean and Sheila, row, row, rowing their boat.

                                                                     Scott, kickin' back.

                                                 Stan's pontoon boat. He's a fishing machine!

                                                                      Billy with braids.

                                                                    Billy without braids.

                                                                   Stacie with braids.

                                      'Cause we just needed one more look at Billy's costume!

As you can see, we had a wonderful time!  The theme next year is: THE 70'S! We have a year to work on our costumes, and the possibilities are endless.....Disco, Star Wars, Laugh In, Platform Shoes, Saturday Night Fever, Hippies, The Brady Bunch, Charlie's Angels, The Bicentennial, Animal House, Bell Bottoms........

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