Vacation to Oregon and Washington

My wife Joan and I are back from our wonderful whirlwind sixteen-day vacation to Oregon and Washington.  The main highlights were  McKenzie Bridge and Portland in Oregon, Seattle, Washington and Ashland, Oregon.

We spent four days in a cabin on the McKenzie River.  The hamlet of McKenzie Bridge is 46 miles east of Eugene up the McKenzie River in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.  It was four days of restful solitude in the midst of verdant greenery and running water.  We spent many hours just sitting on the porch of the cabin catching up on our reading and watching birds and the occasional river raft expedition go by.  We took a hike one day to nearby Sahalie Falls and Koosah Falls.

                                                                   Koosah Falls

Then it was on to Portland to stay with my dear friend from college, Jeff Deiss.  Joan went to the National Handbell Convention for four days while I chummed around with old friends.  One spectacular view was from the top of a hike up the Columbia River Gorge to a point called Angels Rest.  Here's the view facing west back toward Portland.

Columbia River

 

 

 

 

Next we drove the three hours up to Seattle to spend a couple of nights at my sister Toni's.  A highlight was Seattle's wonderful Arboretum and Japanese Garden. 

Japanese Garden

We also took a fascinating trip to the Museum of Flight at Boeing.  It included everything from the Wright Brothers to spacecraft.  We saw their early production facility, World War I and II planes and took a terrific tour of a B-17.  We ventured into the Space Shuttle's cargo bay and saw the Air Force One used from the presidencies from Kennedy to Nixon.

With Toni and Joan beneath a World War II B-17G Bomber

We then went south to Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  We got to see two plays, "The Taming of the Shrew" and a non-Shakespeare play called "Tenth Muse."  "Tenth Muse" starred Vivia Font, an actress my daughter Marie has worked with in San Diego.  Both plays were superb.  Unfortunately, wildfires near Grants Pass, Oregon, about 30 miles north of Ashland, had filled the air with so much smoke that the two plays we were gong to see in the outdoor Elizabethan Stage theater, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Heart of Robin Hood," were cancelled.  Toni is going to use the vouchers to go back to Ashland and see some more plays when she can get away again.

It was a wonderful trip and provided a great combination of quiet, sightseeing and time with old friends.  Soon enough we will return to the frenetic pace of being back at work, but will start refreshed and with fond memories to look back on.