OREGON!!!!!

I could live amongst the Redwoods in a tree house for the rest of my days and be very happy – I was drawing up plans and getting ready to begin construction but we had to sail on and head north – into the wet, wet, wet pacific northwest. 

Our first stop was Ashland – to see the amazingly talented Chinasa Ogbuagu in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of Lynn Nottage’s RUINED.

From left, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, Victoria Ward. Photo by Jenny Graham.

If for any reason people reading this can make their way out there to see it I highly recommend doing so.  It is such a wonderful play – heartbreaking and really important and the cast and design are excellent. 

We got to catch up with Chinasa afterwards and swap stories of our adventures.  I love Chinasa!   We forgot our camera so all we have is a photo with sean’s blackberry.

From Ashland we made our way up to Portland! The city of roses! Stumptown! 

Portland can be a tricky place – locals tend to be very friendly when they find you are from out of town and get you to admit how wonderful their city is  – but it’s a trap!  They will they tell you they want to keep it a secret and make you promise not to tell anyone if you think it is a great place.  So, I could tell you how wonderful I think Portland is – with all the amazing craftman homes on the east side.  How good the food is, how wonderful it is to have the amazing nature of the PNW all around you – but I can’t.  So that is that.  

We stayed with our friend Michael for a couple of nights and spent the days wandering around with the fabulous Rebecca Frost Mayer.  It was Rebecca’s birthday the Friday we were there so we got to treat the birthday girl all day! And the sun even came out for a little bit – but as quickly as it came out it went away and rained cold, cold rain on us. 

We saw Theatre Vertigo’s production of GOD’S EAR.  It was a great production of such a beautiful play, and Rebecca’s mother was the costume designer! (they were good!)

That weekend sean, Rebecca and I made our way up to the MT HOOD VILLAGE RV RESORT right on the outskirts of the Mt Hood National Forest.  We got a “rustic” cabin for the weekend (rustic is kind of a loose term – sure there was no kitchen or bathroom but there was heat and cable…)  This place is DA BOMB, as the kid’s say.  It was Easter weekend so we more or less had the place to ourselves – it also has a really good set up – the tent and cabin area is far from the RV area and it is full of trees.  I should also mention there is a pool, sauna and hot tub – and we made good use of that.

Our cabin was called the Snowflake Sleepover!

It was great to have a friend camping with us.  We made a yummy dinner and played scrabble and on Easter morning we went on a wonderful hike in the Mt Hood National Forest – we made an installation too.

Rebecca headed back to Portland and we spent another night relaxing in our secluded cabin (I think we were the only campers that night!) 

The next morning we met up with Michael and hiked up to the Bagby Hot Springs.   The mountain was covered in snow – and we soaked in the log tubs while it snowed on our heads.  It is a wonderful place!

That night we had dinner at Clyde Common and met up with our friend Erin at Bye and Bye for some beers.  Erin had just finished some home renovations and was kind of enough to let us crash for a night before we journeyed on to Seattle.

Oregon Coast!

We got an early start the next day and after breakfast with erin and some coffee from Random Order we were on our way.  We headed north to the Ecola State Park.  The hike was super muddy (and super fun) with such amazing views of the coast. 

We also went to the beach in Fort Stevens and saw the wreck of the Peter Iredale.  After a yummy lunch in Seaside we were on our way to Seattle.