Day 17: Second day in Willamette Valley, OR; lunch in Portland; on to Spokane, WA

Miles driven to-date: 5,249
States visited to-date: 18


We dragged ourselves out of bed to squeeze in a quick run (all of this food and wine has padded our middles just a bit!). It was a beautiful morning and it was amazing to run among the grapevines but we struggled on the many hills near the B&B. Luckily, we returned just in time for the homemade breakfast. Joan, our hostess, was clearly a master chef because the food was unforgettable. The fertile land in the area produces wonderful berries and my favorite part was raspberries and blackberries smothered with heavy whipping cream. South Beach diet, here we come . . .

We ran up this road during our morning jog (notice the flowers!)

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to our gorgeous bed and breakfast, but once again we vowed to come back. It was just the most relaxing place.

Wanting to spend as much time as possible in this great area, we went to a few more wineries for tastings before heading out of town. Most of the local establishments were featured in a handy “Guide to Willamette Valley Wineries” which contained maps and notes about each place. The guide did not, however, mention how much the tastings cost and we arrived at one vineyard to learn it was $15 (per person!) to sample their four or five wines. We didn’t stay there long as we had agreed that $10 per tasting was our limit. Fortunately, many other places fell within our price range and we tried some great wines at White Rose, Lange, and Ponzi.

The tasting room at White Rose was decorated like a barn but had the nicest, most eclectic furniture.

Steve was tuckered out from lifting his glass at White Rose, so he relaxed outside (clutching his souvenir bottle of pinot for dear life).

I liked this sign at the Lange winery.

We caught several glimpses of Mount Hood in the distance (though it didn’t come out very well in the photos, like the one above). We heard from several people that you can ski there year-round, and it’s only a little over an hour outside of Portland.

Our last winery was in nearby Beaverton, Oregon which may sound familiar to some of you because it’s home to the headquarters of Nike. I had read about the company’s amazing facilities but we wanted to see the place for ourselves. We were incredibly impressed, and have both decided to work there after school (easier said than done, I know . . . ). A friendly employee told us that all of the buildings are named after Nike-sponsored athletes (Mia Hamm, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, etc.). Here’s a picture of the small part of “campus” we were able to see:

By the way, before tearing ourselves away from Willamette Valley we got the van’s oil changed. I’m sure my parents are relieved to read that! :)

Given our newfound love for Oregon, we were excited to move on to see Portland for the first time. We drove through the city and thought it was really nice – smaller and more manageable than Boston and again we noticed many beautiful plants and trees. The city is bordered by the Willamette River and Steve had read that people actually kayak to work (we kept thinking of you, Rusty!). For a late lunch we stopped at another branch of the McMenamins family. This restaurant / hotel/ brewery used to be an elementary school but was since converted into a really cool place. The owners kept many of the features of the school (for example, some of the hotel rooms have chalkboards in them, and one of the bars is called the detention room). You can see from this picture that the outside still resembles a school:

In spite of a power failure during our meal, we enjoyed their beer sampler and tater tots (we just had to order them given the educational setting). The sampler was served on a plastic cafeteria tray! Hitting the road again, we realized we’ve gone as far west as we plan to during this trip which was sort of a startling thought. As much as we try to enjoy every moment, in some ways it is flying by!

The drive out of Portland was – once again – just beautiful. We paralleled the Columbia River and watched the sun set over some large rolling hills. We drove into our 18^th state late in the evening and stayed at a Fairfield Inn in Spokane, Washington. We head to Glacier National Park for three days so will not likely have internet access until after that part of the trip. Then we’re moving on to Yellowstone so will have another blog drought, but promise to update the site as soon as we can. We appreciate your comments and love knowing that you’re following along. Hope you are all well!