After the balloons and a nap we were ready to head to our next stop, Sherwood Oregon.  A suburb of Portland that to our surprise has a great rural area.  There are lots of farms and winery’s.  We parked the RV at the Elks lodge overlooking a beautiful field and headed out.  I wanted to get out to the coast so Tillamook was our destination for the day.

Along the way we found some men from a halfway home that washed the car while we watched one of them drive a ladies beautiful Jaguar into a row of garbage cans!  Too funny, no one even noticed.  He parked the car, got out and proceeded to wash ours!  He never even looked to see if there was damage.

Lots of nice scenery of the Tillamook State Forest.  We made it to Cape Meares but is was really cloudy and cool so not really a beach day.  We did find a great little place for lunch , Brewin in the Wind, thanks to YELP.  Great fish taco’s and fish n chips but the most interesting thing on their menu was the soup of the day, a  peanut soup.  We had a sample and it looked like peanut butter so I wasn’t excited.  The taste was very Thai, like a peanut sauce.  It was good, I am not sure I needed a whole bowl of it.  The views of the beach were very nice.  After we took the short ride to Cape Meares where we walked out to the lighthouse.

Cape Meares

It had been a long day so when I wanted to stop at the Blue Heron Cheese Factory to ty their Brie Paul opted for a nap in the car!  Great little gift shop and wonderful cheese.  Back on the road, we headed north only to Nehalem Bay and headed back inland.  We hit an amazing rain showers and lightening.  Arriving back in Sherwood, it was clear and warm.

Sunday was a relaxing day, we headed out to some of the farms where I cut my own flowers, Paul bought corn from a unmanned stand,  we picked blackberries and bought some amazing peaches.

Farming

We stopped at one winery, Ponzi Winery.  The Pinot was good but the good stuff was $60 a bottle.  I had a glass of a $35 bottle for $12 which seemed expensive but the setting is amazing!

The tasting room is newer and very nice.  They had really plush outdoor furniture, the sun was out and we just sat for awhile enjoying the views.

A view from a farm in Sherwood

There is more!  We met our friends Keri & Gene from Vancouver Washington for dinner in town.  It is so nice to get to sit and enjoy an evening with friends.

This is what the sun coming up looks like!

We were up at 5:30 am waiting for the Balloons to arrive.  It was a little windy and we wondered if the balloons would lift off!

My favorite

The balloons were off and we were back in bed by 8:15 am!

Portland for the weekend, On the way we found  the Evergreen Airplane Museum in McMinnville Oregon where the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose resides.  A very nice museum with lots of planes and space exhibits.  The plan was to see the museum and then move closer to Portland however the museum was having a hot air balloon flight over the weekend and they allow RV’s to spend the night in the parking lot!  So we saw the museum including one of Pauls favorite planes,

SR-71 Blackbird

One of the world’s fastest aircraft, this high-altitude reconnaissance plane flew at the very limits of the earth’s atmosphere at speeds well over 2,000 miles per hour.

He even bought the souvenir shirt!

This is my favorite!

Or, maybe this one!

Landed!

The museum has 4 large buildings with this one being the indoor water park!  We didn’t venture over there as Oregon weather is a bit cool for us and indoor swimming just doesn’t make me excited!

The Spruce Goose,  No way can you photograph this one but that is a full size US flag flying above it!

After several hours walking among the planes we enjoyed a 3-D movie about the Universe.  The movie was very interesting and the glasses were pretty cool too!  Now it is time to relax!

Looks relaxing! Where is Denise?

We had the perfect spot with a nice view of the field where the Balloons were scheduled to fly from; we had a cocktail, some snacks and then the sprinkler system decided it was time to water the trees!  It wasn’t very green so I don’t think they water all that often we just got lucky!  The chair lying down is covering the rainbird so Paul can continue his Happy Hour!  Duke and I headed into the RV which was the only place out of the water and sun!

The water stopped after about an hour and a couple other RV’ers came by to chat and then the rain came!  Not very much, just enough to wet the ground and bring us a very nice rainbow!

Two!

Apparently a large population of Scandinavian people live in the Eugene/Junction City area because this festival was hopping on a Thursday evening.  The Junction City Scandiniavian Festival has lots of dancing, music and food.  Lots of people were dressed in Scandinavian clothing and you could even buy little vests or aprons so you too could get into the spirit.  We spent the evening enjoying everything Scandinavian!  We had these really fun little pancakes called  Aebleskiver, really tasty little pancake balls!

Aebleskiver!

These people were working their little tails off rolling these little pancakes until they were done.  They were served with some awesome Strawberry jelly.  We had Swedish meatballs with some rye breadsticks,  and swedish pancakes with some lingonberry jelly which tasted a bit like cranberries.  I was still looking for some real food!  We found the spot!  Meat Pies.

I hope the wait is worth it!

Wait! That was only 1/2 of the line!

Wow,  after waiting 20 minutes we were giving our order!  One pie is $7.50 and it didn’t look very big but we shared it and it was amazing.  A sour cream pastry filled with ground beef, cheddar cheese, onion, carrots, potatoes.  They were cooking them as fast as they could and it was pipping hot when we sat down to try it!  Not sure it was worth the 20 minute wait or the $7.50 but it was pretty good.

This is definitely an enjoyable time that was very unexpected.

We arrived in Port Orford Oregon to a gust of wind!  The locals tell you this is unusual but we have been here three times and it seems the same to me, hmm???  We still love it here.  The town is small and there isn’t a Walmart for 50 miles!  Yeah!  Of course Paul did have to visit it – he just can’t seem to not need something they have.  It was for a good cause though because our friends, Ed & Peggy needed an IPad and Paul is the guy to set it up!  Needed might be an exaggeration but they need to have more options for fun!  I also got a new Iphone 5 as my old, perfectly good Iphone 4 decided while in Port Orford that it would start deleting some of my contacts.  It did this before but we were not sure until I am calling my mom on her birthday it decides it will delete MOM right before my eyes!  That’s it!  I am ready for the upgrade.  I love my Iphone cause even with this new one all I had to do was get all those noises off that are default and it seems like my old phone.  There is no learning curve when you get the same phone and that is good for me.

We spent 4 wonderful days with our friends, eating, drinking, connecting technology and playing games but the road is calling and we left on Wednesday am, heading north.  We traveled along the Umpqua River which was beautiful.  When you travel these smaller highway’s I am always delighted with the names of towns along the way.  Here is one…

This is for real!

A cute little farm town right outside of Eugene.  We will be staying just north of Eugene in Junction City for the next couple of days while Paul fills all his customers heads with lots of very useful information.  I will be enjoying some quiet time for reading and sewing!

This is the life!

It just doesn’t matter what else is happening in your day when you look at this!

Paul came up with a great idea for my birthday which is this month, taking advantage of our current location and knowing I like a bit of adventure he made us a reservation to ride a Jet Boat on the Rogue River.   We had to be up at 6:30 am and drive our RV to the parking area where we would meet our tour that leaves at 8 am.  It was a beautiful sunny day but the temps were pretty cold for a boat ride.  They said dress in layers which I did!

These Jet boats can hold about 30 people and the ride is amazing.  We chose the ride that goes about 80 miles round trip with a stop for lunch upriver.  As we departed the dock we crossed under the Golds Beach Bridge with smiles and waves to Allison who would take our 5 x 7 photo for purchase at the end of the ride!

Wave to the camera!

I’ve got way too many pictures of bunches of happy vacationers and besides the photos I took on the trip are way more interesting.

The water was so calm early in the morning

As we traveled upriver Tim our tourboat operator stopped to point out lots of fun stuff.  We saw all kinds of birds, a couple seals, a river otter, Elk and some deer.

Oregon Fish and Game checking on the Salmon

Only a steelhead

Paul was fascinated by this process!  I was way more interested in the speed of the boat!  With the cool temperatures Tim took it easy on the morning portion of the trip.  We were very lucky and got to see a Bald Eagle chase off a mate while he enjoyed a nice Salmon dinner.

You can see the Salmon in the lower left

Standing on his prey and eating!

Our boat was about 30-40 feet!  away.  He was not afraid of us but he did keep an eye on us.  His mate was resting on the other bank.  Later up the river our guide found us another .

We were able to get within 20 feet of the bank where he was perched on a limb.

As we made it up river the smoke was thickening and visability was not good, but the temperatures were warming up and we got to do some fun stuff in the rapids!

Lots of smoke

cruising up the rapids!

We did lots of 360 degree spins on a dime of which most of the boat was splashed!  Racing through some of the rapids we were only in inches of water which was very exciting and the boat handled the current amazingly.  I really enjoyed the speed, the scenery and the wildlife.  A definite bucket list item.  I don’t want to check it off cause this is one that you could repeat and it would be a whole different experience next time!