Portalnd, Oregon and Lebanon, Oregon August 15 - 28

We're on our way to Portland, Oregon and you know you are close to Portalnd when you see the signature look of Mount Hood

We found an interesting road on the GPS!!  We were on our way to McMinnville, Oregon and what was shown as a road was actually a short ferry ride.

Why McMinnville?  It's the home of the Evergreen Museum.  Before we entered the museum how could we resist a photo with Mark and The Enterprise.  Well, it is a little smaller than starship enterprise.

We saw planes, planes and more planes.  Fascinating planes like this Strategic Reconnaissance Aircraft.  It can fly at 2200 miles per hour - that's mach 3+.  It is 107 feet long, but only 16 feet 6 inches in height.

It was amazing to see the real size of the buckets carried by planes to help put out the forest fires.

But, the big ticket item at the Evergreen Museum is the Spruce Goose.  Howard Hughes, at the age of 24 inherited $900,000 and 75% of Hughes Aviation.  He did get the Spruce Goose to fly but it never was used for anything but to be on display.  The wingspan is longer than a football field and it is actually made out of birch not spruce!!

 

After a full day of looking at planes, watching "The Age of Airplanes" and "Forces of Nature,", we were ready for happy hour!!  We rode into downtown McMinnville and lucked into the R. Stuart Bistro.  We had a wonderful cheese plate with onion marmalade and house baked crostini.  Add to that, house marinated olives and a few glasses of wine and you have the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

 

 

Before we left McMinnville I just had to capture this photo of Mark and Ben Franklin on the bench!

 

 

How could we stop in Portland and not make a trip out to Mt. Hood.  First stop for the day was at The Resort for a fun round of golf

 

 

To top off this day we took a drive up to Timberline Lodge for an up close view of Mt. Hood, walk a piece of the Pacific Crest Trail and enjoy dinner at the lodge.

 

 

We left Portland for a week in Lebanon, Oregon.  At Mallard Creek RV Park you paid an extra $100 for the week and could play all the golf you could play at the golf course adjacent to the property.  Somehow, I don't have any photos of the RV Park or the golf course, but I do have the winners sheet from the couples Friday Night golf tournament.  Bent and Jo were New Zealanders and loads of fun.  Sadly, three days later the pro shop and the restaurant burnt to the ground.

 

One last fun event before we head out, a trip out to Trysting Tree Golf Course in Corvallis, Oregon to play golf riding on golf boards.  The golf bag is strapped to the front and you lean to turn it.  Mark loved it and was frequently racing around the course.  Me, I had trouble getting enough of my weight shifted so my turns were far from "tight" but we had lots of fun!

 

 

While we were in Corvallis we headed downtown and found Big River restaurant.  Dinner was great and dessert was divine!

It's time to head out.  Next stop, a visit to our friends Rhoda and Pete in Sun River, Oregon.