Our first adventure is a visit to Silverton for a stop at Creekside Grill and Oregon Garden. We see a lot of murals as we cross the Country, but this one was just amazing!!
First stop, lunch at Creekside Grill. We just had to try the Zombies Fries. Actually, they are fries made from portabella mushrooms. They are stacked in the cup and they were amazing!! We added the tiki shrimp and the caprese flat bread appetizers. We topped lunch off with a marionberry crunch with vanilla ice cream for a unique and amazing lunch!!
After the great lunch, its off to Oregon Garden. In 1995, Silverton was selected to be the site of the Oregon Garden. The EPA was threatening to fine the City of Silverton $10,000 a day because their treated water was coming into the system too hot. Acting very wisely, the City of Silverton included, in the agreement for the garden, the development of a wetland system to recycle the city's treated wastewater. The Oregon Garden is not like a typical botanical garden. It is more focused on creating something to help Oregonians and other visitors landscape their home gardens.
Made up of 23 unique gardens, Oregon Garden now covers 80 acres including the wetlands.
The sensory garden was actually created for people who are blind. You can touch, feel and smell the different plants that make up this garden. Sighted children and adults love it as well. A good example is the peanut butter tree. When rubbed on your hand it smells like peanut butter.
The beauty of this garden is that they also show some unique plants and trees like this conifer called a Snow Sprite.
They even had a Medicinal Garden with information signs as to what each plant was used, or can still be used, to cure!
They had some beautiful sculptures like these. The one in the upper right is called "Birds and Waves."
Naturally, there was a beautiful water display!
And, so many unusual and beautiful things to see!!
Always looking for something different we tried out the tasting room at the Willamette Creamery.
We tasted tons of cheese and bought three different kinds because we could not decide!! We then explored the nearby cities of Dallas and Independence. I don't know if Dallas has anything to do with Texas, but Independence was named after Independence, Missouri (a town close by to where we lived before we started our RV adventure)!! We found a fun Italian restaurant and enjoyed an antipasto appetizer and some wine. We found a fun chocolate shop and bought some almond dark chocolate. What a fun day!!
In typical RV fashion, you never know who you will connect with as you visit different cities. Mentioned our stop in Salem in a blog update, and received a wonderful invitation for dinner from a friend from when I lived in Oregon. We met Dixie at a restaurant in Wilsonville.
After lunch Dixie invited us to see her beautiful home, vineyard, barn and view of Mt Hood from her living room. We even enjoyed some home made grape juice from her pinot grigio grapes. She sent us home with a bottle of wine!! Its always great to catch up with friends!!
Just have to share one strange food experience from this stop. We finished golf at Santiam golf course and went to dinner at the Wooden Nickel in Sublimity. We just had to try the deep fried Avocado!! Interesting but would not order it again!!
There are loads of flower farms in the area: Tulip, Peony and Iris gardens. The Iris were in bloom so we headed out to the Schreiner's Iris Garden.
In the Salem area, the Iris bloom from May 11 - 22nd so we hit this garden at the perfect time!! There are just rows and rows of all different types of stunning Iris.
They even had an Iris that our friend Danielle (who loves bumble bees) would love!!
So many beautiful things to see - what an experience!!
On our last evening in Salem we went to see the Off Broadway show "Shout!" It was shown at the Historic Grand Theater in downtown Salem. The show was about women in the 60s depicted through the popular songs of the 60's. Such a shock as to how the songs we knew portrayed women at that time!! Lots of familiar tunes and multi-talented actors made for a great evening!
That's it for Salem, Oregon. We are moving on to Castle Rock, Washington.
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