Sunday, July 8, 2007

The Oregon Garden

Instead of blowing a bunch of money at all the clearance sales at Portland clothing stores this weekend, we decide to head south into the Willamette Valley. Bye, Portland!

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This is the town of Aurora, in Marion County (where marionberries are from).

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We're taking the long way to get to Silverton, home of the new Oregon Garden. We stop
and have lunch in Woodburn, an old logging town that's having a sort of Latino renaissance. The old downtown is now very Mexican.

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After lunch, I ask for "una paleta de coco" and snap this photo of the Virgin of Guadaloupe chatting up the Holy Infant of Prague.

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I finish my popsicle outside, where even the old town square looks like a Mexican zocalo. Nice.

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I lost count of the number of nurseries (and 7/7/07 weddings) we passed.

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This is Mt. Angel, an old German town.

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Here's where they have the tulip festival and Oktoberfest.

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We finally hit Silverton.

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The Oregon Garden.

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I didn't take that many photos because it's just too hot.

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Even the frogs look overheated.

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Cypress and basalt columns. I would like these in my backyard.

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This is what every park in Oregon looks like.

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The Oregon Garden is disappointing to me. I think it's too new -- just five years old. I'd like to see what it looks like 10 years from now.

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Things need more time to fill in.

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There's nothing here that I didn't see on the Beacon Hill Garden Tour.

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And that didn't cost $10.

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Unfortunately, we're too late to go inside the Gordon House down the street. This is the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in the Northwest, I think.

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It looks cool inside.

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They have a nice view. I love the Willamette Valley.

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So verdant!

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And bucolic.

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I'm not exactly sure what "bucolic" means, but I think this qualifies.

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It's kind of like Middle-earth out here.

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Good-bye, Shire!

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5 comments:

Michael 'Ooza' said...

Hey, I just met your brother Paul in a hotel bar here in Natick, MA. Apparently I live a few blocks from you right at the busy corner of 15th South and Spokane. He told me about you blog so I logged on to check it out. Great blog! I'm sure I'll be back. Your neigbor (sort of), Michael

JvA said...

Howdy, neighbor!

That's weird that you met my brother in a hotel bar outside Boston. My parents and I were just talking about that guy last night!

You live right by my husband's brother, who's at 15th and Hanford.

Are you on the northwest corner there? You either have to be there or the northeast corner.

I can't wait for work to start on lidding the Jefferson Park reservoirs! You're going to be right next to a magnificent park, hopefully soon.

chuck b. said...

Those cypress trees and basalt columns are amazing. That was definitely my favorite part, although the house even closed is a very close second.

We have one FLW building in San Francisco; a relatively small commercial space downtown that he did the same time he was doing the Guggenheim. It's a little bit like the Guggenheim actually.

JvA said...

I think we're going to start planting the backyard this fall. What do you think of cypress trees and Pacific wax myrtles?

Anonymous said...

I grew up near Boston, lived in Arizona and California, and now I'm moving up to Silverton this week! Thanks for sharing your great roadtrip pictures. They really do give one a good sense of the area. BTW: Your word choice of bucolic was dead on. :) Cheers...