Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

After leaving the Oregon gardens, enjoying another fantastic complimentary breakfast, unfortunately those delicious potatoes weren’t being served that day. (I’ll show you how to make my potatoes and eggs again Thuy).

on the way to Portland we drove through the neighborhood of Silverton, where the gardens are located. Then to the charming little town. I found this store that I could have spent so much time and money in, but I kept my head on and walked out empty handed, but with many cool ideas instead.

Silverton is known for its murals displayed all over town. The one above is honoring a doctor while a lot are displaying the history of the town. But the one I wanted to see again was the one below.

I have posted this on the blog before, Norman Rockwell’s famous paintings reproduced as a mural in Silverton. It was one time we were here in August 2014. I felt compelled to post it again. It’s more important than ever to believe in these four freedoms. And of course I love Norman Rockwell’s work so this one especially spoke to me before and then again this trip. Does it speak to you?

It’s a rough time right now, but we’ve made it through those rough and tragic times before, and we can make it through again…can’t we?…will we?…let’s all believe we can and will.

It was a nice day as we headed towards Portland. We love traveling back roads, we especially enjoyed it in the coach. You could stop anywhere and have lunch, a potty break, take pictures, a nap, all comfortably.

We always stop for horses, this time they were too far away. So we stopped to see some sheep, they weren’t very interested in us as horses are. One sure kept his eye on us though. The lookout I guess.

Another time it was to take a picture of this strange plant. It was growing everywhere, miles and miles of it. Some of them were much taller, all growing on poles.

Google lens told me it was hops, the flowers(google photo) are used to give an IPA beer it’s distinctive taste. Those were short vines compared to the 25 feet they can reach, growing up to 12in. a day. The Willamette Valley is home to acres of land dedicated to growing this plant. There’s a rich history of over a century of farming hops in the Pacific Northwest, which has the perfect weather, on all counts for hops. There are countless breweries in Oregon, some of my favorites in fact. It was here the first IPA in America was introduced in 1975. An IPA is the only beer worth drinking in my opinion.🍺

Of course an espresso martini is above and beyond a beer any day😋

As we were getting closer to Portland, we got glimpses of Mount Hood. This isn’t a good picture, we were too far away, but it was beautiful that day to be sightseeing.

It’s in the Cascades mountain range. It’s an active volcano, but hasn’t erupted since 1866. It is considered a high risk volcano.

Mount Rainer being the second at risk in that range. I couldn’t get a picture of it but saw it through buildings, trees, freeways. It was beautiful too. We used it in one of our Christmas card as a backdrop in 2010.

Looks like the girls are having fun with their daddy

My how the have grown.

Portland is next

stay tuned

💗jilly