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Published: June 29th 2014
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Entrance to Oregon Garden Resort. What a great time we had traveling by motor coach with Adventure Tours through Marion County, Oregon June 26-28, 2014! Thirty-two of us were on our way to the 80-acre Oregon Garden in Silverton, 42 miles south of Portland on Highway 213. This is Willamette Valley fruit and vineyard country.
Around noon, on our four-hour drive from Walla Walla to Silverton, we stopped to ride a train through the Hood River Valley. Over 15,000 acres of pear, cherry, and apple trees surround Mt. Hood. At 11,000 feet, the snow-covered mountain glistened in the sunshine. It seemed close enough to touch!
I had lunch in the dining car with two new friends, Karen and Margie. We were served Chicken Salad Wraps, tender asparagus, a choice of chocolate cake or cherry cheesecake with a beverage. The meal was included in the price of our $42 ticket. At 2 o'clock, the train stopped for an hour in the village of Parkdale at the end of the line. While the engine was switched and refueled, we followed the boardwalk to the museum, gift shops, and market. It was a treat to buy fresh blueberries, cherries, and apples to eat on the ride back
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Hood River Valley Train Trip to Hood River.
It is a two-hour drive from Hood River to the Oregon Garden. We arrived at the resort around 5 o'clock, just in time for the three of us to freshen up and find the restaurant. A gourmet dinner was shrimp scamp, sirloin steak, or pork shish kabob was served as the sun dipped behind the distant green hills. After enjoying a dish of pecan ice cream, I walked to my room--one of 136 rooms in cabins with private decks that overlook the gardens.
The next morning, we took a half-hour tram ride around the gardens, past flowering hybrids, topiaries, and northwest native plants. Guests could disembark and stroll through the gardens. The next tram would take them to the Visitor Center, or back to the lodge.
My friends and I enjoyed a lunch of salad and sandwiches. Then we boarded the motor coach for a tour of Silverton with its Victorian houses, green lawns, flower beds, and white picket fences. Silverton flourished as a mill town in the mid-1800s. Today, with a population of 10,000, it is known for 20 murals that commemorate several of its famous citizens.
Stacy, our walk-on guide, explained
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Oregon Garden Tram Ride the history of the murals and the story behind each local celebrity. For example, one mural depicted Homer Davenport who was a friend of President Teddy Roosevelt. In 1906, Davenport traveled to Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic mission. Today he is honored as the first person to bring Arabian horses to America.
Another mural is a replica of Norman Rockwell's painting "The Four Freedoms--Religion, Speech, Want and Fear." In 1990, Rockwell's grandson visited the Silverton murals and commissioned a local artist, David McDonald, to copy the famous painting. Four panels are on water-resistant wooden blocks. They can be moved to the museum during severe weather.
Eleven minutes' drive from Silverton is the Willamette Valley Pie and Fruit Company. They feeeze marionberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and apples harvested from farms within a ten-mile radius. Some 1500-1600 pies are made every day and shipped to West Coast markets.
The most requested pie is marionberry. In fact, the county is named after its famous berry. We found our favorite pies in the freezer, as well as cobblers, crisps, and muffins. Ice cream is available by the quart and gallon, and there is a bottomless cup of free coffee!
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Butterfly Bench Our guide directed our driver, Bud, to the last stop on our tour of Silverton. It was the Gallon House covered bridge, one of a dozen wooden bridges in the area. During prohibition in the early 1900s, the bridge was a meeting place for the "thirsty" to buy a jug or jar of home-made liquor. A more acceptable use for covered bridges is to protect the trusses from the weather.
As Bud drove us from Silverton back to Oregon Garden Resort, we passed brightly-blooming fields of flowers raised only for seed. They were experiments in new colors, shapes, and sizes. If they flourished here, you would be able to buy the seeds at a market next spring.
Too soon, it was time for us to leave the fields and farms of the Willamette Valley. I will miss the horses, deer, llamas, goats, and cattle grazing peacefully. There is much to see and do, eat and drink in the Valley. In fact, it is known as Oregon's version of Tuscany! Cheers!--Shirley Ruble
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