We left McMinnville on a rainy Monday morning heading for Eugene. We realized that we would be driving through the state capitol of Salem and decided to have a look around. We had heard from a couple of people that it is a lovely city and we should look at it as a potential place to eventually settle down. It hadn’t been on our list of places to check out but we sure were glad that we stopped. We found a beautiful city with some pretty sweet neighborhoods. Salem is now officially on our “short list.”
A riverboat on the Willamette River in Salem
We couldn’t figure out what these red (bare) bushes along the road were until Mark saw a sign that indicated they are Oregon blueberries - who would have guessed?!
We drove to Coburg, just north of Eugene, where we spent two nights at one of our favorite RV parks.
We like the sites right on the small pond
On Tuesday morning we woke up to a very frosty world and car!
Views from the RV park…
On Wednesday we traveled a short 30 miles to the Eugene home of our cousins Rich and Joy Shonfeld. They live on 5 beautiful acres outside of the city.
The pond (in the distance) on the Shonfeld property
Our “Home, Sweet Home” at the Shonfeld’s for the night
Rich and Joy’s warm and welcoming home
Another view of the property
Cousins… Mark, Joy, Rich & Robin
Rich supervising the sharp turn out of the driveway. We’re now on our way south.
Mark spotted a sign for a covered bridge so we turned off the highway to see the bridge over Grave Creek.
Obligatory selfie!
The Grave Creek covered bridge built in 1920
The view out one of the bridge’s windows
Taken from inside the bridge
An eerie sight along Highway 5 near Grants Pass
On Thursday night we stayed at another Harvest Host location, Hummingbird Estate near Jacksonville.
This was the view from our RV
We went inside the 100 year old house that is now a Bed & Breakfast Inn and tasting room. I enjoyed a delicious red wine flight and Mark enjoyed a tasty beer from Ashland. We also had some awesome meatballs, warm olives and bread.
This was our site near the vines at Hummingbird Estate
On Friday morning we drove to the cute town of Jacksonville and had a wonderful time looking around, shopping and eating a scrumptious lunch. We have actually added this little town to our short list of places to investigate further. Amazingly, it is only 350 miles to our daughter Kelly’s house from here! And the Medford airport is only 15 minutes away. We didn’t think we wanted to live in southern Oregon but this little town has us taking a second look.
We parked in front of this sweet looking Bed and Breakfast Inn
The two main streets in Jacksonville are California and Oregon.
Lots of cool historic buildings. This photo doesn’t do the town justice
Another Jacksonville view
California Street - the Main Street in Jacksonville
Mark standing outside a bar in Jacksonville
If you ever find yourself in Jacksonville, you have to have lunch at the C Street Bistro! It was the best meal we’ve had yet on this adventure. The chef owner, Paul Becking, was a graduate of UCSB and SBCC. He worked in numerous restaurants in the Santa Barbara area including Mattei’s Tavern.
The tomato bisque was off the charts amazing!
Sculpture in a parking lot in Jacksonville
Back on the road after lunch on Friday, headed to an RV park in Redding. We enjoyed looking at all of the snow along the way and were thankful that we were not driving as it was falling. We went over Siskiyou Summit in Oregon, the highest mountain pass on Highway 5 at 4,310 feet.
Leaving Oregon (for a while)
Back in our home state of California and looking forward to Christmas with family!
Looks like a nice couple months. Hope you get some rest with family over the Holidays
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