Sandi & I decided that a three night stay in Bend was clearly not enough, so determined our next visit would be one week. Then, we went up the hill to a small town named Sisters and decided a one week stay was still way to short, so, have decided we will be back next late Spring/Early Summer for two weeks!
I’m sure that Sandi and I are NOT your “A” typical road trippers, as we almost enjoy the getting there and discovering what to do as much as the doing what we have planned. Sisters is one of those discoveries. We stopped in last year for just an hour or two on our way to Bend in order to visit a quilt store, “Stitchin Post”.
Stichin Post is more than a quilt store as it highlights local quilting, ceramics, wood and metal artists. The store also boasts a large class room and offers “one on one” knitting classes and just plain, free knitting help. I witnessed a knitting instructor slowly and carefully walking another lady through a knitting problem. There are several other quilt and fabric stores in town, and Sisters is the home to an annual quilt show. Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show “The World’s Largest Outdoor Quilt Show™” which is held the second Saturday of July. This year will be its 45 anniversary.
Sandi doesn’t buy as much material at quilt stores anymore….we just visit every Goodwill and other thrift stores looking for silk ties as that is her new favorite medium for her art……PLEASE checkout Sandi’s art page by clicking “COTTONANDSILK-NATURE CREATING ART” on top of “Our Hallway”’s main page to see how Sandi’s fabric art has evolved from cotton to silk….and everything in between.
Sisters is more than just all about quilts, as I said in last years blog, it is a smaller version of Jackson Hole Wyoming. The town is a new old town, meaning that it has kept its old town feel, with new and renovated stores. There are art galleries of all types, even outdoor galleries; candy, clothing and souvenir stores. The stores are filled with local wares, popular tourist brands (such as Lazy One sleep wear, Frye Cowboy Boots) and regional favorites like Pendleton. We have seen less than 20% of the town, and there are so many eateries we need to try. Staying in Sisters itself is a bit of a challenge, but there are many lodging options less than 30 minutes away in Bend.
This year we never made it to the Lava Flow State & US Ntl. Forest parks or downtown Bend, and there is so much more to explore in the Bend area. You can read more about Bend and the Lava parks in my blogs from our 2018 Fall Trip.
On to the Oregon and Washington Coasts. While in Oregon we wanted to do some tax free shopping. Who wouldn’t want to save 8-9%. We have for years been stopping at the Lincoln City Outlets on the Oregon coast, but saw that some of our favorite stores have left….so we researched a new, larger outlet mall. The Woodburn Premium Outlets just north of Salem on I-5 was our midday stop, but first getting there!
Oh how I wish I could have pulled the motor home over and taken pictures. If the Cascade Peaks weren’t “the shot”, then the wildflowers were definitely “the shot”. As you know, I love wildflowers, especially since I grew up enjoying the Sierras by car and backpacking.
When you backpack or hike anywhere you see so many extremely small and delicate wildflowers, and large one too, that you just don’t see going 65mph on the highway. The route from Bend to Salem (US 20 and OR 22) takes you through Sisters, with amazing views of the snow capped Cascades; then up and over the Cascades to Salem. The central Cascades are home to primarily Ponderosa and Jeffery Pines with scatterings of Silver Tipped Firs, Hemlocks and more. The forest is quite dense with both trees and brush. On the eastern side of the Cascades (along US 20) the US Forest Service is clearing the forest floor and using control burns to manage the forest. On the western side, there is evidence of strip logging. When passing through young planted forest there are signs informing you of when the forest was replanted, this is a practice all over Oregon and Washington States. Getting back to the wildflowers….sorry I got side tracked….we saw so many shades of purple and yellow flowers low to the ground and high rising plants. There are also wild pink Azaleas along OR 22 on the western side of the Cascades. Azaleas and Rhododendrons are very plentiful in north western Oregon and Washington. I will be taking pictures of some beautiful trees and shrubs this week sharing them with a wildflower post….so stay tuned!
Now back to shopping one of my favorite past times. Here are some shots of the Woodburn Outlets. One thing that struck me funny right away was that there were only a couple of vacant stores in this mall of nearly one-hundred twenty stores, its sister outlet in Vacaville has almost more empty than operating stores.
We are very selective in our shopping as we tend to go to the same stores Columbia Clothing, Ascis Shoes, Kitchen Collection, (Lululemon if available) and Sandi is always on the lookout for Birkenstock shoe stores. Sandi left me in Kitchen Collection telling me that she was heading for the Crocs store and we could meet up her in Columbia; within a minute I got a text that she didn’t make it to Crocs as she found a store called Shoe Rack. When she showed up in Columbia she was proudly wearing her new Birkenstocks…..note only her second pair in 33 years of marriage and she is always wearing them.
After chowing down Tuna Sandwiches Sandi fixed in the motor home, we were on the second leg of our trip to Long Beach, Washington where we will be staying for a week. Within no time at all we were on the outskirts of Portland hanging a left off of I-5. There are basically five Oregon routes from I-5 to US 101 that run up the Oregon Coast. US 26 is by far my favorite route as it is a great two lane highway that offers plenty of passing lanes so the guy behind you knows he can pass you SAFELY in just a few miles…..not needing to take a chance on a curve or hill. The highway hits the coast at a little town we love named Seaside. I’ll be sharing more about Seaside later this week, as I KNOW we will be there for SURE!
See you again in a couple of days as I’m now posting only every other day or so as I’ve received feedback from readers that it was hard to keep up on a daily basis…..and believe me with the flaky wifi service at RV parks and campgrounds its hard to get them all posted everyday.
Hello Campers! Sandi here! Yesterday’s favorite conversation topic was “concert’s we have attended”. I guess we are still on a music theme. Anyway …… we were listening to Country Music and it sparked a memory for my mom of attending a concert with my dad featuring 3 or 4 of his favorite Country Western artists. My family resided in Redwood City during my early childhood years and we attended many concerts at the GREAT Circle Star Theatre. Barry and I both evolved into mass coliseum concerts during the 70’s and early 80’s. Between the 3 of us, some of the concerts we have attended (in sort of 1st name alphabetical order); Barry Manilow, Beach Boys, The Carpenters, Chicago, Don Ho, Elvis Presley, George Straight, Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Colllins, KC & The Sunshine Band, Lawrence Welk, The Lennon Sisters, Liberace, Neil Diamond, Roger Williams, a Day on the Green at Candlestick Park (with 6 bands I can NOT remember) and Barry’s favorite (… mine too) … John Denver …. our very 1st date!
My belly laugh for the day was when Barry and I were recollecting some of the hilarious antics of people we have met, spied on, and laughed at while on the road. (Don’t judge us, you know we ALL do it … LOL!!!). The belly laugh came from a memory of watching a husband and wife work together … or better said, “apart” … to back their trailer into an RV spot. I’m having a hard time not peeing my pants as I type. Moving forward …… with our new RV, Barry is having a hard time seeing me in the back up camera … so we decided I needed to have flags (I suggested American Flags) so he could see what hand signals I am trying to use. You guessed it …. we are preparing someone else to receive their belly laugh for the day at our expense! Belly Laugh’s are sooooo worth it!!!!
Bye the way … today’s great music pick was Etta James!
rolling down the hallway 