Ashland, OR and the Sacramento River

Rotating Tracks

My daughter and I are returning from middle Oregon to San Diego in steps.  Last night we stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast, Country Willows, in Ashland, OR. http://www.countrywillowsinn.com/.

We did a little walking around looking at the wonderful poppies that grew in almost every yard,

and then went downtown to see a modernized version of Love’s Labours Lost in the outdoor Elizabethan theatre.  Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare festival, as well as being a college town, so there were plenty of young people doing avante-garde things in the streets.  Every night there is a free performance on the grounds between the three Shakespearean theatres.  We listened to a talented group play Eastern European tunes before being seated for the play.  Prior to this we ate at Green Leaf restaurant, which overlooks the waterway and has superb local and sustainably raised food, as well as many vegetarian dishes.  Oh, yum.  What a good meal!

After the play we drove back to the bed and breakfast, and it was nearly midnight, so I didn’t blog and I’m sorry.  In the morning Daniel, who is the manager and chef created a wonderful breakfast served by one of the owners.  We had sweet potato biscuits, orange and cherry juice layered in chilled glasses, orange and tangerine sections drizzled with raspberry coulis, poached eggs in tomato and cilantro sauce with black beans and fresh local greens, and decaf tea.  It was tasty, nutritious, beautiful and creative to look at, and served in a wonderfully decorated room overlooking a pink flowering dogwood.  Wonderful!

Today we drove to Sacramento and are staying on the Delta King riverboat on the Sacramento River http://www.deltaking.com/.

Paddlewheel

It is an historic real paddlewheeler which is now stationary.  We strolled old town Sacramento which is all tourist shops in old storefronts, including about five candy stores.

Miranda spotted a train museum and we went in about half an hour before closing.  I was expecting model trains and photographs… oh, how I wish that we had more time!  The museum had full historic trains parked in it, along with life-sized displays surrounding them showing their point in history.  The docents were incredibly knowledgeable and eager to share their knowledge, even though it was the end of the day.  If you ever come this way, spend about two hours at the Sacramento Train Museum  http://www.csrmf.org/.  They even have a sleeper car that you may walk thorough that is rocks like when it was on the rails.  Even people who aren’t big on trains will be awestruck by what they’ve accomplished here.  None of my photographs from inside came out, and we were rushing through so I didn’t take many.

Afterwards we ate at one of the small shops then spent time outside of our stateroom watching the two bridges move for tall boats.  The drive-across bridge raised and lowered, sounding a loud horn to let cars, pedestrians and bicyclists know that the bridge was going up.

On the other side of our boat there is a train bridge that spins to allow a boat through.

Very, very cool.  We watched trains go past as well.

From the other side of the river we could hear the crowd shouting through a ballgame, and occasionally there were rowdies shouting or playing music at speaker-cracking volume from their boats as they cruised past (if they do it in cars, they do it on boats).  It was pretty quiet for a Friday night.  The stateroom was very comfortable; we made tea and drank it at the small table outside our room and watched the swallows swoop after moths in the sunset.

Tomorrow is an eight-hour  drive home.  It was a fun week, traveling solo, then celebrating my daughter’s finishing her second year at OSU with some new mini-adventures.  Fortunately, I always love being home, too.  Travel creates great perspective on homelife.  I love both.