Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Accidental awesome


I’m starting to learn that ditching the plan is the best plan there is.

We spent a little over a day driving through the Redwoods National Forest, which is pretty impressive, but you can only stare at trees so much until you start itching to keep moving…

Monday night was spent near the Oregon border, and Tuesday morning we started heading towards Crater Lake. Five miles down the road, the highway had a short detour which serendipitously led us right to the doorstep of the Del Rio Winery. Plan: out the window.





Stumbling into Oregon’s wine country was not on the agenda but it was at that delicious side-step that we learned of a cheese factory down the road, which was next to a chocolate factory. The exact trifecta of deliciousness guaranteed to render me helpless.

Lillie Belle Chocolate Factory. Run by a bunch of hippies, just our style.

Truffle as art?

By this time, we had picked up a guide on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is supposedly one of the best in the nation and just so happened to be in the next town (Ashland). We didn’t have a lot of choice there. Tickets: purchased.

With a few hours to kill, we wandered into Lithia Park, Ashland’s urban oasis. Think rushing creek, manicured lawns perfect for laying out and reading in the sun, walking trails, lush foliage, picnic tables, and a fire pit. Since we carry our kitchen with us, we started a fire, whipped up some dinner in the middle of the city park, enjoyed some of our local cheese and wine purchased earlier that day, played UNO, and cooked steaks. In the middle of a city park. And we saw two baby deer. I mean, really?



As if you couldn’t guess, The Merchant of Venice was impressive, and the theater (constructed to look like the Globe) opened up to a clear starry night above us.




We would get to Crater Lake eventually J

3 comments:

  1. have i mentioned that i'm jealous to quite jealous? what a cool side adventure. this one sounds like one of the most fun so far!!!

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  2. 1) seriously - even if you'd planned your most ideal trifecta of factory tours, wouldn't it have been cheese, chocolate, and wine? mine would have.

    2) i want to move to Ashland. no, really.

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  3. whoa! awesome!!! i really want to be you right now!

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