 |
| Hotel Oregon - McMinnville, Oregon |
 |
| Downtown McMinnville, Oregon |
 |
| Pat Choosing Lunch at the Grand Lodge - Forest Grove, Oregon |
 |
| Penner Ash Winery - Oregon Wine Country |
 |
| Chitwood Covered Bridge - Oregon Wine Country |
 |
| Wayne & Pat with the Spruce Goose - Evergreen Aviation Museum, Oregon |
Oregon Wine Country & McMinnville, Oregon, USA (9/8-11/2009)
The Oregon Wine Country during the summer is wonderful and the people here could not be nicer.
The phrase wine country is germane - over 200 wineries (many world-class) carved out of the beautiful Oregon wine country countryside.
McMinnville is the largest town in the Willamette Valley (the best known Oregon wine area) and considered the center of this wine area. With green rolling hills as the backdrop, this historic city has kept its turn-of-the century charm while providing full services for 33,000 residents.
We stayed in downtown McMinnville in the funky and fun McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon (see photo). The rooms had names of people and events that made history in the area. We stayed in the Leona room – named for a ship that serviced McMinnville.
With so many wineries right around McMinnville, it is difficult to choose which ones to visit - decisions, decisions (like kids in a candy store).
We started exploring the area visiting the cute town of Carlton where we tasted a great Pinot Noir (what this area is known for) and picked up some wonderful cheese for a picnic at Penner-Ash Winery overlooking the wine country (see photos).
Then we went on to explore the small towns of Newberg, Dundee, Yamhill, Gaston, and Lafayette stopping for wine tasting at wineries such as: Argyle, Amity, Sokol Blosser, Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene, and Elk Cove before having another picnic the next day at Annie Amie Winery.
 |
| McMenamin's Grand Lodge - Forest Grove |
Our last day we stayed at another McMenamin’s place, the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove (see photo). Can you tell we like them? Our room was named John Potter who planted the now 150-foot tall Sequoia trees that the town Forest Grove is named for.
Please
also see our 5 other blog posts for beautiful Oregon, USA:
Please enjoy 250+ wonderful places around the world, with award-winning photos, from our BLOG ARCHIVE on the right ---->
Travel for half the cost for all levels of travel from budget to luxury and 100's of other unique travel tips! From a
former Economic professor, experienced traveler
(106 countries), award-winning travel photojournalist/blogger, featured speaker at large travel shows,
host of the travel TV show Plan Your Escape® TV aired on the CW network,
and travel columnist for the Huffington Post, our popular 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and
comprehensive how-to world travel book Plan Your Escape, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home reveals
secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from weekend getaways to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel
dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more! Buy this popular book on Amazon.com (also available as Ebook for $9.99), CLICK HERE
