North, South, and East; next week West

Because of some changes in plans in teaching this year, I have had to make 6 hours of lectures that I had not planned on... So the blogging has suffered. Lectures are "in the can" and only exams are left to write, so maybe I can get back to the "fun stuff". Although Georgia will probably give her version of these recent 2 weekends, I thought I would give it a shot. In a nutshell, this year, we have 5 weekends to travel Oregon. We did one to the south coast and expect to go to the north coast next weekend. The first weekend, we went to the Lodge at Suttle Lake in the Cascades and this weekend, we are back in the Cascades at Five Pine Lodge in Sisters. http://www.fivepinelodge.com/ (Which I will discuss later), but Friday night we traveled south to Eugene and up the McKenzie River about 35 miles to Eagle Rock Lodge. http://eaglerocklodge.com/ Will come back to this also, just to keep chronology in line. So what did we do last weekend??? Something different for our Oregon trips. Since Georgia's back was giving her more problems than usual, we decided we shouldn't travel as far. After looking up and down the Willamette Valley (via internet), we settled on the Brookside Inn which is about 50 miles up 99W, just southwest of Portland. http://www.brooksideinn-oregon.com/ There Bruce and Susan made us feel really at home on their fantastic property with Mondo and Anne (two rescued Newfoundlands; Anne only arrived the day before) and Maxine, the cat who adopted the Brookside Inn as home and is a self appointed tour guide. As we enjoyed the grounds as they are in winter, we can just imagine what it will look like in spring, summer, and fall. Bruce is a fantastic cook who fixed bacon as we had never had it before. Actually chunks about 3/4 X 3/4 X 1 inch in size.... really good, but his scones fresh out of the oven were (I'm gonna say it) to die for!

In driving around the area, we felt like we were in Napa Valley with all the vineyards. The little town of Carlton was filled with wine tasting rooms. On the way to Carlton, we passed the Abbey that the road was named after. One cute little story is about a farmer named Jay McDonald who named his farm..... are you ready????? EIEIO... I just had to buy the hat. http://www.onhisfarm.com/ Bruce gave us several choices for dinner and we chose Nick's Italian Cafe in McMinnville. http://nicksitaliancafe.com/ This wasn't Olive Garden, or even Biaggi's, or the Macaroni Grill. This was real Italian. The story is that Nick, the original chef and owner got tired of cooking, so started hiring chefs. The quality apparently went downhill, til his daughter and son-in-law returned from Italy to take over... Wow! I of course can only compare with the American version, but Georgia has been to Italy and said it was authentic. Whatever, it was Gooooood!. We explored the grounds of the Brookside Inn, to find at least 3 ponds. An upper pond was set in the woods behind the house and fed a little "waterfall" that was set in really cool landscaping as viewed from the little breakfast nook. Then the water must have gone underground to come out on the other side of the driveway into another little watefall and into a second small pond. Then separate from all was the big pond. On the edge of the pond is a little sitting place called the Rose Cottage. This gives me a lead in to some history on the Brookside Inn. Apparently it was established and landscaped by the a man who had a fantastic gift in landscaping. He melted the manmade part of the property into the side of the natural landscape in such a way that it really appears to "come out of the woods". This included the ponds, streams and waterfalls that start "above" the main lodge and end in the brook by the carriage house. The story is that there were plots of a certain smokable plant found on the hillside also. The next owner turned it into a religious retreat called "His Hiding Place". The little Rose Cottage has scriptural names of Christ, ie. "Rose of Sharon, Lilly of the Valley, Bright Morning Star", etc. painted around the top of the walls. There is room for one or 2 chairs and is a great place to sit and look out over the big pond. The mantle of the fireplace in the great room of the lodge is carved with "His Hiding Place".. Apparently a place for renewal and rejuvination. It was supposedly very exclusive and the front gate was always closed. It is still a place for renewal and rejuvination, but Bruce and Susan make a point that it is no longer hiding. The gate is always open.

It has become obvious to me that there is too much material to include both weekends in this post, so I will save the Eagle Rock and Five Pine (Sisters) experience for the next post. Before I go, I must pay homage ot some folks who recently departed this thing we call life on earth. A couple of weeks ago, we got the notice that Dr. Charlie Reid, one of the best horse radiologists (if not the best... ) in the world passed on, taking with him an understanding of the equine athelete that was phenominal. I trust those who studied under him will use and grow that knowledge sufficiently. Then this weekend, I find that Johnny "Red" Kerr, a former Illinois basketball great and Chicago Bulls commentator also left us. This morning I see that our beloved Paul Harvey is also gone. Hopefully Paul Jr. can carry on that legacy. Yesterday, my friend, Dr. Mike Thomas, who bailed us out of a tough situation by venturing to the northland for a few years made me aware that his mother had also passed. Mike and his sister, now have to move into a different and strange chapter in their life. One full of plus and minus, ying and yang, joy and fear. A place I moved into when my sister and I lost our last parent in 1988. It's part of life. Good and bad.