TRIP PLANNER: ASTORIA + GEARHART PG. 88
Summer Music Festivals
Olympian Tommy Ford
Fresh Wasabi Recipes
Van Life Road Trip Routes to Explore This Summer
ICONIC BRIDGES OF THE COAST FAMILY-FRIENDLY BUCKET LIST RIVER TRIPS BRITISH COLUMBIA GETAWAY GUIDE
1859oregonmagazine.com $5.95 display until June 30, 2023
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Discover yourself here. The secret is out! Announcing Strada, the first-of-its-kind collection of custom homesites in Discovery West, available to the public. Generous homesites offer ample space and privacy and a serene natural setting — all close to nature, trails, bike paths, schools, parks, shops, restaurants and more. This rare opportunity is just waiting for you to customize your next life’s move. Learn more about your custom home build journey in Strada. Visit DiscoveryWestBend.com/Strada for details or call Shelley Griffin at Harcourts the Garner Group Real Estate at (541) 280-3804.
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Refreshment. It’s a pelican thing.
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Oregonians helping Oregonians. Every third Tuesday this kindness crew honors the elderly community in Ontario, Oregon by creating delicious bento lunches that are delivered right to their front doors. “Food like this is hard to find in our area. We provide it to bring them nourishment, comfort and joy.” says Perla Lopez (center). For 50 years, OCF has supported projects like these through donor funds granted to local nonprofits. Want to help your community, become a donor or apply for a grant? Visit oregoncf.org/50 to learn, connect and get inspired.
OREGONIANS HELPING OREGONIANS SINCE 1973 LEARN
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Bubbly or Still Water?
Summer Paddling Adventures on the Clackamas River This summer, try something different. Go the opposite direction of the crowds and find a new paddling adventure along the Clackamas River. The 87-mile Clackamas flows out of the Mount Hood National Forest and northwest toward Estacada and on past Clackamas where it eventually feeds into the Willamette River. But along the miles of beautiful and rustic river through Mt. Hood Territory, the Clackamas floats all boats when it comes to summer recreation.
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WHY GO WITH A GUIDE? Certified guides can enhance your visit by offering safe and memorable experiences, providing local insights and even sharing a few insider secrets. Here are some reasons to book a river trip with a guide:
SAFE AND FUN
You needn’t go all the way to the Rogue River for a thrilling whitewater adventure. A familyfriendly whitewater paddle takes you down the scenic river canyon, through class III and IV rapids under a canopy of Douglas fir and through blue pools on the Upper Clackamas River. Do it as a family in a raft or take a guided kayak tour for yet more adventure. If you like your water not bubbly but still, put in at Estacada with a paddleboard, kayak, canoe or your own watercraft. Find the flat water at Estacada Lake, a dammed section of the Clackamas where the hydroelectric power station was designed in 1911 by Norwegian immigrant Nils Ambursen and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Clackamas River Outfitters, which has a shop in Estacada as well as rental spots in Timber Park and Milo McIver State Park, will rent the gear you need and provide kayak, canoe or paddleboard tours of the treelined lake as the occasional osprey swoops down from towering pines across the lake scanning for coho and trout and pulling back up to take perch on the opposite bank.
One of the put-in points at Milo McIver State Park is also home to one of the world’s top disc courses. The 27-hole Milo McIver Disc Course, which plays through the same evergreen forests that line the Clackamas, was originally laid out as a nine-hole golf course some time before it became a state park in 1968. Now the holes are shorter and the fee is only $5. Need gear? Clackamas River Outfitters also sells disc golf equipment. After exploring the Clackamas River, head into nearby Estacada for great restaurants, local craft breweries and charming downtown shops.
Clackamas River Rental and Guides Clackamas River Outfitters clackamasriveroutfitters.com Blue Sky Whitewater Rafting blueskyrafting.com Oregon River Experiences oregonriver.com/clackamasriver-rafting
TO EXPLORE MORE, VISIT:
mthoodterritory.com/ clackamas-river
Certified tour guides and outfitters keep the safety and security of their guests top of mind. They cover all safety concerns, from ensuring visitors have the correct gear to teaching guests how to perform activities safely. Learning proper techniques will make your outing as enjoyable as possible and might even give you the confidence to start a new hobby! Guides must also register their river excursions through the Oregon State Marine Board or the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife to ensure they have proper first aid training, CPR training and other safety protocols.
EXPERT PLANNING Local guides and tour operators know the ins and outs of planning trips in Mt. Hood Territory. This includes all the important (and sometimes forgotten) details like permits, gear rentals and parking fees. You’re on vacation, so take the stress out of your trip and let them take care of everything.
HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE Sure, you can read about the area’s history in a book or online, but a better way is to experience that history first-hand. Guided tours offer information and insights during outings, including visiting specific locations of historical and cultural importance and, in some cases, even sharing entertaining tales, like ghost stories, that happened at the destination.
LOCAL INSIGHTS A guide brings you a much more authentic sense of the destination. Many have called the area home and can tell you interesting details about the flora and fauna you’ll see on your tour. Your guide is also often the person who can give you top tips on where to grab a meal, special events happening, other must-visit spots and the best shops in town to find that perfect souvenir.
Going Green photography by Dan Hawk Rare real wasabi is grown on the Oregon Coast. Accept no horseradishy imitation. (pg. 30)
Flowering wasabi inside Oregon Coast Wasabi’s greenhouse.
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MAY | JUNE 2023
1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE 7
Aaron Wessling/GoCamp
Pack up your van (or rent one from companies such as GoCamp) and explore Oregon this summer on three road trip routes.
FEATURES MAY | JUNE 2023 • volume 80
66
76
Jewels of Concrete and Steel
A New Perspective
Oregon’s legendary bridgemaker, C.B. McCullough, was an artist and an engineer. His legacy is our common fortune.
Photography and science collide in Josie Iselin’s The Curious World of Seaweed exhibition at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport.
written by Daniel O’Neil
written by Kerry Newberry
58 Experience Van Life on Three Spectacular Routes Take an adventure van into some of Oregon’s backroads and find solitude and beauty. written by Jean Chen Smith
8
1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
SEASIDE IS FOR
Sure, I’ll go on vacation with my parents
Want your kids to want to hang out? Take them somewhere with things they love to do. Somewhere like Seaside–where there’s all the bike riding, arcade gaming, cotton candy eating, boogie boarding, seal feeding and s’mores roasting you and your kids could ever want.
seasideOR.com @visitseasideOR
DEPARTMENTS MAY | JUNE 2023 • volume 80
LIVE
84
18 NOTEBOOK
Pinocchio’s maker, Oregon’s terroir cookbook, summer concerts, No God Like the Mother author.
26 FOOD + DRINK
Fernweh Food Co. for hikers; plush picnics.
30 FARM TO TABLE
Real wasabi … from the Oregon Coast.
38 HOME + DESIGN
A fishing cabin gets a retirement makeover. River Drifters
44 MIND + BODY
Tommy Ford contemplates skiing faster and having fun.
46 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Sean Croghan of Crackerbash and The Mistons.
18
36
THINK 52 STARTUP
Moksha Journeys—a psilocybin startup.
54 MY WORKSPACE
Dan Sadowsky, documentary film editor.
56 GAME CHANGER
FACT Oregon helps families advocate for their children who experience disabilities.
EXPLORE 82 TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT Tambi Lane
Netflix
Oregon’s five Marine Protected Areas.
84 ADVENTURE
Three bucket list river trips for the family.
86 LODGING
The Boutique Retreat, Mc(Mini)ville.
14 Editor’s Letter 15 1859 Online 94 Map of Oregon 96 Until Next Time
COVER
photo by Whitney Whitehouse (see “Experience Van Life on Three Spectacular Routes,” pg. 58)
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1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
88 TRIP PLANNER
Astoria and Gearhart on the North Coast.
92 NW DESTINATION Tacoma, Washington.
Scan. t s a o Find.. C n o g e r O n r e h t u o S Go. Go. Powered Powered By Nature
TT.COM .COM TRAVELCURRYCOAST.COM
CONTRIBUTORS
KERRY NEWBERRY Writer A New Perspective
JASON QUIGLEY Photographer My Workspace
DANIEL O’NEIL Writer + Photographer Jewels of Concrete and Steel
DAN HAWK Photographer Farm to Table
“There’s no doubt seaweed is having a moment. In Oregon and beyond, various seaweeds are turning up in the hottest restaurant kitchens and as a beacon for sustainability. Which is why I was thrilled to discover the work of author and artist Josie Iselin. Her beautiful images and prose illuminate the hidden wonders of seaweed. I can’t wait to see her upcoming exhibit at Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center.” (pg. 76)
“One of the more challenging and fun aspects of this job is photographing a subject or location that is not traditionally photogenic, and coming away with something visually interesting. For this assignment with film editor Dan Sadowsky, we aimed to take portraits in a home office setting and make them magazine-worthy. Fortunately, we were able to work with some beautiful window light and reflective posters to get it done.” (pg. 54)
“I’ve traveled up and down the Oregon Coast my whole life without paying much attention to the bridges. Writing and photographing this article took me off the road and gave me a perpendicular look at these surprisingly beautiful structures. The experience deepened my connection with the coast. Thanks, McCullough.” (pg. 66)
“Wasabi has such a strong cultural reference to Japanese cuisine, but like many people I’d never really considered how it is made. A warm spring day near Tillamook was the perfect way to spend time with Jennifer Bloeser, touring the greenhouses and learning how the temperate coastal climate is the perfect place to grow this unique plant. There’s nothing quite like sampling wasabi grated fresh by the farmer herself!” (pg. 30)
Kerry Newberry is a freelance travel and lifestyle writer and coauthor of the recently published Oregon Wine + Food Cookbook. She’s based in Portland but is most often found exploring her favorite places in the state, which are often populated by lots of books and friendly dogs.
Jason Quigley is a freelance photographer, specializing in portraits, musicians and anything else that’s cool and/or prevents him having to get a real job. He was born in Klamath Falls and lives in Portland with his wife, two daughters and dog.
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Daniel O’Neil shares certain aspects of his home state through words and photos. He grew up in Portland, saw shows at the X-Ray Café and currently lives on the north Oregon Coast with his wife, daughter and dogs. He’s continually torn between living by the ocean or in the mountains.
Dan Hawk is a freelance editorial and commercial photographer based in Portland, where he lives with his wife, three teenagers and two big dogs.
EDITOR
Kevin Max
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Allison Bye
WEB MANAGER
Aaron Opsahl
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Joni Kabana
OFFICE MANAGER
Cindy Miskowiec
DIRECTOR OF SALES
Jenny Kamprath
HOMEGROWN CHEF
Thor Erickson
BEERLANDIA COLUMNIST
Jeremy Storton
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Cathy Carroll, Jean Chen Smith, Melissa Dalton, Joni Kabana, Julie Lee, Kerry Newberry, Daniel O’Neil, Ben Salmon, James Sinks, Jen Sotolongo, Grant Stringer
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
David Dinette, Dan Hawk, Nick Joyce, Tambi Lane, Daniel O’Neil, Jason Quigley, Whitney Whitehouse
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Lori LaBissoniere O’Neil, Ashten Wickham
Headquarters
70 SW Century Dr. Suite 100-218 Bend, Oregon 97702
1627 NE 3rd St. Suite 300 Bend, OR 97701
www.1859magazine.com/subscribe @1859oregon
All rights reserved. No part of this publiCation may be reproduCed or transmitted in any form or by any means, eleCtroniCally or meChaniCally, inCluding photoCopy, reCording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of Statehood Media. ArtiCles and photographs appearing in 1859 Oregon’s Magazine may not be reproduCed in whole or in part without the express written Consent of the publisher. 1859 Oregon’s Magazine and Statehood Media are not responsible for the return of unsoliCited materials. The views and opinions expressed in these artiCles are not neCessarily those of 1859 Oregon’s Magazine, Statehood Media or its employees, staff or management.
FROM THE
EDITOR
OF COURSE, the playground for the Merry Pranksters, the home of the Oregon Country Fair and the experimental lab for Ken Kesey was always going to be the first state to legalize psilocybin—magic mushrooms. Now we’re seeking ways to democratize tripping for The People, man! Moksha Journeys, led by Rose Moulin-Franco, a U.S. Army veteran, addiction specialist and perpetual seeker of consciousness, is out of the gates, establishing itself as a safe place for trippers and trained “trip-sitters” to come together for another way to experience Oregon. Turn to page 52 to go on this trip with us and ask, “What is reality?” Another illusion I have given safe harbor for years is that most of the wasabi we consume here is actually wasabi. Not so. Rather it’s a horseradish alternative with food coloring. I feel like I should have known about this earlier in life. Jennifer Bloeser, however, is not having it. Co-founder and CEO of Oregon Coast Wasabi, she is growing the real wasabi rhizome and selling her product to high demand among
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restaurateurs. Turn to our Farm to Table on page 30 to read this fascinating story. A great deal of the rest of this issue is about different aspects of creativity and freedom. Take this issue’s Home + Design story (pg. 38), for example. A couple from Eugene decides to retire to their fishing cabin on the Oregon Coast. One obstacle: it’s only 480 square feet. Necessity is the mother of invention and (lesser known) the daughter of small spaces. They hire an architect of small spaces and create one of the coolest little retirement redoubts on the coast. Our Trip Planner on page 88 takes us to Astoria and Gearhart on the northern Oregon Coast. These towns are separated by only 15 miles but a world apart, yet both are worth an outing this summer. The ultimate in freedom is getting a van and heading out to Oregon’s wild spots. Writer Jean Chen Smith plots routes for your summer adventure in “Experience Van Life” on page 58. Truly it’s all about trippin’!
1859 ONLINE More ways to connect with your favorite Oregon content www.1859oregonmagazine.com | #1859oregon | @1859oregon
have a photo that shows off your oregon experience? Share it with us by filling out the Oregon Postcard form on our website. If chosen, you’ll be published here. www.1859oregon magazine.com/postcard photo by Eric Valentine Wildflowers blanketing the landscape at Steens Mountain in mid-summer.
Daniel O’Neil
E NTUR E V D A MAIL MORE ONLINE After reading “Jewels of Concrete and Steel” on pg. 66, see more photos of C.B. McCullough’s iconic Oregon Coast bridges in our extended online gallery. www.1859oregonmagazine. com/oregoncoastbridges
MAY | JUNE 2023
YOUR PNW NEWSLETTER More PNW, delivered to your inbox! Sign up for our Adventure Mail newsletter and get access to the latest Northwest getaways, giveaways, dining and more. www.1859oregonmagazine. com/live/subscribe-tooregon-adventure-mail
1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE 15
NOTEBOOK 18 FOOD + DRINK 26 FARM TO TABLE 30 HOME + DESIGN 38 MIND + BODY 44
pg. 20 Your essential guide to summer music festivals around the state.
Liz Devine/Pickathon
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 46
WELCOME TO SALISHAN COASTAL LODGE SERVING HOLISTIC HOSPITALITY ON THE OREGON COAST
Join us for a bite at The Attic and sample our menu of wholesome (and delicious) plant-forward options—made with the freshest, locally-sourced ingredients. Real good food, that’s really, really good! Take some time to unwind at the Spa at Salishan and enjoy sweeping views of the Pacific Northwest in all its glory. Play a round of golf, or explore the beauty of the coast by bike or by hike. BOOK YOUR VISIT TODAY, AND LEARN HOW EVERY STAY DOES GOOD.
Salishan Coastal Lodge by SCP Hotels 7760 US-101, Gleneden Beach, OR 97388 salishan.com
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Tidbits + To-dos
CAmark yo LEN ur DA R Jason Schmidt/Netflix
written by Cathy Carroll
New Tome Celebrates Oregon Terroir
Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio Portland’s stop-motion animation studio ShadowMachine took the spotlight when Pinocchio won the Oscar for best animated feature. Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio at the Portland Art Museum offers a look inside the artists’ process and inventiveness. The film, ten years in the making, was conceived for all ages around the globe, highlighting the importance of nonconformity and the love and understanding between parents and children. The exhibit runs June 10 through September.
The newly released Oregon Wine + Food celebrates the stories of the state’s most influential wine professionals along with eighty recipes focused on the region’s bounty. The book, by 1859 contributors Kerry Newberry and Danielle Centoni, which focuses on Pacific Northwest ingredients and inspired wine pairings, will satisfy appetites for Oregon terroir, from glass to plate. www.figure1publishing.com/ book/oregon-wine-food
www.portlandartmuseum.org
We’re Keen on Smokey Bear Portland-based KEEN has teamed up with cuddly forest hero Smokey Bear, introducing a collection of KEEN’s original hybrid watersandal-hiking-shoe, the Newport, subtly adorned with Smokey’s iconic image. The aim is to support Smokey in educating folks about preventing wildfires—nine out of ten are people-caused and preventable. Part of the proceeds will go toward wildfire prevention. KEEN also encourages forest-lovers to volunteer with local trail organizations to help nature fight wildfires by removing highly flammable invasive plants. www.keenfootwear.com www.keencorpsvolunteer.com
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Josie Iselin
Summer Luu/Sunrice
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Seaweed Weekend
Asian American Pacific Islander Food and Wine Festival Oregon’s first annual Asian American Pacific Islander Food and Wine Festival is set for May 20 and 21 at the Stoller Family Estate Experience Center in Dayton. Curated bites change daily from among AAPI-owned Portland restaurants: Toki, Matta, HeyDay, Baon Kainan, Kim Jong Grillin, Bhuna, KauKau, Magna Kusina, Sibeiho and Sunrice and wineries Cho Wines, Et Filles, Evening Land, Hundred Suns and Shiba Wichern. Lois Cho, co-founder and CEO of Cho Wines, launched the nonprofit AAPI Food + Wine this year. www.oregonaapifoodandwine.com
A weekend celebration of seaweed June 2 to 4 accompanies The Curious World of Seaweed exhibit at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in MORE INSIDE Newport. Festivities Read more include an art about Iselin and algae printing and her work workshop, free on pg. 76 lectures and talks, including Josie Iselin, author of An Ocean Garden and The Curious World of Seaweed, and a kelp tattoo art demonstration. www.oregoncoasthistory.org/ museums-exhibits/maritime-center
your mark DAR
Northwest Women’s Surf Camps
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Women and Girls’ Surfing Immersion
ur yo AR k r D ma EN
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Northwest Women’s Surf Camps are offering new advanced beginner group coaching sessions in surfing and bodyboarding for teen girls and women of all ages. The popular Surf Weekenders Immersion for women and teen girls has spaces remaining July through September. Paddle out to fun, empowerment and connection to the ocean on the north Oregon Coast. www.nwwomenssurfcamps.com
MAY | JUNE 2023
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notebook Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
The fall home of the famed Pendleton Roundup is, during summers, increasingly the stage for big musical acts. Let ’er Croon!
Musician
Your Guide to Summer
MUSIC
FESTIVALS
It’s officially festival season—here are six places to catch great musical talent this summer written by Ben Salmon
SUMMER IN OREGON is an embarrassment of outdoor riches, from hiking and biking to boating to day-drinking on the back deck or a bar’s patio. And for lovers of live music, there is no shortage of opportunities to gather in the sunshine (and usually the chilly evening air) and catch a concert. Here are six music festivals happening across the state that deserve a spot on your calendar of things to do this summer. 20
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Pendleton Whisky Music Fest The Pendleton Round-Up grounds are bestknown as the home of the town’s famous 113-year-old rodeo each September. For one night in July, however, the venue turns into party central, with a genre-inclusive lineup that, in past years, has included everyone from Blake Shelton and Post Malone to Maroon 5 and Eric Church. Plus, if you get parched, chances are you’ll be able to find some delicious Pendleton Whisky to quench your thirst. Date: Saturday, July 15 Location: Pendleton Round-Up Grounds Lineup highlights: Kane Brown, Flo Rida, Maddie & Tae, Niko Moon, Dylan Schneider Fun fact: If one day of fun doesn’t sound like enough to you, get there the night before for the Party in Pendleton, a kick-off shindig downtown with live music by Joel Gibson Jr., local food vendors and … you guessed it: Pendleton Whisky at outdoor bars. More info: www.pendletonwhiskymusicfest.com
M
A
KE
TIME
TO
IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND
May 26-June 11
Parades – CityFair – Fleet Week
For IInformation, F nfformation, i P Parade d R Routes utes & Tickets, visit
RoseFestival.org @PDXRoseFestival
@PortlandRoseFestival
Photo: Jay Newman/Britt Music & Arts Festival
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Britt Music & Arts Festival
Dates: June to September Location: Britt Pavilion, Jacksonville
Unlike the other festivals on this list, which concentrate their concerts on one day or a weekend, the Britt festival brings live music to Southern Oregon all summer long. The events are held at the beautiful and relaxed Britt Pavilion, a naturally formed amphitheater set among majestic ponderosa pines and native madrones on the estate of 19th-century photographer Peter Britt.
Lineup highlights: Ringo Starr, Diana Ross, Kelsea Ballerini, Switchfoot, Michael Franti, Pink Martini, UB40 Fun fact: In addition to pop, rock, country, blues and jazz concerts, the Britt Festival hosts three weeks of performances by the Britt Festival Orchestra as well as a series of BrittKids Koncerts that are designed for children under age 10 and are free to attend. More info: www.brittfest.org
Jason Quigley/Waterfront Blues Festival
FairWell Festival
Waterfront Blues Festival Now in its 36th year, the Waterfront Blues Festival is one of the world’s best celebrations of blues music, not-so-hidden in the heart of Portland. Staged in Tom McCall Park along the Willamette River, the event is known for its powerhouse lineups, which always feature big names, up-andcoming acts and local Portland artists. Even better: Since its inception Waterfront has raised more than $10 million for hunger relief charities.
Dates: July 1-4 Location: Tom McCall Park, Portland Lineup highlights: Buddy Guy, The Mavericks, JJ Grey & Mofro, Cory Wong, Curtis Salgado, Amythyst Kiah Fun fact: In addition to a weekend of red-hot blues that helps feed the hungry, Waterfront Blues Festival puts on Oregon’s largest Fourth of July fireworks show! So bring the kids … and if they’re 12 or younger, they get in free! More info: www.waterfront bluesfest.com
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New on the scene this year is the FairWell Festival in Redmond, and its inaugural lineup makes quite a splash. Headliners include legends (Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow), fastrisers (Charley Crockett, Molly Tuttle) and one of the hottest names in country music, Zach Bryan. Since this is FairWell’s first year, the vibe is TBD, but with locally sourced food, a craft beer hall, on-site camping and more planned, the festival appears to be a major new player on Oregon’s summer music scene. Dates: July 21-23 Location: Deschutes County Fairground, Redmond Lineup highlights: In addition to those mentioned above: Turnpike Troubadours, Gary Clark Jr., Trampled By Turtles, Band of Horses, Yola Fun fact: You may have noticed that ticket prices for big concerts and festivals, generally speaking, have increased this year. Threeday passes to FairWell start at $275, but the festival offers layaway plans that start at just $25 down. More info: www.fairwellfestival.com
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Pickathon This long-running gem of an event is known for its bucolic setting, artsy vibe, family-friendly atmosphere and, most of all, its adventurous lineups, where you’re sure to find a handful of your new favorite bands, even if you didn’t know their names beforehand. The subdivisions are closing in around Pendarvis Farm, but Pickathon remains one of the best music festival experiences in the country. Dates: Aug. 3-6 Location: Pendarvis Farm, Happy Valley Lineup highlights: Watchhouse, Lee Fields, Madison Cunningham, MonoNeon, Wednesday, Imarhan, Dehd Fun fact: As part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability, Pickathon became the first major American music festival to eliminate all plastics and single-use food dishes and utensils more than a decade ago.
Photo: Rob Kerr/Sisters Folk Festival
Jason Redmond/Pickathon
More info: www.pickathon.com
Sisters Folk Festival
Location: Multiple venues across Sisters
The beauty of Sisters Folk Festival is in the music, first and foremost—a wellcurated mix of folk, bluegrass, blues, world music and beyond. But it’s also in the fact that Sisters is small enough that the folk festival effectively takes over this charming mountain town. With seven venues less than a half-mile from each other, it’s easy (and satisfying) to wander around and hear an incredible amount of great music.
Lineup highlights: John Craigie, Katie Pruitt, Darlingside, Nick Shoulders, The Sensational Barnes Brothers Fun fact: This year, the team behind Sisters Folk is launching a new festival, Big Ponderoo, to be held June 23-25. The stacked lineup includes The War and Treaty, The Travelin’ McCourys, The Lone Bellow and The Lil’ Smokies, among others. Learn more at www.bigponderoo.com.
Dates: Sept. 29-Oct. 1
More info: www.sistersfolkfestival.org
MAY | JUNE 2023
1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE 23
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Author Kesha Ajọsẹ-Fisher advocates for social justice through her writing.
Bibliophile
Child, Mother, World Stories spark insight into the extraordinary everyday lives of women around the globe interview by Cathy Carroll
KESHA AJỌSẸ-FISHER’S No God Like the Mother follows characters through tribulation and hope around the world, from Nigeria to the Pacific Northwest. This story collection won the 2020 Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, and a new edition was just released. Portland-based Ajọsẹ-Fisher was born in Chicago, raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and is a former social worker for immigrant and refugee families. Tell us about the title of the book. No God Like the Mother, or Òrìṣà Bí Ìyá Kòsí—the Yoruba translation—was a phrase I heard throughout my childhood in Lagos, Nigeria. I was raised to have strong religious convictions, and hearing the comparison of mothers to God seemed profoundly accurate since the women in my life had been the real heroes. Some of them, while broken, and some, while piecing themselves back together, showed up consistently, determined to keep the world turning. Without their examples, I’m not certain I would be as confident as I am as a woman, as a mother or as a writer. This book is a tribute to all the women who played an exemplary role in shaping me into this rendition of who I am and all the other versions to come. How did your personal experiences in Lagos inform the stories in this book? My Nigerian upbringing certainly informed my perspective on life since I spent my formative years there. The most frequently taught values, knowing right from wrong, honoring parents, showing kindness, wielding caution in all things—essentially, the Ten Commandments—are principles that tend to show up in my storytelling whether I want them to or not, 24
1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
even as my worldview has shifted over the years. In Lagos, my American mother had a small restaurant where she served only Nigerian foods. The place, RASK’s, was always packed, luring guests from locals to expats from India, Russia, Canada, Korea and of course other Americans. From watching all of those interactions, I learned many truths about life, that the tongue becomes untangled when the language is love, that strangers can become friends and family, that borders, though invisible, only prevent us from truly seeing one another. Nigerians are amiable and welcoming, and my early exposure to that warmth toward others was the reason I wanted to explore different parts of the world with my work. I have traveled quite a bit, and not once have I ever returned the same. My hope was to offer some of that wonder to others in my book, No God Like the Mother. To Nigeria, my mother and all the people who came through my life with their stories, I’m grateful. Tell us a bit about your journey in becoming a writer.
I went to high school in Albany, California, where I met two amazing teachers who opened my eyes to my dreams. I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, since I learned to talk, but that was often difficult for me in my family, as the youngest girl. When I discovered the joy in writing over speaking my thoughts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. No family member encourages their loved one to chase a writing career, particularly not in a Nigerian household, and for good reasons—the money is ever dwindling (unless Oprah calls), the luck of discovery is doled out only to a special few, plus, ‘Are you mad?’— but I was fortunate to meet Mrs. Mori and Ms. Simms, my English teachers in high school, who nudged me toward my dream with inspiration. I shared a personal story about both teachers in my book, though I wish Mrs. Mori were still with us to see for herself how a moment of lifting me up changed my life. I have not seen or heard from Ms. Simms in years, but when I do, I’ll enjoy sharing with her how her belief in me cleared all obstacles in my path toward becoming Kesha AjọsẹFisher, award-winning author.
THE SKY ISN’T THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN SEA STARS
LEARN MORE AT AQUARIUM.ORG
food + drink
Cocktail Card recipe courtesy of Jessica Swain, Stanford’s / CLACKAMAS AND HILLSBORO
London Sunrise Stanford’s inaugural Community Cocktail will be featured on the menu at both locations through May as a fundraiser for two local education-based nonprofits, the Hillsboro Schools Foundation and the North Clackamas Education Foundation.
• 1½ ounces Grey Goose l’Orange • ½ ounce Aperol • 1 ounce orange juice • ½ ounce Earl Grey Simple Syrup (recipe below) • 4-5 dashes orange bitters • 1 ounce soda water • Thinly sliced, charred orange, for garnish FOR EARL GREY SIMPLE SYRUP Makes 1 cup • 3 bags of Earl Grey tea • 1 cup water • 1 cup sugar FOR EARL GREY SIMPLE SYRUP Place three bags of Earl Grey tea, 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar into a saucepan and simmer until the sugar melts and the tea bags have steeped, 5-10 minutes. Take off the heat and allow to cool completely. Strain into a container and keep refrigerated. FOR COCKTAIL Combine all ingredients except soda water into a mixing glass with ice. Shake and strain into a coupe glass. Top with soda water and garnish with charred orange.
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Beerlandia
Beer + Adventure written by Jeremy Storton | illustration by Ashten Wickham I WAS 80 MILES in on a 120-mile bike ride when we stopped for lunch. My buddy and I had a sandwich and a beer. The beer was a forgettable massproduced international lager. But it tasted like sunshine on a cloudy day. Years later, I experienced the same phenomenon. After a heavy bout of sweat-dripping outdoor adventure, I had a burger and a Mirror Pond. Once again, I tasted flavor heaven. I’m not aware of any empirical studies proving that our taste buds work better after significant effort, but my experience, combined with anecdotal evidence from many of my friends, confirm that beer tastes better after we’ve earned it. The truth is that a post-exercise beer is both a benefit and a detriment. Too much can further dehydrate you. But a celebratory beer with friends after a climb, a run, a swim, a surf session is immeasurably beneficial. It all depends on the amount and the intent. One of the things I love about Oregon is that we are a tribe of beer-loving outdoor hooligans. I don’t recommend we drink in the midst of our adventure, but enjoying a beer is a great exclamation point at the end. Even more, with the innovation of excellent no and low-alcohol beers, alcohol is now optional. This May and June, we have Mother’s and Father’s day, and great events like Babes & Brews on the Coast at Pelican Brewing’s Siletz Bay pub, Lager Fest at Buoy Brewing in Astoria, and myriad fun beer runs at breweries like Trapdoor, Xicha, 10 Barrel and Gorges. There are plenty of opportunities to test out my theory. So tell me Oregon, what adventure makes your beer taste better?
New Radio Show “Like a record player and a library card all in one” —Host Lynnsay Maynard Sundays at 12 PM 89.9 FM allclassical.org
717 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205 503.223.4720 www.maloys.com
Nothing but blue skies For fine antique and custom jewelry, or for repair work, come visit us, or shop online at Maloys.com. We also buy.
Photos: Fernweh Food Co.
food + drink
CRAVINGS: PLUSH PICNIC PARTIES
POLKA DOTS & PICNICS It’s all in the details for founder Lauren Tietsort. From the crystal glassware and cloth linens to fresh flowers, elegant lanterns and vintage tea trays, she and her team create enchanting gatherings to elevate any occasion. Options range from opulent picnics and charming teepee sleepovers to the recently added Pamper-Nic, a picnic with spa amenities and a mimosa bar.
ABOVE Fernweh Food Co.’s mushroom pot pie for the healthy hiker. AT RIGHT Fernweh’s founder, Ashley Lance, tested her own foods many years on trails in the PNW.
Gastronomy
Fernweh Food Co. written by Kerry Newberry FERNWEH FOOD CO. was born out of deep wanderlust and a love for outdoor adventure. “I started off making my own food for bike tours and backpacking trips in 2015,” said founder Ashley Lance. The avid traveler named the company after a German term that poetically translates to “a deep longing for distant places you’ve never been.” Long treks along the evergreen trails around Mount Rainier and other iconic peaks provided ample opportunities for backcountry recipe testing—and sharing her provisions with enthusiastic friends. Four years and miles and miles of trails later, Lance launched her plant-based adventure meals at local farmer’s markets with hearty blends like Southwest Stew and Mushroom Pot Pie. The punchy flavors packed in compostable pouches were a quick hit. When Backpacker magazine named Fernweh’s Green Tamale Pie “best adventure dinner” in 2022, sales skyrocketed. Lance gets creative with the Oregon Origins Project, small-batch packs that celebrate what’s in season. “It’s how we are able to stay connected with our local food makers and farmers,” she said. Current selections include a hot sauce powder made in collaboration with Portland-based Marshall’s Haute Sauce—a surefire way to spice up any backcountry dish. Along with a chard and roasted garlic add-in, an easy way to veggie-up ramen. “We source the chard from Blue Truck Produce in Wilsonville and The Urban Acre Homestead in Portland,” said Lance. In the works, another ramen add-in showcasing the briny pop of dulse from Oregon Seaweed. PORTLAND www.fernwehfoodco.com
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PORTLAND www.polkadotsandpicnics.com
ROGUE PICNICS Expect a dreamy tableau of colorful pillows, blankets and tabletop decor when you work with Rogue Picnics. Owner Kelly Hammond takes advantage of nearby local wineries including Hummingbird Estate Winery and Naumes Suncrest Winery for luxe picnics with stunning vineyard views. Other popular themes include coastal elopement picnics and movie pop-ups. For a more impromptu option, opt for the compact—but still stylish—picnic box to go. MEDFORD, ASHLAND, ROGUE VALLEY www.roguepicnics.com
THE OREGON PICNIC CO. Sisters Donika Burdette and Dayna Brink bring joy to any celebration with their creative and cheery picnic packages. In addition to a list of pre-scouted locations that range from the Willamette Valley to coastal beaches, you’ll find a suite of inspired themes from afternoon tea parties and seaside flings to movie magic with nostalgic upgrades like a popcorn machine, gourmet hot dogs and cake with white buttercream for dessert. EUGENE www.oregonpicnic.com
FISH + FORAGE ADVENTURES
Marielle Gibbons
BEST PLACES FOR
WILD FOOD ADVENTURES Sign up early to join John Kallas, a Pacific Northwest legend, on one of many of the foraging expeditions he offers that run spring through autumn. An author and leading educator, Kallas has been teaching enthusiasts about edible wild plants since 1970. Upcoming workshops include exploring the wild foods of Sauvie Island, Forest Park and Oxbow’s Old Growth Forest, along with harvesting sea vegetables and wild foods along the coast.
Dining
Janken
Marielle Gibbons
CANNON BEACH + GARIBALDI www.shiftingtidesnw.com
Marielle Gibbons
Learn all about the coast’s intertidal wonders with Alanna Kieffer on one of her recently launched wild food workshops. By day, the environmental educator farms Oregon dulse. On weekends, she leads seasonal shellfish and seaweed foraging excursions along the Northern Oregon Coast, teaching participants how to identify and sustainably harvest wild edibles followed by a beachside cooking demo.
Joey Wrinn
SHIFTING TIDES
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Executive chef Rodrigo Ochoa (center) and the Janken team. Eye-catching plates at Janken. Caviar service features latkes, blinis and quail eggs. A faux cherry tree anchors the dining space.
written by Kerry Newberry
At this classic coastal spot, you can rent a boat to go crabbing, crab from the dock, dig for clams across the bay, or opt to buy fresh shellfish and have it cooked onsite. As the days get longer and warmer, make a long weekend out of it and take advantage of the waterfront tent sites at this family-run marina.
AFTER A HONEYMOON to the Pacific Northwest, chef Rodrigo Ochoa was smitten and soon after swapped Miami for Portland. Lucky for us, he’s now leading the team at Janken, a splashy new restaurant in the Pearl District. In Miami, Ochoa launched his career mentored by the legendary chef Doug Rodriguez and then cooked in some of the city’s most remarkable restaurants including Mandarin Oriental, Zuma, Komodo and StripSteak by Michael Mina. He brings some Miami shimmer to Janken, a contemporary space with origami lanterns and a luminous cherry tree that anchors the restaurant. Six nights a week, Ochoa turns out deeply satisfying spins on Japanese and Korean cuisine from a buttery hamachi crudo and silky miso black cod to the umami-packed Aburi sake, a flame-seared salmon belly feathered with fresh truffle. Other showstoppers include the smoked wagyu nigiri topped with uni and caviar presented tableside in a smoking cloche; three-day Peking duck; and the most elegant caviar service around. Also perfect for sharing, there’s pillowy bao buns stuffed with maitake tempura and tiny salmon tacos topped with briny ikura. For dessert, pastry chef Gabriella Martinez delivers eye-catching treats from matcha mille-feuille and assorted mochi to that bewitching pink party in a bowl you’ll spy throughout dinner. It’s the berry cheesecake bingsu, a Korean shaved ice dessert that tastes like joy.
29200 US-101 ROCKAWAY BEACH www.kellysbrightonmarina.com
250 NW 13TH AVE. PORTLAND www.jankenrestaurant.com
PORTLAND + OREGON COAST www.wildfoodadventures.com
KELLY’S BRIGHTON MARINA
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farm to table
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farm to table
Farm to Table
Green Balls of Fire Will the real wasabi please stand up? written by Julie Lee photography by Dan Hawk THAT GREEN BALL resting next to the ginger on the side of your sushi roll? Turns out that isn’t wasabi after all; instead, it’s a mixture of horseradish and green food dye. In fact, odds are favorable that most of humanity has never tasted fresh wasabi. Fresh wasabi has a unique flavor and a rich distinctive heat that’s radically different than a horseradish-based paste. With a combined vegetal and savory flavor profile, wasabi pairs well with myriad center plate dishes and sides like mashed potatoes, steaks and noodles. It’s also an excellent flavor enhancer in everything from salt sprinkled on popcorn to salad dressings to Bloody Marys. Bonus? It makes for a pretty garden plant that’s edible while the plant grows, like kale. Wasabi rhizomes, leaves and stems are harvested and available year-round on the Oregon Coast. Jennifer Bloeser, co-founder and CEO of Oregon Coast Wasabi, is happy to see cognizance grow in consumers about what is and isn’t real wasabi. “People are eating more wasabi and more aware of the difference between what they thought wasabi was and what it really is,” she said. “People were surprised that paste didn’t have any wasabi in it. Our customer base has broadened with awareness.” Oregon Coast Wasabi originated as Frog Eyes Wasabi Farm, one of North America’s only commercial wasabi operations and the only one in Oregon. Wasabi has a reputation for being difficult to grow, demanding an environment not easily found outside certain areas of Japan. The Oregon Coast, however, offers the optimal trifecta of needed growing conditions for wasabi: year-round humidity, cool climate and pristine water. Oregon Coast AT LEFT Jennifer Bloeser, co-founder and CEO of Oregon Coast Wasabi, stands inside the Oregon Coast Wasabi greenhouse.
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farm to table
Wasabi simulates wasabi’s natural environment by utilizing coastal streams, reliable rainwater and shady surroundings. “We see more and more people interested in growing the plants,” said Bloeser. “You can grow them anywhere if you bring them inside when it freezes or gets too hot. It’s just different than most—you think you need a lot of sunshine, but wasabi is a shade plant that doesn’t like direct sun. It’s not an aquatic plant, but it likes stream beds and requires oxygen. You can grow it in well-drained soil, and it does just fine.” When Bloeser speaks of wasabi like one would talk about their children, it’s because these plants are like kids to her, something to be cared for, nurtured and protected year-round. What is now a passion and a business started at an equestrian event. “There was a gardener at this event offering wasabi plants. I was an avid gardener at the time, so I took some. We started growing plants to give away to our neighbors in exchange for tomatoes, and it all kind of snowballed from there. A friend of my husband’s knew of a piece of property for sale that would be optimal for wasabi growing, and the rest is history. We broke ground on that site in 2010.” Wasabi is shipped all over the country from Oregon Coast Wasabi, and while sushi restaurants have been reliable customers for years, a new crop of chefs are discovering wasabi’s flavor benefits in everything from beer and cider to chocolate. 32 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
ABOVE, FROM TOP Wasabi rhizomes, trimmed and ready for washing at Oregon Coast Wasabi. Jennifer Bloeser inspects recently harvested plants.
farm to table
“There was a gardener at this event offering wasabi plants. I was an avid gardener at the time, so I took some. We started growing plants to give away to our neighbors in exchange for tomatoes, and it all kind of snowballed from there.” — Jennifer Bloeser, Oregon Coast Wasabi co-founder and CEO, on the company’s beginning “Wasabi has become something people think about when they are looking for interesting flavors,” said Bloeser. Though trajectory for wasabi as a business is good, because there are such specific growth requirements, there are still only three farms in the country. Oregon Coast Wasabi does its own distribution, shipping directly from the farm, harvested to order, and fresh every week. Wholesale is a big part of their business, though anyone in the U.S. can order through their website, www.thewasabistore.com. Initial crops take eighteen to thirty-six months to grow, depending on growing conditions. “This plant is a little bit of a weirdo”, said Bloeser. “It doesn’t go dormant, so you need to care of it for 36 months, making for a long gap between initial outlay and produced results. It can’t freeze or get too hot, and it’s hard to do at scale. If your first crop fails, you’re looking at starting over for another thirty-six months.” Oregon Coast Wasabi now has two farm sites after maxing out the first, creating more space for the necessary greenhouses. Bloeser predicts that over the next decade, people are going to become increasingly aware of the health side of wasabi as overall interest in health and wellness grows. “Wasabi has antibacterial and antiparasitic effects which were discovered years ago,” she said. “It can help with digestive issues, inflammation, and there have also been successful trials with cancer treatment. It’s a really old and really interesting plant.” Sushi chef Kate Koo of Zilla Sake in Portland has been a customer of Oregon Coast Wasabi for years—check out her Little Gem Salad featuring fresh Oregon Dungeness crab on the following page. Chef and culinary ambassador Leif Benson ups the wasabi game using freshly grated ginger with his spin on a slaw paired with ahi. And Robbie Wilson, previously of Portland’s Botanist and currently curating a bottled cocktail brand called As Above So Below, brilliantly grates fresh wasabi into a delicious cocktail called The Grind.
ABOVE, FROM TOP Jennifer Bloeser trims a wasabi rhizome at the farm. Bloeser grates fresh wasabi—“Wasabi has become something people think about when they are looking for interesting flavors,” she said.
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Little Gem Salad with Wasabi-Yuzu Vinaigrette.
Wasabi-Ginger Vinaigrette Slaw with Ahi and Edamame.
Little Gem Salad with Wasabi-Yuzu Vinaigrette
Oregon Recipes
Zilla Sake / PORTLAND Owner and Chef Kate Koo
Discovering True Wasabi Wasabi-Ginger Vinaigrette Slaw with Ahi and Edamame Chef Leif Benson, Culinary Ambassador / BORING
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated • 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
SERVES 4
FOR THE AHI TUNA • 1 pound ahi tuna
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE • ½ cup seasoned rice wine vinegar • ¼ cup honey • ½ tablespoon (or to taste) wasabi paste • 1 tablespoon soy sauce • ½ tablespoon sesame oil • ½ tablespoon lime juice
FOR THE SLAW • 8 cups of your favorite vegetable shreds, such as: Napa cabbage, carrots, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts or radicchio • 1 cup steamed edamame • Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, torn
The Grind
• ½ ounce freshly grated wasabi • Orange twist, to garnish
Bartender Robbie Wilson / PORTLAND SERVES 1 • 2 ounces Belvedere Forest Vodka • ½ ounce Martini Ambrato Vermouth • ¼ ounce lemon, juiced • ¼ ounce 2:1 honey syrup • 1 barspoon white Semillon Verjus
Grate wasabi and let sit for 10 minutes to cure. Then pour over the grater and wash it into the shaker. Add other ingredients and then add ice. Shake vigorously until cold. Double strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
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SERVES 4-6
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE Combine all ingredients and mix well. FOR THE AHI TUNA Marinate ahi tuna in a small amount of wasabi vinaigrette for 10 minutes. Pan sear tuna to rare or serve raw. FOR THE SLAW Dress the slaw with wasabi vinaigrette. Thin slice tuna, and place around slaw. Garnish with edamame and fresh cilantro.
FOR THE WASABI-YUZU VINAIGRETTE • 2 tablespoons canola oil • 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar • 1½ teaspoon freshly grated wasabi root • 1 teaspoon yuzu Juice • ½ teaspoon sugar • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt FOR THE SALAD • 4 ounces Little Gem lettuce leaves, washed and dried • 6 ounces pomelo sections, peeled and membrane removed • 8 ounces Oregon Dungeness crab meat • 15-20 pieces thinly sliced purple daikon FOR THE WASABI-YUZU VINAIGRETTE Whisk all ingredients for the vinaigrette and set aside.
The Grind cocktail.
FOR THE SALAD Put lettuce leaves and purple daikon in a bowl and dress with the vinaigrette. Add the Oregon Dungeness crab and pomelo sections and toss lightly.
Visit Prineville & Crook County for your next outdoor adventure. You'll be glad you did. prinevillechamber.com
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farm to table
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Root Cause
written by Thor Erickson | photography by Tambi Lane ONCE UPON A TIME, I worked for a chef who loved wasabi. He loved it so much that he used it in almost everything. Of course there were the Japanese-style preparations such as California rolls, sashimi, tuna tartare and yellowfin carpaccio, and then there were others including wasabi mashed potatoes, wasabi biscuits, and yes, wasabi cheesecake that would occasionally be showcased as a special menu item. The precious ten-pound sacks of pure Japanese wasabi powder arrived weekly and quickly used in whatever whim he’d dream up. One morning while I was doing the weekly inventory and ordering, the purveyor informed me that the pure wasabi powder was not available and no longer being imported to the U.S. I quickly ordered a recommended substitute brand. When the new wasabi arrived, I inspected the bag and found that there was no wasabi whatsoever in the wasabi powder, just mustard powder, food coloring and modified starch. Upon delivering this news to the chef, he had a meltdown. What would he do without his favorite ingredient? Would the list of specials ever look the same? He stormed out of the kitchen and did not return for several days. Those were dark days for everyone left working at the restaurant in the meantime. The guests were asking a lot of questions, primarily, “Where’s the chef?” All of us on the staff agreed that we would never utter the word wasabi again. The next night, one of the cooks brought in his uncle to wash dishes. While I was showing him around the kitchen, someone mentioned the “W” word. Our new dishwasher said that he had wasabi growing near the creek behind his house. “I’ll bring some in tomorrow,” he said casually, while scrubbing a large pot. The next day he showed up with a grocery bag stuffed full of wasabi roots and its bulbous rhizomes. “Here it is,” he said, spilling the bag onto the prep table. “There’s plenty more where that came from.” I quickly grated some of the fresh green rhizome and tasted it. The pleasant heat was accompanied by a fresh grassy flavor like fresh spinach or asparagus—it far surpassed the imported Japanese wasabi that we had been using. We could not use those roots fast enough. They were continuing to grow in the walk-in refrigerator, so much so that they were taking over. I decided to plant some in the small patch of ground outside the kitchen. After weeks of generous watering and care, our mini wasabi farm was thriving. The chef had since changed his focus to saffron. Here is a recipe that pairs fresh wasabi with fresh oysters—a match made in Oregon. 36 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
farm to table
Oysters with wasabi mignonette and a dishwasher who rescued a chef from an uncertain wasabi- and ego-driven fate.
Oysters with Wasabi Mignonette SERVES 2-6 • 6 fresh oysters, shucked (I prefer Netarts Bay oysters) • 1 teaspoon fresh wasabi rhizome • 1 sprig fresh chervil or other fresh herb • 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar • 1 tablespoon Lillet blanc or other white wine of your choice • 1 tablespoon finely minced shallot Finely dice the shallot, mince the herbs and grate the fresh wasabi root as fine as possible (I use a microplane for this). Let the fresh grated wasabi root rest, covered, for ten minutes—use this time to shuck the oysters. Mix the fresh wasabi root, chervil, vinegar, Lillet and shallot. Carefully spoon onto the fresh oysters.
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Campfire Collaborative
home + design
The Lake Life A Eugene couple rebuild their Mercer Lake cabin into the ultimate retirement destination written by Melissa Dalton
WHEN IT WAS TIME to decide where to retire, Meredith and Steve Swenson didn’t look to far-flung locales, instead eyeing something much closer to their North Eugene home—their 1960s summer cabin on Mercer Lake. The only problem? At only 480 square feet, the four-room cabin had been built as a fishing outpost for boats and basics, but little else. The couple, who both worked for the City of Eugene—he as a police Captain and she as a design and construction project manager—were ready to downsize, but not quite by that much. Mercer Lake is a freshwater lake a few miles north of Florence, making the climate a bit warmer in the summer than the coast, and surrounded by old growth forest. Steve grew up on the water in San Diego and bought the property in 2005. With no insulation and cabinets wallpapered in a 1960s pattern, “It was not really intended to live in full time,” said Meredith. Still, while there, the couple could spend the day fishing or boating, ABOVE Views of Mercer Lake from the small retirement cabin’s deck.
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hike the nearby Hobbit Trail or walk the beach, and have dinner at nearby Florence restaurants. For years, the tiny cabin served its purpose as a cozy destination for weekend trips just 75 miles from their 1,600-squarefoot ranch house in North Eugene. “It was like a mini vacation every time, without having to travel for three hours,” said Meredith. “So, it was my husband’s dream to live out here, and it was my dream to have a smaller house, but well-designed.” In 2015, Meredith reached out to a former co-worker, architect Jenna Fribley. Fribley, alongside Kelsey Buzzell, runs an independent architecture and design practice in Springfield called Campfire Collaborative. “Their attention to detail and design of functional small spaces is pretty amazing,” said Meredith, who was impressed by the firm’s design for two houses at Emerald Village Eugene, a low-income housing co-op of twenty-two tiny homes.
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nate@copperwest.com
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CUSTOM HOME IN MT HOOD/PARKDALE, OR • 3BD/2.5BA • 8.5 ACRES Enjoy stunning, unimpeded views of Mt Hood in a secluded, private setting. 2017 custom home on 8.5 acres. 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths with a chef ’s kitchen. Office and Den spaces on the main floor and second floor. Oversized, two stall garage. Includes a huge mudroom with laundry adjacent to the kitchen. Large fenced back yard. Irrigation water rights, fiber internet to the house, close to recreation and town. Your perfect Gorge location!
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OCTOBER 1
highdesertmuseum.org
MADE POSSIBLE BY
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ABOVE, FROM TOP In the cabin’s loft, floor-to-ceiling windows lead out to a balcony, and the murphy bed folds up and out of the way to conserve precious space during the day. The kitchen brings in white oak cabinets and blue penny tile to keep the space open and airy. On either side of the media center, the Swensons found practical solutions for dead space.
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The Swenson’s cabin sits back from the lake in a cove, perched on a hillside, and with its own dock. In the previous layout, the front door opened beside the kitchen stove—not exactly where you want to drop your keys and wallet. The couple needed to accommodate more flexible living and guest stays, and of course, get more storage. Being a design professional, Meredith had some specifics to avoid, including “Home Depot finishes, orange peel texture and mediocrity” said Fribley with a laugh. The design team and the Swensons convened at the cottage for the first design charette: a meeting to hash out the fundamentals of form and function, and feel out the site. “There was no internet out there,” said Fribley. “So, we printed photos off of Pinterest and brought a bunch of books about cabins and stuff, and doodled and diagramed.” From that, they had their priorities in place, like the shape of the house and how to capture more water views. Due to limitations of the site and septic system placement, they expanded the footprint to 1,090 square feet, pushing out twelve
Photos: Campfire Collaborative
home + design
AT LEFT Folding walls and kitchen windows are a great way to bring small spaces together in a new combination. ABOVE The Swenson cabin is north of Florence on the Oregon Coast.
feet towards the water and vaulting the ceiling, adding more kitchen and living area, an additional powder room, and a lofted flex space. Now, there’s multiple points to connect with the water. In the living room, a glass wall folds open to the deck. In the kitchen, a Marvin window slides aside to reveal a seating and serving counter for outdoor dining. And in the loft, a glass door that accesses a quiet balcony is surrounded by windows reaching the ceiling peak. All of that openness is balanced by “thick walls” of floor-to-ceiling built-ins on the non-view perimeter walls in the kitchen and living rooms. The walls’ opaqueness blocks views from the road and neighboring houses, while providing the much-needed storage. “I asked them to create something that had enough storage for us to live here, but for it not to look like storage,” said Meredith. “I really wanted it to blend in.” Now, that rift-sawn white oak storage is found throughout, from the custom kitchen cabinets, to the loft’s murphy bed and office space, to the bedroom’s eight-foot-tall closets and built-in
headboard. In the living room, the firm detailed two niches on either side of a media center, with one niche for a wood-burning stove, and one with a cozy chair and window into a side yard. “We were really trying to figure out how to make it dynamic with these two voids,” said Buzzell. For finishes, the designers wove in a more contemporary Pacific Northwest aesthetic throughout, encasing the exterior in darkstained cedar and contrasting that with a light and bright interior. Accents include mid-century modern pops, such as the sky-blue penny tile in the kitchen and Meredith’s vintage furniture and lighting finds. Since moving in early 2020, the couple have been luxuriating in their new lakeside lifestyle, whether sipping coffee on the deck in the morning, watching the winter waterfowl, or hopping in a neighbor’s boat for a happy hour cruise. “It’s been a joy living in nature full time,” said Meredith. “We are enjoying the quiet and beauty of the winter, not just the summer.” MAY | JUNE 2023
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home + design
DIY
Build a Raised Garden Bed COME SPRING and summer, a veggie garden is a great reason to get outside, whether sowing seeds, watching starts get bigger and bigger, or harvesting your next salad, or stir-fry. Here are some guidelines to get growing in a raised garden bed, which allows the gardener to control the soil quality, and not have to bend over quite so far. 1 LOCATE In order for most vegetable and herb plants to grow, the garden needs to be placed in a spot with well-drained soil and 6-8 hours of sunlight. 2
BUILD WALLS AND THE BOX Clamp three boards together for each wall. Using screws, attach support posts on the interior of the walls, both in the corners and spaced equally along the sides. Connect the walls to create a box.
MEASURE AND CUT WOOD This is for a 4-foot by 6-foot bed that’s 10.5 inches high, using untreated lumber, like cedar or redwood. Start with seven 10-foot 2x4s, and measure and cut them into the following pieces:
ADD SOIL AND PLANTS Online calculators will help determine how many bags of soil and compost will be needed to fill the bed. Certain soil amendments will also help improve the quality of the soil. Read any plant tags to better understand what varieties grow well together, and how much depth the plant’s roots will need.
• Six 6-foot-long boards, for the
long walls
• Six 45-inch-long boards, for the
short walls • Ten 10.5-inch boards, for support posts
STEP 3: Create the walls, then use the support posts to connect the walls into a box.
STEP 6: Add soil, compost and your favorite plant varieties to your garden bed.
4
PLACE Lay the box down on the grass and using a shovel, mark its placement. Move the box out of the way, preferably with helping hands, then remove all of the grass to expose the soil underneath the bed. Aerate the soil to prepare it for the new vegetables to root.
5
COVER To prevent weed growth, attach wide-mesh hardware cloth to the
ACCESSORIZE Growing a vine or tall plant? Add a trellis along the side of the bed to support them. If there’s a large pest problem, like deer or the neighbor’s cat, create a frame out of wood or PVC pipe and add mesh to keep them out. Put clear plastic over the frame to make it a cloche, which can protect plants in cold and wet conditions, extend growing seasons, and keep the soil warm for germinating seeds.
STEP 2: Measure and cut your wood into six 6-foot-long boards, six 45-inch-long boards and ten 10.5-inch boards.
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bottom of the box, or lay down landscape fabric, or newspaper, on the open floor of the bed. Also, if the untreated wood isn’t rot resistant, line the interior walls with heavy-duty plastic sheeting to protect the wood from moisture.
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home + design
Garden Tubs for Summer Soaks The Garden Tub by Soake may have been inspired by ancient water troughs, but this modern version for soaking outside in the garden is much prettier. Cast in architectural concrete with a raised floral pattern on the exterior and a glass tile mosaic inside, it’ll look just right with the flowers. www.soakepools.com
The Hammered Copper Japanese-Style Soaker Bathtub combines an artisan look, thanks to that hammered finish, with the durability and natural heat conducting power of classic copper. Just imagine it nestled in a Japanese-style garden for the ultimate soothing outdoor bath experience. www.premiercopperproducts.com
Composed of natural jute fiber and cement into a proprietary material called NativeStone, these soaking tubs offer a crisp and modern silhouette. The thick curved walls, deep basin, and improved sealant will ensure nice long al-fresco soaks. www.nativetrailshome.com
There are many places to purchase a traditional cedar tub, but what about a heat pump that both warms and cools the water? Check out the Arctic Heat Pump at Northern Lights, which claims these as the only North American heat pump that can do both, and function efficiently in temperatures as low as 20 Fahrenheit, so you can have a hot tub in winter, and a cold plunge under the hot summer sun. www.cedartubs.com MAY | JUNE 2023
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mind + body Tommy Ford in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup men’s giant slalom on October 23, 2022, in Soelden, Austria.
Skis pointed downhill and seeking more written by Grant Stringer
TOMMY FORD still wants to go fast. The Bend-based ski racer, 34, says he’s the oldest member of the U.S. Ski Team. Reached by phone in late March, Ford had just raced the world cup finals in Andorra and ended the season ranked 23rd in giant slalom—his specialty—and 74th overall. It was kind of a rough year, he said. Many of his peers have retired. But Ford isn’t hanging up his skis any time soon. “I’m still hungry to ski fast and ski free. I think it’s still realistic to do that,” Ford said. There’s good reason to believe that Ford’s best days are ahead of him. He has skied best later in his career—in fact, he clocked much of his success since about the time he turned 30. In 2019, Ford blew out the competition in a blistering giant slalom run at Beaver Creek, Colorado, to score first place. His victory there also ended a long winless streak for the American men’s ski team. Ford rose to fifth in the world. But his progress was cut short by a sudden crash in 2021 that tore almost every ligament in his knee and knocked him out. In other interviews, Ford said he suffered through depression while recovering, partly because of the concussion and partly because he didn’t have an outlet for physical exercise. It was a dark time. The three-time Olympian rehabilitated himself almost immediately. In 2022, Ford thrilled the skiing world with an incredible run that launched him from 26th place to 6th in an Austria world cup event. He then placed 12th at the Beijing Olympics, his best finish in the games. Ford reflected on his long career and his relationship with skiing as he drove through Austria, en route to meet friends and 44
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relax. Spring had sprung and blossoms peaked out. He was laconic and matter-of-fact as he discussed his approach, which seemed surprising for the high-stakes world of alpine skiing, where a tenth of a second can make or break you and one mistake puts your body on the line. Ford is chasing a white whale, and it’s not necessarily a spot on the podium. It’s a feeling: skiing freely, “mindlessly.” Shedding his inhibitions. When he’s able to achieve that mindset, it’s go-time. It’s so pivotal to his skiing that reaching this state is his chief goal. Ford raced throughout the globe this season on the FIS World Cup circuit. He competed with some serious star power at a historic moment for ski racing. Swiss superstar Marco Odermatt earned the most points in a season in world cup history, to the delight of frenzied Swiss fans gathered in Andorra. And on the American team, Mikaela Shiffrin had a banner year that shattered a slew of records. She won the giant slalom final and broke the record for the most World Cup races won in history. As the U.S. Ski Team elder, Ford has become a mentor for his younger teammates. He still remembers his first visit as a cub racer to a world cup event and watching his idols: Hermann Maier—the legendary Austrian racer whose record Odermatt just shattered—and Americans Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves. Ford, the son of two coaches, was practically born with skis on his feet. But seeing his heroes in person made him realize it really was possible to race in the big leagues. His advice to young racers: don’t focus on run times and ranks. Cultivate relationships with coaches and the mountains. And have fun. “Just go out and enjoy skiing—all forms of it,” he said.
Photo: Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images, courtesy of U.S. Ski & Snowboard
Bend Phenom Tommy Ford
Pursuing excellence through fitness 61615 Athletic Club Drive
(541) 385-3062
artist in residence For the last two decades, Sean Croghan has lived in the same Northeast Portland home. Backyard solo performances only require a dry place to sit.
Portland in Paint and Sound Sean Croghan knows his hometown by heart written and photographed by Daniel O’Neil
GUITARS, PENS, paint, microphones, sketchbooks, amplifiers, Coyote and Raccoon, old Portland punk rock, too much coffee, pizza by the slice: Sean Croghan’s world of art and inspiration covers the Rose City. Best known for his songs and voice that have defined Portland for three decades, Croghan has painted and doodled for even longer. Today he calls on both art forms to dip into the spirit and deliver the message of the only city and state he has ever called home. 46
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Raised in Gresham by parents from Eastern Oregon, Croghan absorbed influences from the city as well as the shrubland. His family pursued various art forms like woodcarving and sketching, and his father collected jazz records. Croghan started drawing as a kid. When he was 17, having discovered the emerging punk rock sound and ethos, he got an electric guitar, played it every day for a year, and began writing his own songs instead of copying others. “I was just a guy in my bedroom screaming at the walls,” Croghan said, so by age 25 he had a band, Crackerbash, which made him famous in the early ’90s underground Pacific Northwest
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artist in residence
ABOVE, LEFT “Coyote has been part of my imagination since I was a kid,” Sean Croghan said. In the third grade, his grandparents gave him a copy of The World of the Coyote, which he still uses for reference today. ABOVE, RIGHT “What do you want to do, ink?” Croghan asks as he begins another interpretation of Coyote. In winter, the kitchen sometimes provides the warmest, most convenient place to paint.
scene. Rather than pursue stardom, though, Croghan kept to his roots, playing with new bands and throwing pizzas at Escape From New York where girls would go buy a slice just to see the rock star Croghan. “The soul-ripping parts of celebrity scared me,” Croghan said. Close friends like musician Elliott Smith manifested the drawbacks of fame. “I jumped off the ride intentionally. Maybe that was a disservice to me, but it didn’t kill me.” What’s more important, Croghan asks, the art or the artist? The message, he answers, is more important than the messenger. Since his early teens, Croghan has found inspiration in bands like The Clash, and his own songs take a similarly political, proletarian stance. Others look more inward. “If in my songs I talk about what’s wrong in the world, I have to address myself, too,” he said. In his latest band, The Mistons, Croghan considers social, political, and personal issues. But when he’s drawing or painting at home, or sketching in a coffee shop, Croghan connects with a more spiritual side of storytelling. 48 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
“I’m from Portland, not the Middle East or Ireland, so I use Chinook stories as a launch pad,” Croghan said. “I’m telling my own story, but in the same place as people like the Chinook. I feel their presence here. So I’m blending myths, like sampling in hip-hop, cultural sampling.” Traditional stories about Coyote, Crow or Raccoon, which he reads and rereads from a favorite book, Coyote Was Going There, resonate in Croghan. “Those stories are still relevant to this day,” he said. “Coyote is working toward personhood. He does good things and terrible things, makes mistakes and learns from them. That’s what people do.” Longtime friend Jay Martin has known Croghan since the Crackerbash days. The two played music together in The Hellcows. Martin appreciates his friend’s inquisitiveness. “He’s always willing to learn new things,” he said. “Sean lets his imagination open up and run wild.” A natural performer and self-professed “ham,” Croghan inevitably seeks attention on the stage. But he also enjoys the
artist in residence
independence and individuality of creating visual art. With a pencil or paintbrush in hand, Croghan works behind the stage curtain. “I’m the producer, not just an actor in the story,” he said. “A band is more collaborative. In art, I can say what I want to say. It’s more about the art.” Croghan harnesses art and music to express the bigger stories in his head. “I’m illustrating the stories as they come to me,” he said. “I go through phases—anatomy, birds—whatever feels best. It’s ADHD. I can’t focus on one idea. Sometimes my creative energy is best expended on drawing, other times on music.” “Every day I speak with Sean, he has a fun new idea for music or art,” Martin said. “It’s ongoing. He’s not worried about the end results, and nothing holds him back. He’s on a bike with no training wheels.” The goal now for Croghan is to continue learning about whatever interests him and to arrive at more concise storytelling in music, lyrics and art. “I want to convey those messages better and keep the tradition of other storytellers who preceded me,” Croghan said. He’ll continue to represent the underrepresented in words and sound, and to make punk rock-style art like JeanMichel Basquiat, taking art back to the streets, giving it to those who most need it. “I used to get upset because I wanted to tell a story with music or art, but I didn’t have the skills,” Croghan said. “Now I send ideas out into the universe so someone will pick them up.” After decades of living a creative, albeit sometimes humanly faulty life, and providing art for Portland and beyond, Croghan has acquired wisdom to accompany his voice. “If every song is a prayer, be careful what you sing.”
ABOVE All sorts of materials form Sean Croghan’s artistic quiver. Characters like Raccoon, from local Indigenous stories, make up his cast. AT RIGHT Croghan was born in Portland, has lived there his whole life and doesn’t plan to leave.
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STARTUP 52 MY WORKSPACE 54
pg. 54 The work of documentary film editor Dan Sadowsky has been intregral to Academy Award-nominated films.
Jason Quigley
GAME CHANGER 56
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startup
network of “neuro-wellness country clubs” employing mushrooms and other techniques. Since January, Moksha has held retreats near Denver for a total of about a dozen clients. There are two options: a six-day retreat with two psilocybin experiences for about $10,000, or an eight-day retreat with three trips for about $15,000. (Lodging and chef-made, plant-based meals are included, and the prices aren’t set in stone, she said.) Her team specializes in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, brain injuries and early-onset dementia. They include an herbalist, sound therapist, ceremonialist, psychotherapist, a professor of molecular and cellular biology and a doctor specializing in genomics. The early results are promising. “Doctors have referred them to try psilocybin because there’s no other thing that they’ve tried that has helped them,” Moulin-Franco said of her clients. “And that’s pretty amazing to see the beneficial changes in those folks. I don’t want to overstate Moksha Journeys lead facilitator and lead instructor Sienna Terranova, right, it … but their families report that they saw beneficial changes demonstrates what a guided psilocybin experience would look like. that were enduring that they didn’t see with other things they had tried.” The retreat also includes whole days of “integrative therapy” with art, movement, meditation, sound therapy and post-trip processing sessions with facilitators. Nature, journaling, reflection and community are woven into the days—as are sweats in saunas and floats in hot tubs. Psilocybin retreats for PTSD patients Given Moulin-Franco’s own background, it makes sense that Moksha’s approach is a blend of Western science and written by Grant Stringer Eastern thought. In the 1980s and 1990s, Moulin-Franco worked as a psychoOREGON VOTERS legalized psilocybin—otherwise known as magic mushrooms—in November 2020, making Oregon the first therapist and addiction counselor specializing in alternative, state in the U.S. to do so. Since then, a panel of bureaucrats and holistic medicine. She has also lived in India, where she studied yogic practices, and worked in a slew of capacities as mushroom entrepreneurs have been hard at work writing a spiritual coach and mentor and expert on addiction regulations for the legal use of the mind-melding fungi and trauma over three decades. at licensed businesses. She cited the mounting scientific evidence that At long last, Oregon is now accepting applipsilocybin and other still-illicit psychedelics can cations for the “service centers” where trained provide breakthroughs for everyone from trauguides will dose clients. None have opened yet matized veterans to people addicted to alcohol or as of late March. other drugs. But one Oregonian’s work in Colorado, which Moulin-Franco also says “entheogenic” praclegalized psilocybin with less regulation, gives tices are key to clients’ success. That’s a term for hints about what this emerging industry may look the ritualistic and religious use of plant-derived like here. Rose Moulin-Franco, co-founder of Moksha Journeys. psychedelics, like mescaline in the U.S. Southwest Rose Moulin-Franco, based in Southern Or(photo: Rose Moulin-Franco) or ayahuasca in South America. In practice, this egon, is a U.S. Army veteran, addiction specialist and perpetual seeker of consciousness. She helped craft the means that Moksha retreats are imbued with mysticism. But like many other practitioners, she’s concerned about the state’s regulations. And she has co-founded a psilocybin company called Moksha Journeys. It’s a retreat program geared toward high cost of licensing in Oregon. The annual fee for a psilocybin service center is $10,000. people with serious brain conditions and trauma. She’s seeking investors and hopes Moksha Journeys will be up Moksha is already up and running in Colorado—and should be soon in Oregon. (Moksha is a Sanskrit word meaning “eman- and running in Oregon this year. cipation” or “enlightenment.”) It’s a wing of Moulin-Franco’s broader psilocybin project, For more information, visit www.mokshajourneys.com or email MORE ONLINE info@mokshajourneys.com which also trains trip-sitters, and her aspirations to build a
Magic Mushrooms Go Mainstream
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s re u n t d v e a
my workspace
A Passion For Stories An editor of the written word turns his ability to shape stories to documentary film editing written by Joni Kabana photography by Jason Quigley
As far back as he can recall, Dan Sadowsky has always loved telling stories. A natural career fit for him was to become a print journalist, covering sports, news and eventually shifting toward writing longer, narrative nonfiction. Sadowsky honed his editing skills along the way and found that he had natural talent for distilling varying sources of information into a concise and compelling storyline.
Today, Sadowsky focuses on documentary film editing. The projects he chooses to work on can at times be a harrowing look at intense subject matter: child hunger in Yemen, war in Syria, gun violence in America. Yet he somehow manages to thread heartache with heartfelt through a restrained editing process that lets the story speak for itself. He believes that by telling the story in an understated way without a lot of voiceover or explicit narrative, viewers can draw their own conclusions. Three recent films he has edited have been shortlisted or nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. 54
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my workspace
Sadowsky said the transition from editor to film editor was more technical than philosophical. “In documentary film, editing is where the story is told, so I felt like the storytelling skills that I had developed over my career as a journalist and writer were very transferable,” he said. “It was just a matter of learning the tool and continually honing my craft. Editing requires both imagination and problem-solving, so it’s really a mix of being creative and being analytical.”
Sadowsky begins by finding the most emotional moments and uses structure, rhythm and pacing to make the story interesting and hold the viewer’s attention. He looks for telling details and minutiae that illuminate the larger picture of a place or character. He believes the editor is the “intermediary between director and audience” and his job is to help the director tell the story they want to tell in the most poignant and entertaining way possible.
Often, the story that begins with filming is not the story that is ultimately shared. Sadowsky helps the director see the possibilities in their captured footage. He doesn’t get involved in a project until after filming is complete, as he wants to enter the project with an unbiased frame of reference, using the footage as his guide. “It takes a mix of confidence and humility to be a good editor,” he noted. “You have to trust your own sense of what’s compelling and memorable in the footage and the story. But at the end of the day, you’re making this film for an audience. So the audience is always right.”
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game changer
A Helping Hand FACT Oregon helps parents of children with disabilities learn how to speak up
SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING with Ruby. A child experiencing Down’s syndrome, she had seemed to be faring reasonably well in her early years in school. She was in a special education classroom and enjoyed coloring, listening to music, singing and dancing. But in third grade, Ruby started showing signs of distress, through behavioral changes. And the district didn’t have answers. That’s when her mom, Maria Rangel, learned about FACT Oregon, a statewide nonprofit based in Portland that helps families of children experiencing disabilities to better advocate for their education needs. 56
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That help turned Maria from a passive parent into a successful advocate, and her request for better bilingual communication tools made a difference, she said. “I got that strength from my newfound knowledge about what was best for my daughter and realizing that if I did not speak up, no one else would,” she said. Ruby is now doing well in high school, and Maria is now a bilingual program specialist at FACT Oregon. FACT, which stands for “Family and Community Together,” is officially designated as the Oregon-based “Parent Training & Information Center” by both the state and federal government,
Illustration: Allison Bye
written by James Sinks
game changer
“Oregon Department of Education has a strong partnership with FACT Oregon, with the two agencies aligned in our pursuit for a just educational system. We are incredibly grateful for the deep partnership and collective commitment of our friends at FACT Oregon.” — Marc Siegel, Oregon Department of Education spokesman
In addition to providing information and advocacy, the nonprofit also stages activities to improve the quality of life for children experiencing disabilities. In response to statistics that show those students are far less likely to participate in school sports, FACT Oregon stages a youth triathlon called “All Ability Tri4Youth.” The goal is for every child to have a success story. Nicole RiosSeems of Phoenix in Southern Oregon thinks a happier chapter is more likely for her eighth-grade son, who has struggled to adjust since the pandemic. Thanks to the assistance from FACT Oregon, she believes she knows what to say, and how to say it. “I am going to this meeting with my head held higher, better organized and ready to properly advocate for my son’s education,” she said.”I am so incredibly grateful.”
FACT Oregon
and the nonprofit receives part of its funding from government grants. Services include road maps for how to interface with public schools, parent classes, referrals, a hotline, and dispute resolution support, said Cori Mielke, FACT’s director of outreach and training. Parent Training & Information Centers are responsible for providing free support to families of children experiencing disabilities, said Marc Siegel, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Education. FACT Oregon helps parents to understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which guarantees a free and appropriate public education to all children with disabilities, he said. In some states, the relationship can be adversarial between disability-rights advocates and education agencies, but that’s not the case in Oregon, Siegel said. “Oregon Department of Education has a strong partnership with FACT Oregon, with the two agencies aligned in our pursuit for a just educational system,” he said. “We are incredibly grateful for the deep partnership and collective commitment of our friends at FACT Oregon.” Of the 553,012 students in Oregon public schools, some 78,714 experience a disability and are eligible for special education, according to the state. Another 6,845 preschool-age children are served via early childhood special education programs, and eligible for FACT Oregon help. In any given year, the Oregon nonprofit interfaces with roughly 10,000 families, Mielke said. Families frequently come to FACT in times of crisis, such as when a student with a disability is facing suspension or expulsion, she said. Parents who call are able to get one-to-one help from other people who understand what it’s like, she said. Every member of the thirteen-person staff has a family member with a disability. As part of the effort to better equip parents to be advocates, FACT recently created a toolkit—with help from the state and school officials—that demystifies the sometimes intimidating terminology and rules for school programming, such as the process for creating personalized, student-specific individual education plans, or IEPs.
An elementary school-aged child gets a hug from mom at a FACT Oregon event. FACT Oregon provides peer support and resources to families of children experiencing disabilities.
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Have wanderlust? Ready to enjoy our gorgeous and sprawling state this summer? We map out three routes to scenic views, places to eat and more. Freedom comes to mind when getting into a van for a three- or four-day adventure, with nothing but a bag of groceries, reading and writing materials, and my pup, Tonka bear. GoCamp van rentals make adventure travel possible, as easy and smooth as booking a car. Their rental vans come in a variety of sizes— select from a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Ford Transit AWD and many more. They all feature a sleeping area with bedding and a dining area, and most have a bathroom. There are seven locations for van pickup in Oregon: Portland, Bend, Medford, Coos Bay, Eugene, Hood River and Salem. The company also has three pickup locations in Washington and others spread across the United States. Started in 2017 by Deborah Kane, GoCamp is a platform that runs like an Airbnb, except for vans instead of lodging. The concept is ideal because it connects renters to individual owners who put thoughtfulness into their vans, making each unique, clean and well cared for. With the beauty of Oregon in full swing, we have three curated routes and itineraries for your wanderlust. Plot your adventure, pack your bags, and feel the sweetness of freedom. The company also offers one-way rentals across the country, depending on availability. Check their website for updated information when renting: www.gocampcampervans.com.
Time and a sense of adventure are the only requirements to play your own song of the open road with van rentals this summer. (photo: Corinne Kupish/ GoCamp)
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Experience
Van Life
on Three Spectacular Routes written by Jean Chen Smith
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Smith Rock State Park as the quiet Crooked River flows through it. Days of hiking and a lifetime of climbing are here for the sharing. (photo: Nick Joyce)
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ROUTE 1
Portland » Rhododendron » Terrebonne » Hood River
ABOVE, FROM TOP Hood River life centers on the mighty Columbia and craft beer as it rolls by. Ramona Falls in Mount Hood National Forest is worth the hike. Looking up from the trails at Smith Rock, you’ll spy many climbers. Ferment Brewing Co. along Hood River’s waterfront. (photos, from top: Katie Falkenberg/ TravelOregon.com, Bigstock, Oregon State Parks, Ferment Brewing Company)
From Portland, take US-26 E toward Mount Hood for approximately 40 miles to the popular Ramona Falls trailhead, which sits in the Mount Hood National Forest near Rhododendron. On the way, you will pass through Gresham, which is home to Hope’s Café, where they serve freshly made pastries as well as lunch dishes. Pick up a mouthwatering croissant or salad for the road. While there is no camping permitted within 500 feet of Ramona Falls, you can set up camp at Lost Creek Campground, which is a few minutes walking distance from the falls’ entrance. The campground is accessible and offers trails nearby as well as easy access to Ramona Falls, which is a 7.1mile forested loop with an intersection to the Pacific Crest Trail. The 1,000-foot elevation gain will reveal the spectacular 120-foot waterfall. From Ramona Falls, get back onto US-26, which takes you to Skull Hollow Campground in less than two hours. The campground is located about 8 miles from the iconic Smith Rock State Park. Spend a day or two hiking at Smith Rock, which offers miles of trails. Should you feel adventurous, do some rock climbing at the park, with more than 2,000 routes to explore. Skull Hollow offers seventy campsites with no hook-ups and no drinking water, so be prepared. Visitors have easy access to Skull Hollow Trailhead, Gray Butte Trailhead and the
Cole Loop Trail. Nearby Terrebonne provides access to groceries and dining, so the location is convenient. Stop by the Terrebonne Depot for casual fare such as burgers and fries or head to the local Oliver Lemon’s for snacks and sandwiches. From here, if you prearrange transportation, you can either opt to return your GoCamp rental to the Bend location or drive approximately twoand-a-half hours back to Portland. If heading to Portland, instead of going back exactly the way you came, return to US-26 and then loop east around Mount Hood on OR-35 to Wyeth Campground, a fifteen-minute drive outside of Hood River. This campground is small and surrounded by pine trees, offering privacy and a peaceful setting for families and small groups. From the campground, you can access a scenic trail and possibly see wildlife such as bald eagles and ospreys. There are flush toilets and potable water, but neither showers nor hookups available. While in Hood River, make a stop along the waterfront where you can spot people enjoying water sports. Head over to Ferment Brewing Company for some of the best burgers you have ever tasted. If you have a hankering for carbs, Solstice Wood Fire Pizza is a must-try. From Hood River, Portland is a little more than one hour and where you can return your rental.
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Perhaps one of the most pristine sites in Oregon is from the rim of Crater Lake National Park in Southern Oregon. (photo: Satoshi Eto/TravelOregon.com)
ROUTE 2
Medford » Klamath Falls » Burns » John Day After picking up your van in Medford, stop by Fatso’s Cheketos food truck for sandwiches, soups and salads. The FC crew uses fresh ingredients and, instead of bread, they serve ketofriendly and low-carb substitutes. Take OR-140 W to Odessa Campground in Fremont-Winema National Forest, outside of Klamath Falls, where you will find yourself surrounded by Ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees. On-site amenities include picnic tables, one vaulted toilet and a boat ramp without a dock. The campground is free and is first-come, first-served, with no potable water supply. The area is suitable for tent camping and trailers.
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While in Klamath Falls, stop by Badger Run Wildlife Rehab, where they help to rehabilitate more than 200 wildlife injuries yearly and conduct educational tours, which must be scheduled in advance. The drive to Idlewild Campground in Malheur National Forest is around four hours via US-395 N. Idlewild sits about twenty minutes from Burns and is situated at 5,000 feet of elevation, surrounded by large pine trees. The site has areas for picnicking, grills, vault toilets and drinking water. The beauty of this location is the national forest, which encompasses more than 1.46 million acres in Eastern Oregon’s Blue
Mountains. Hiking abounds with endless trails for discovery. Stop by Crane Hot Springs to soak and relax sore muscles. According to some, the minerals in the water help to reduce inflammation and provide therapeutic benefits. For a respite from grilling and camp fare, grab takeout in Burns from El Toreo Mexican Restaurant, which serves authentic Mexican food. Continue on US-395 N to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon. The park is located within the John Day River basin and contains historical layers of fossils that existed from more than forty-five million years ago to up until five million years ago. The geographical phenomenon is separated into what is known as units: Sheep Rock, Painted Hills and
ABOVE, FROM TOP Medford is a warm summer destination for cool swimming holes and vineyards. Crane Hot Springs in Burns is a remote jewel on cool summer nights. (photos, from top: Travel Medford, Crane Hot Springs)
Clarno. This is an amazing area of history and should not be missed. Set up camp at Clyde Holliday State Recreation Site, which offers RV, teepee and tent spots with a beautiful backdrop of the mountains. The park is well maintained with a picnic area, hot showers and toilets. Wildlife abounds, including Rocky Mountain elk and mule deer. From John Day, head southwest on US-26 W toward Skull Hollow Campground, which we highlighted in the first route. Spend a day or two in Terrebonne and make your way back to Medford via US-97 S, stopping at Crater Lake National Park along the way. The drive is nearly four hours, but relaxing and picturesque.
» John Day Fossil
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon is a must-see during your van life adventure. (photo: Joni Kabana/TravelOregon.com)
Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon is an amazing area of history and should not be missed.
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Driving the Oregon Coast in search of Dungeness crabs and iconic cheeses. (photo: Whitney Whitehouse)
ROUTE 3
Coos Bay » Florence » Tillamook
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If the coast is your van adventure, Coos Bay is the perfect starting point. Situated on the Southern Oregon coast, the town is more than 150 years old and retains plenty of charm. Before heading to Florence, set up at Sunset Bay State Park and spend a day or two. Cape Arago State Park is a short drive from the campground. It is worth the extra time to take in the spectacular views of the park, which is separated between a north and south section. Veer to the south and a steep trail takes you to Drake Point, where you can access South Cove. To the north, you will have expansive views of Shell Island, where sightings of seals and sea lions are plenty. There are picnic tables and flushable toilets on-site. Take US-101 straight up to Alder Dune Campground in the Siuslaw National Forest with nearly forty campsites that are made more private with lush greenery. Drinking water and pit toilets are available as well as many hiking trails and beach access. Florence is an adorable little town with seafood restaurants showcasing bounty from Oregon coastal waters. Try Bridgewater Fish House for delicious clam chowder and hearty salads. From Florence, drive to Nehalem Bay State Park near Tillamook on US-101 N. The state park sits on a 4-mile sandspit between the Pacific Ocean and the bay. You can spot wildlife such as deer and elk along with plenty of birds. There are flush toilets and showers as well as yurts available for rent. Plenty of activities such as fishing, crabbing, kayaking and hiking can keep the entire family entertained. There is also a boat ramp with a seasonal boat dock.
ABOVE The sand dunes near Florence on the Oregon Coast are an otherworldly getaway. AT LEFT Sunset Bay State Park at Coos Bay is a great put-in for kayaks and other water vessels. BELOW Tillamook Creamery is still one of the best because of its insistence on local dairy. (photos, from top: EugeneCascades Coast.org, Oregon State Parks, Tillamook Creamery)
Tillamook rests on the northern edge of the state’s coastline, famous for its dairy farms and cheese making, with verdant forests and the Pacific Ocean as its playground. Spend several days exploring the geographical landscape and sampling local fare. Go wine tasting at Nehalem Bay Winery, and no stop is complete without a visit to Tillamook Creamery, where guests can grab a bite to eat in the market. If you are feeling extra cheesy, also stop by Blue Heron French Cheese Company, which has been in business for more than forty years and specializes in brie. Heading back to Coos Bay, you might take the same route and stop in some of the different towns you passed by while making your way up the coast. However, you can also head over to Portland on OR-6 E and meander south through the lush Willamette Valley, stopping
by some wineries along the way. Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner has a beautiful tasting room and a delicious menu to boot. Enjoy some lunch and small tapas plates, and take in views of the beautiful vineyards before returning your van rental in Coos Bay.
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C.B. McCullough’s Big Creek Bridge, located between Florence and Yachats.
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C.B. McCullough’s legacy of bridges still unites & adorns the Oregon Coast written and photographed by Daniel O’Neil illustration by Lori LaBissoniere O’Neil 66
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“Jeweled clasps in a wonderful string of matched pearls,” C.B. McCullough once described his bridges, the pearls being the headlands, beaches, mountains, state parks and waysides along the Oregon Coast that he helped connect. McCullough accomplished a lot in Oregon. He managed the state’s bridge program from 1919 to 1937, designing and overseeing the construction of hundreds of bridges across the state, including more than 30 arched spans. McCullough earned a law degree from Willamette University, published books and articles on his expertise, and received an honorary doctor of engineering degree from Oregon State College (now University). Along the Oregon Coast, McCullough left a legacy that links towns and natural settings. “His bridges make a statement for themselves, but they also complement the landscape,” said Oregon Department of Transportation senior historian Robert Hadlow, author of Elegant Arches, Soaring Spans, a McCullough biography. The aesthetics of the bridge mattered to McCullough, who once wrote, “From the dawn of civilization up to the present, engineers have been busily engaged in ruining this fair earth and taking all the romance out of it.” Art Deco and streamline moderne combine with classical forms to define McCullough’s bridges. Ornamental pylons and spires, Gothic arches, and, as McCullough put it, “the quiet, simple dignity” of the great arches, all point to his signature. McCullough’s coastal bridges have served multiple purposes. As Hadlow writes, they “helped transform coastal 68 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
fishing villages into tourist destinations that increased tax revenues and strengthened local economies.” They still provide safe, reliable passage across creeks, rivers, and bays. But they also offer a sense of rhythm, grace, and Born in what is now South Dakota in 1887, Conde McCullough made his legacy designing bridges in Oregon beginning in the 1920s.
harmony to their coastal environment, helping to create what Hadlow calls a “dynamic experience” for travelers on Highway 101. Drivers and passengers cannot take McCullough’s bridges for granted. The structures feel resolute and they please the eye. “His engineering was a form of art,” said Bob Grubbs, ODOT southwest region lead bridge engineer. “We’re just engineers. He was an artist who was also an engineer.”
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onde Balcom McCullough was born in 1887 in what is now South Dakota. His family soon relocated to Iowa, where McCullough would eventually pursue his studies in civil engineering at Iowa State College. After graduating in 1910 and working for the Iowa State Highway Commission, McCullough accepted a teaching job at Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in 1916. With his wife and 2-year-old son, he moved to Corvallis. For the next three years he taught structural engineering. Then, in 1919, the Oregon State Highway Commission offered McCullough the post of state bridge engineer. It was an exciting time to wear that hat, especially in a state like Oregon where citizens enthusiastically supported a system of road and highway development as the Oregon Department of Transportation
OREGON IS A FORTUNATE STATE. IT POSSESSES, AMONG OTHER THINGS, A STUNNING, RUGGED COASTLINE, AND IT HAS THE BRIDGES TO MATCH THAT BEAUTY.
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automobile began to transform society. By 1920, Oregon had the nation’s first gas tax to help fund highway expansion, which included bridges. McCullough brought his graduating class of engineers to Salem, the first of many he would recruit from OSU over the next decade and a half. After beginning his Oregon bridge-building legacy with a beautiful arch at Rock Creek east of Grants Pass in 1919, McCullough and team set off to span rivers, creeks, and chasms across the state. McCullough’s coastal bridges started off simple. The Old Youngs Bay Bridge in Astoria, built in 1921, was McCullough’s first along what became the Oregon Coast Highway. Already he was applying the emergent Art Deco style to his work, as seen in the concrete and wood pylons at each end. A double-leaf bascule drawspan, the bridge still accommodates riverine passage. But its unusually narrow deck belongs to the formative era for highway standards, when engineers addressed issues like how wide to make a lane. Astoria’s other McCullough bridge, across the Lewis and Clark River, dates from 1924, a time when Portland and other inland towns demanded easier access to the state’s beaches. The bridge demonstrates some of McCullough’s characteristic functional elegance in its drawspan, which still works. It is Oregon’s only remaining single-leaf highway bascule drawbridge. It would take another decade to link Astoria to Brookings with an uninterrupted roadway, but progress was made in 1927 at Depoe Bay and two miles south at Rocky Creek. Here McCullough applied his preferred method and materials, the reinforced-concrete arch, in which the concrete contains a steel skeleton for added strength. “Those two deck arches are typical McCullough with classical architectural details in the railings and on the arch ribs,” Hadlow said. “But each one’s unique, and that makes each one special.” Reinforced concrete offered McCullough several advantages. For one, 70 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
FROM TOP The Old Youngs Bay Bridge was one of McCullough’s first designs as state bridge engineer, and it still provides an important link in the Astoria area. Crossing the entrance to the “world’s smallest bay,” the Depoe Bay Bridge also complements the local beauty with architectural grace.
concrete resists salt air far better than exposed steel. Just as importantly, reinforced concrete allows for plasticity in design. Wooden falseworks were molded to accommodate the forms designed by McCullough and his team, then filled with concrete and reinforcing steel. In the coming years, McCullough would expand the boundaries of reinforced-concrete arch span bridges. As a principled engineer, he designed bridges according to environmental factors like soil type, stream attributes, and the surrounding landscape aesthetics. “We call it context-sensitive design,” said Christopher Higgins, the Cecil and Sally Drinkward Professor of Structural Engineering at OSU. “McCullough put the right bridge in the right spot. Each serves a function and has a form that fits the space they’re in.” McCullough took pride in his work’s dual nature. The art and the engineering were inseparable. “In Oregon our engineers have been trained to go to the stream, build a bridge for utility and economy, and at the same time design it so it will blend with the terrain,” he wrote.
“WE CALL IT CONTEXTSENSITIVE DESIGN. MCCULLOUGH PUT THE RIGHT BRIDGE IN THE RIGHT SPOT. EACH SERVES A FUNCTION AND HAS A FORM THAT FITS THE SPACE THEY’RE IN.” — Christopher Higgins, Cecil and Sally Drinkward Professor of Structural Engineering at OSU
Today’s Highway 101 runs several hundred feet east of the original Oregon Coast Scenic Highway, but the Rocky Creek Bridge still serves sightseers and locals alike.
The modern Highway 101 route is faster and more direct, but the Lewis and Clark River Bridge helps keep the old route scenic and functional.
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“THE THIN ARCHES ADD TO THE AESTHETICS, BUT ALSO, FROM AN ENGINEERING STANDPOINT, YOU CAN REALLY SEE THE LEVEL OF DETAIL ANALYSIS THAT WENT INTO IT. IT TOOK CUTTING-EDGE ENGINEERING TO DEVELOP THAT DESIGN.” — Bob Grubbs, ODOT southwest region lead bridge engineer, on the design of the Rogue River Bridge
By 1930, McCullough was finalizing designs for a bridge type new to the United States, the reinforced-concrete tied arch span. This design works like an archery bow with the bridge’s deck, the bowstring, in tension. True arch bridges rely on solid rock abutments at both ends to keep the arch in compression. The reinforced-concrete tied arch proved self-sustaining, meaning it didn’t require natural geologic strongholds: the bridge contains its own thrust. It could be placed across streams with sandy banks, like the Wilson River in Tillamook. McCullough’s reinforced-concrete tied arch also resolved the issue of high floodwaters on rivers like the Wilson, a situation that made a standard beam, or girder, bridge impossible. And it provided better resistance to rust than a steel 72 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
truss bridge in the salty maritime air. The Wilson River Bridge opened in June 1931, the first of its kind in the West. Its same 120-foot arch design was deployed later that year south of Yachats at Tenmile Creek and Big Creek, two sites with conditions similar to the Wilson River. Later McCullough bridges also incorporated this bowstring design. “It’s a relatively small bridge in a rural setting,” Grubbs said about the Big Creek Bridge. “In today’s world, if we were to build it you wouldn’t even know you were going over a bridge. But even on the little bridges that could easily be ignored and the detail not given, he added his artistry. It shows the love he had not just for bridges but also for leaving a signature, a legacy, in the world.” Before employing innovation with the tied arch, McCullough had embarked on
a much larger and more complex crossing. Plans for the Rogue River Bridge at Gold Beach began in early 1929, and the bridge opened on Christmas Eve, 1931. Until then, a ferry had serviced the mouth of the Rogue, but calls for improvements designed to lure Californian tourist revenue up the sleepy Oregon Coast demanded a bridge. For the Rogue River Bridge, McCullough imported avant-garde engineering from France. The Freyssinet method of prestressing concrete arches by using hydraulic jacks, to compensate for natural deformations as the bridge settled and weathered, had never been applied in the United States. McCullough considered the project an experiment in technique and economy, and it worked. He achieved a heavy load capacity for the bridge while also
The Rogue River Bridge was dedicated to the state governor who pushed for its construction, Issac Lee Patterson.
creating delicately fine arches that roll like the hills behind them. The bridge impressed engineers in America and beyond. “The thin arches add to the aesthetics, but also, from an engineering standpoint, you can really see the level of detail analysis that went into it,” Grubbs said. “It took cuttingedge engineering to develop that design.” Also in 1931, work began on another bridge that borrowed from the Old World. The Cape Creek Bridge, 619 feet long and 104 feet high, closed the intimidating gap between Devil’s Elbow and Heceta Head. McCullough’s solution originated in ancient Rome: a two-tiered aqueduct-like crossing with a swooping arch over the small creek. Critics dubbed the bridge and the tunnel on its southern end the “million dollar mile.” In November 1931, a local
AT RIGHT, FROM TOP The Wilson River Bridge still carries traffic along Highway 101, without blocking passage for salmon anglers. Perhaps the most distinguished bridge along the Oregon Coast, the aqueductlike Cape Creek Bridge pays homage to millennia of bridge design. Almost a century old, the Big Creek Bridge still forms part of the scenic highway and rugged landscape south of Yachats. The Tenmile Creek Bridge was designed and built the same as the Wilson River and Big Creek bridges, all in 1931.
newspaper, The Siuslaw Oar, moaned, “You can’t help but wonder how in the dickens the great state of Oregon wants to make an expenditure like this to cross a little creek which isn’t more MORE ONLINE than knee deep.” Today, the See more photos iconic bridge compliments of McCullough’s the Heceta Head Lighthouse Oregon Coast bridges in Scenic Viewpoint and reour extended mains Oregon’s only concrete online gallery at www.1859oregon bridge of its type. magazine.com/ At the time, ferries still oregoncoastbridges served as bridges across five coastal waterways from Newport to Coos Bay. As the Depression kicked in and the New Deal arrived in response, Oregon’s bureaucrats hustled to secure funding for a series of bridges to complete the Oregon Coast Highway. In 1933, designs began for five new bridges, at Newport, Waldport, Florence, Reedsport, and Coos Bay. In the early days, McCullough did most of the design work himself, such as for the bridges in Astoria. By now, though, he had a diversified staff under his wing. “He’d pretty much lay out the design, and then he’d leave it up to his team of engineers to pull it together,” Hadlow said. “They were a tight-knit group. They understood each other. He had the vision, and they could make it happen.” This teamwork, and the fact that McCullough’s engineers designed the final five bridges in a six-month span, working double shifts, forged a sense of architectural continuity. “Those five bridges look like siblings,” Hadlow said. “Then you have Gold Beach down south which is a little earlier and maybe looks more like a cousin. No two of the coast bridges are alike, but they make a family.” Work began on all five bridges by August 1934. To meet Public Works Administration funding requirements, construction was labor intensive: handsaws and wheelbarrows replaced their mechanized kin. The projects together employed more than 1,000 laborers, consumed more than two million man-hours of work, and cost $5.6 million at the time. 74
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Views of the Yaquina Bay Bridge define the skyline and identity of Newport, night and day.
AT RIGHT, FROM TOP The Coos Bay Bridge stretches one mile long, so its doublecantilever design called for steel instead of concrete, proving McCullough’s skill with either material. The Siuslaw River Bridge at Florence seamlessly combines aspects of Gothic and Art Deco style.
“THAT BRIDGE IS ALL AESTHETIC TO ME—IT’S NOT EVEN THE ENGINEERING. THE FACT THAT YOU THINK IT’S ART AND IT STILL SERVES AN ENGINEERING PURPOSE IS WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL.” — Christopher Higgins, Cecil and Sally Drinkward Professor of Structural Engineering at OSU, on the Yaquina Bay Bridge
The Yaquina Bay Bridge at Newport, with its 600-foot parabolic through arch, has endured as one of McCullough’s most acclaimed. “That bridge is all aesthetic to me—it’s not even the engineering,” Higgins said. “The fact that you think it’s art and it still serves an engineering purpose is what makes it special.” Unfortunately, McCullough’s Alsea Bay Bridge at Waldport no longer exists. Corrosion within the reinforced concrete deteriorated the triple-arched bridge, which was demolished in 1991. Art Deco pylons, spires, and some railing from the original bridge still stand at the new bridge’s north end. In Florence, the double-leaf bascule Siuslaw River Bridge will still open when required by river traffic. Its drawspan shows similarities to McCullough’s Astoria bridges, and its tied arches, identical to those designed for Alsea Bay and the Umpqua River bridges, have their roots in the Wilson River
Bridge. The concrete pylons display a classic Art Deco sunburst pattern. The Umpqua River Bridge at Reedsport also opens for shipping. The bridge’s main arch rotates on a massive bearing. “The entire span twists and swings way out there,” Grubbs said. “Just thinking of the technology and the mechanical engineering feats of that, it’s very impressive, especially given the time in which it was designed and constructed.” At 5,305 feet in length, the Coos Bay Bridge is the longest of the coastal McCullough bridges. Its steel doublecantilever truss design accommodates a 150-foot vertical clearance above the bay. Stylized grand staircases descend the bridge’s ends, landmarks of a slower, bygone era of travel. All five bridges opened to traffic in 1936, several with full celebratory fanfare, but without McCullough in attendance. In late 1935, McCullough left his engineers in charge of the projects’
completion so he could accept the federal government’s invitation to design several spans along the nascent Pan-American Highway. In two years time, McCullough designed and oversaw construction of three suspension bridges, in Panama, Honduras and Guatemala. These would be the final bridges of McCullough’s career. Upon returning to Oregon in 1937, the state highway commission made McCullough assistant state highway engineer. He had proven his administrative skills as state bridge engineer, and Oregon’s highway system was evolving fast. But in May 1946, McCullough suffered a massive stroke. He passed away shortly afterward and was buried in Salem. State officials renamed the Coos Bay Bridge in his honor the following year, and dedicated a wayside on its north end to him.
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s McCullough’s coastal bridges approach their centennial, they still connect communities from Gold Beach to Astoria. The bridges’ longevity lies, in part, in McCullough’s foresight and integrity. “They did a robust design job back in the day,” said Oregon state bridge engineer Ray Bottenberg. “They designed those bridges for the biggest trucks they could anticipate at that point. We’re lucky they didn’t cut corners.” All but the two Astoria bridges are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Bottenberg figures the McCullough bridges’ lifespan is somewhat indefinite. “We probably could keep them until the big Cascadia earthquake,” he said. “It’s tied to how willing we are to take care of them.” Through cathodic protection, frequent painting, and other proactive maintenance, ODOT remains more than willing to preserve the coast’s jewel-like clasps. Oregonians treasure the coastal McCullough bridges for multiple reasons, and McCullough’s legacy extends in as many directions. “On one hand he gave us some extremely aesthetic infrastructure that fits in, or even enhances, some pretty awesome scenery,” Bottenberg said. “But they’re also valuable assets to use, and that’s kind of a cool legacy in that it serves both purposes.” MAY | JUNE 2023
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A NEW PERSPECTIVE
written by Kerry Newberry | photography courtesy of Josie Iselin IN HER BOOK The Curious World of Seaweed, author Josie Iselin writes: “I love seaweed because it is gaspingly beautiful. My photographer’s eye is in love with its palette of colors, from olive green to golden brown to deep purple.” For more than twenty years, Iselin has used her flatbed scanner and computer to create imagery that illuminates the extraordinary and unexpected beauty of ocean flora. Her large-scale prints and photographs appear in select galleries, museums and other public spaces throughout the states and in Canada. Iselin’s hope is that these pieces—where art meets science—inspire curiosity and invite the coastal explorer to discover a deeper connection to seaweed and all the remarkable ocean creatures these wild plants support. “There is something astounding about the story of each one,” she wrote. “Each story is important to tell.” In conjunction with her newest release of An Ocean Garden: The Secret Life of Seaweed (2014, reprint 2023), she will be headlining an exhibit at Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center from May 25 through October 1. You can meet the author and artist in Newport the first weekend of June, when she’ll be in town for a celebratory Seaweed Weekend that includes panel discussions, an art and algae workshop, bull kelp tattoo demonstrations and a book signing. For more information, visit www.josieiselin.com.
Ocean’s Edge II, by Josie Iselin
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AT LEFT Postelsia palmaeformis on Ruprecht: Postelsia palmaeformis, or sea palm, on a foldout plate from Ruprecht (1852 plate VI), recoloured. Collection of Michael J. Wynne. FAR LEFT, TOP Farlowia mollis with its Cyanotype: “Farlowia mollis at play with its shadow self, made as a cyanotype diptych print in my own backyard. I began making cyanotypes of my marine algae specimens as an homage to Anna Atkins, who I started researching back in 2009 for my book Beach: A Book of Treasure. She was a hero to me as a polymath, a Victorian woman schooled in the sciences of the day, including chemistry, to master the nascent cyanotype techniques. She was a superb draftsman, a naturalist, and she created the first photographically reproduced book, titled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, in 1843 to illustrate the recent publication on British algae by William Henry Harvey, which to Atkins’ frustration had no illustrations at first release.” FAR LEFT, BOTTOM LEFT Odonthalia floccosa on red Postels: Odonthalia floccosa on a Postels lithograph from Illusatrationes algarum (1840). FAR LEFT, BOTTOM RIGHT Microcladia coulteri and Osmundea on Gmelin: Microcladia coulteri and Osmundea with Gmelin, Plate xx: Contemporary scans incorporating an illustration by Samuel Gottleib Gmelin from Historia Fucorum (1768). “Gmelin’s volume was the first flora describing the seaweeds, or marine algae, as a separate grouping from vascular plants, giving rise to their study as a discrete corner of botany. I have created a series of images where my contemporary scans work in dialogue through time with historic taxonomic imagery.”
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ADVENTURE 84 LODGING 86 TRIP PLANNER 88 NORTHWEST DESTINATION 92
pg. 84 White water rafting can be fun for the whole family—make memories this summer on these bucket list river trips.
ROW Adventures/Chad Case
TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT 82
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Choose your home base – Sunriver Resort or Caldera Springs – and discover an unrivaled Pacific Northwest vacation home experience with access to amenities across both communities. Tee off on four award-winning golf courses, indulge in over 10 dining options, make a splash at multiple aquatic centers, rejuvenate at the spa, enjoy endless outdoor adventures, and reach Bend, Oregon in minutes. Book now or contact us to explore real estate opportunities at Caldera Springs, including the all-new Forestbrook Vacation Homes.
FIND YOU R VACAT ION HO ME
Scan to book or visit SunriverResort.com/VacationHomes
For real estate inquiries and model home tours, visit CalderaSprings.com/RealEstate
ODFW Marine Reserves Program
travel spotlight
Water Laboratories Oregon Marine Reserves hold mysteries of the sea for all to see written by Joni Kabana
Sea anemones are just some of the creatures you may encounter at Oregon’s marine reserves.
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MANY OF US are well aware of Oregon’s historical land and the quest to preserve land sites. But did you how much management and scientific monitoring take place on the shoreline of our Oregon Coast? The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife manages a marine reserve system that includes five marine reserves and nine Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) off of the Oregon Coast. You can visit five sites where you can learn about life and mysteries that lie beneath the ocean’s surface. Cape Falcon, off of Oswald West State Park near Manzanita, has a sandy floor playground for crab and local rock formations where buffalo sculpins, lingcod and other cling-ons live. Cascade Head, a 102,110-acre UNESCO biosphere reserve north of Lincoln City, hosts a bevy of sea stars, mussels and seaweeds. The smallest of the reserves, Otter Rock, is centrally located and home to sea anemones, kelp, sand dollar beds and chitons. Cape Perpetua, the largest reserve located between Yachats and Florence, has some of the most biologically diverse rocky intertidal habitats found in the Pacific Northwest. Kelp beds and high rocky reef bedrock are found at Redfish Rocks, located on the southern coast just south of Port Orford. Why establish marine reserves? The purpose is threefold: protection, sustainability and restoration of the marine ecosystem and its habitats and species that live near shore. These areas serve as living laboratories to study current states and effects on marine environments. Visitors are welcome and encouraged to explore these reserves, but removal of marine life or disturbance of the areas is strictly prohibited. If you plan to visit any of them, consult their visitor activity guide before arriving. Above all, remember that conditions can change swiftly, so practice caution and environmental care while exploring these beautiful protected shores. For more information see www.oregonmarinereserves.com.
Come and play on the Deschutes in Maupin! our rafting is epic Start your vacation here: www.maupinoregon.com
adventure
Three Bucket List Oregon River Trips for the Family Rapids may vary, but gorgeous scenery is the common thread written by Jen Sotolongo
WITH APPROXIMATELY 110,994 river miles in Oregon, it’s no surprise that white water rafting is a beloved activity across the state. Oregon’s rivers range from Class-V rapids to more mellow sections that cut through mountain valleys, deep canyons, verdant forests, and high deserts. White water rafting can be a surprisingly family-friendly activity that people of all ages can enjoy. Luckily, Oregon has plenty of options that range from multi-day, all-inclusive excursions to half-day and full-day trips that will foster teamwork and bring families closer together, while having a blast tackling rapids and riding waves.
Clackamas River Just a short drive from Portland, the Wild & Scenic Clackamas River is an ideal half-day or full-day trip for families. From 84 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
March to June, the snowmelt creates high flows with exciting rapids that will thrill all skill levels of rafters. Those with young kids can join Blue Sky Rafting for a halfday trip on the Lower Clackamas. A perfect beginner rafting trip, the trip meets at Milo McIver State Park, just 30 minutes from downtown Portland. Despite its proximity to Portland, the breathtaking scenery and fun rapids will make you feel like your hours away from the urban environment. For more adventurous families looking to tackle larger Class III and IV rapids on the Upper Clackamas section, consider the full-day trip with River Drifters. Starting at Indian Henry Campground, this trip starts off with a bang as you navigate the Class III Powerhouse before continuing a swift float through a rapid-filled basalt canyon before stopping for lunch. After lunch, the trip continues to drop down six more rapids before the take-out at Moore Creek.
adventure
River Drifters
Blue Sky Rafting
Paddlers dig in on a multi-day ROW Adventures trip through the high desert and on the Deschutes River.
ROW Adventures/Chad Case
ABOVE, FROM TOP Family fun with Blue Sky Rafting. Tumbling through a set of rapids on the thrilling Clackamas River with River Drifters.
Can’t make a multi-day trip work? River Drifters offers fullday or half-day trips starting in Maupin. The full-day trip covers 14 river miles in five to six hours and features several Class III rapids and includes a BBQ lunch along the way at a local park.
Rogue River Lower Deschutes Located 90 miles from both Bend and Portland, the rafting town of Maupin sets the stage for trips along the gentle sunsoaked Lower Deschutes River. Flowing 250 miles from the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon, the Deschutes makes its way north, passing directly through Bend and several small towns before depositing into the Columbia River in The Dalles. ROW Adventures offers three- and four-day family-friendly trips along the Lower Deschutes that are perfect for a first-time multi-day rafting trip. The unique high desert scenery passes beneath basalt cliffs and hillsides pocked with Ponderosa pines. Water temperatures can reach 60 degrees, which may just be warm enough for brave swimmers to jump in to cool off on hot days. ROW Adventures takes care of setting up camp and providing delicious meals during the journey.
You can’t very well talk about white water rafting in Oregon without including the iconic Rogue River. This classic trip runs through the thick forest of a remote and rugged canyon in Southern Oregon. Morrisons Rogue Wilderness Adventures and Lodge offers all-inclusive family rafting packages down the Rogue. The three and four-day excursions cover 40 miles of the Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue River, a stunning stretch that features more than thirty Class II-IV rapids. Along the route, there are plenty of stops for meals, peaceful floats, visits to historic sites, and playing in swimming holds. Guests can choose between camping and or staying overnight in a lodge, or a mix of both. The single-day trips range from full to half-day and follow what Morrison calls the “Recreation Stretch.” Filled with calm pools for swimming, fun rapids, and gorgeous vistas, it’s guaranteed fun for everyone in the family. MAY | JUNE 2023
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Photos: The Boutique Retreat
TINY HOUSES Each space is playfully styled to theme with vintage home goods and décor the husband-and-wife owners collected over the past decade. From antique signs and a rattan chandelier in the Coastal Cottage to authentic Hawaiian art in the Ohana Bungalow. Other style moods include Urban Loft, Mod Cottage, Glam Cottage, Bohemian Bungalow, The Surf Shack and The Farmhouse.
FEATURES
Lodging
FROM TOP Boutique Retreat in McMinnville is a new concept of tiny house lodging in the heart of wine country. All spaces have a different theme, like that Glam Cottage (bottom right), or Ohana Bungalow (bottom left).
The Boutique Retreat: Tiny House Hotel written by Kerry Newberry THE COMMON THEME around this retreat of charming tiny houses is that owners Kevin Kump and Sarita Springer love renovating spaces and making guests feel at home. Inspired by their travels to other wine regions with creative stays, the couple acquired a plot on McMinnville’s Alpine Avenue more than six years ago with the vision to develop a fresh and fun lodging concept. In early March, their novel retreat opened with nine mod little cottages clustered around a communal courtyard with a firepit and garden lights. Each tiny house is enhanced with smart accents like soaring ceilings, designer tiles and statement lighting. But what makes each space pop is the playful mixture of new and vintage décor that sets a precise mood. From the beachy trim and tiki collectibles in the Surf Shack (inspired by the luxury surf huts on Hawaii’s legendary North Shore) to the antique wooden snow skis and a faux antler chandelier in The Lodge, the nine personality-packed spaces almost feel like mini-movie sets. Located in the heart of the evolving Granary District, everything you need is a short walk away. You can find morning coffee at Flag & Wire Coffee Co. and lunch at the convivial Mac Market followed by a pinot flight at an iconic tasting room. It’s a sweet slice of small town life. 910 NE ALPINE AVE. MCMINNVILLE www.theboutiqueretreat.com
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When pinot believers dream, it’s of producers like Eyrie Vineyards, which is a blissful two blocks away (tasting reservations required). Other nearby hotspots include R. Stuart & Co. Winery and Westrey Winery. For beer drinkers you can’t beat Heater Allen Brewing, Grain Station Brew Works and the recently opened women-powered Gold Dot.
DINING Walk to the perfect espresso at the husband-and-wife owned Flag & Wire Coffee Co. that’s a few short blocks away. For lunch, procure wine country picnic provisions at Mac Market (the town’s community hub) or a savory pie at the recently opened Honey Pie Pizza. Grab dinner on bustling Third Street or up the road at Hayward, Mac’s newest restaurant that offers a convivial five-course tasting menu, aptly named “House Party.”
AMENITIES All nine tiny cottages offer queen-size beds, cozy seating areas, small kitchenettes and spacious bathrooms with walk-in showers. The Urban Loft and Ohana Bungalow both have expansive private decks. On summer weekends, the shared courtyard turns festive with guest musicians and local winemakers pouring for tastings.
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trip planner
Astoria and Gearhart Separated by 15 miles, two coastal cities offer different cultures for visitors—Victorian to Cape Cod written by James Sinks
The clown-funded AstoriaMegler Bridge between Astoria and Washington state.
SOME PLACES make it more exciting to get lost. When it comes to the joy of exploration, the coastal hamlet of Astoria and the bounty nearby have long been a beacon, dating back to before Lewis and Clark (and Sacagewea’s) Corps of Discovery arrived and shivered through the winter of 1805-06, near present-day Warrenton. Of course, despite its name, the Corps of Discovery didn’t actually discover the scenic region at the mouth of the Columbia River and the nearby Pacific shoreline. That credit belongs to the Clatsop Indians, who’d been hanging out there for centuries. Shortly after the expedition broke camp, a New York financier, John Jacob Astor, envisioned a west coast version of Manhattan, from which to trade across the Pacific. The outpost established by his Pacific Fur Company in 1811 became the first permanent U.S. settlement west of the Rockies. The city named after Astor fell short of his lofty ambitions, but over time anglers, loggers, schemers and dreamers found their own paydays. Their stately Victorian homes stairstep up the hillsides, earning the city the one-time nickname of Little San Francisco. The place also was a multicultural melting pot, attracting Scandinavians, Chinese and immigrants from India. 88 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
Today, the thirty canneries that once steamed along the waterfront have closed, and the railroad no longer comes to town. Much of the fuel for the local economic engine now comes from tourists—some via cruise ships—who wander the boardwalk, hike and kayak, snap selfies at movie sets, and seek solitude and clams on wide open beaches. If the water seems inviting, however, be wary where. The Columbia Bar where the river meets the ocean is so treacherous that the surrounding seascape became known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Among an estimated 2,000 lost and sunk boats was the British sailship Peter Iredale, still rusting where it ran aground in 1906. Astoria, meanwhile, offers a safer port—and plenty of port. And beer. And whiskey. The city is home to 10,343 people and, seemingly, an almost equal number of taverns, distilleries and speakeasies. “They say Astoria is a drinking town with a fishing problem,” said Terry Robinett, who fell in love with the city eight years ago and now co-owns the downtown MerryTime Bar & Grill. “It’s also much more. It’s an incredible, beautiful town.” A good place, you could say, to lose a few days.
Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce
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Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce
Depending where you land, you might be met by an off-pitch serenade by a choir of sea lions. Chances are, it could be a soundtrack for your stay. Astoria doesn’t look its age, for a locale founded more than 200 years ago. Fires that wipe out an entire downtown twice will do that to a place. Local history—flammable and otherwise—is the focus at the kitschy Astoria Underground Tour, a perfect scene-setter for your coastal foray. Amid memorabilia saved from the scrapyard, learn the city was once a popular rat hangout, and how local clowns—one of them the dad of tour owner Jeff Daly—helped drum up support for the four-mile-long Astoria-Megler Bridge that stretches across the Columbia to Washington. It opened in 1966. Across the street, your first Astorian beverages await at the Food Hub, where Buoy Beer relocated after its brewery-on-piers collapsed into the Columbia last year. Happily, the beer isn’t watered down. You also can sip cocktails from local Pilot House Distilling. From there, it’s a short walk to the circa 1913 Astoria Trolley, which moseys up and down the waterfront. Watch the GPS website to see when “Old 300” is arriving. It costs $1 per boarding or $2 to ride all day. Hungry? From the 17th Street stop, join the hungry sidewalk queue for flavorful fried albacore fish and chips at BowPicker, in a converted fishing boat. Across the street, step under a flag-emblazoned archway into the new Nordic Heritage Park, dedicated in 2022 to celebrate Astoria’s rich Scandinavian history and culture. During the summer solstice, the city also hosts an annual Scandinavian festival. Next door at the prow-shaped Columbia River Maritime Museum, see a lighthouse-on-a-ship and marvel at tales of the Columbia Bar pilots who guided ships through the notorious channel. If your mind isn’t sufficiently blown, there’s a booth that replicates hurricane-force winds. It rains prodigiously in Astoria—approximately five feet a year—so sunsets aren’t reliably a thing. If the coast is clear, catch nature’s lightshow at the west-facing Bar 600 in the upscale Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa. On the beach in Warrenton, you can watch the sun disappear through the skeleton of the Peter Iredale shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park. Fete the day on Pier 12 at Fedé Trattoria Astoria, where they don’t accept reservations, but it’s worth waiting for housemade pasta and saffron mussels. Afterward, sing a late-night ditty with the sea lions and then relax with craft drinks at the Knot Bar at the Bowline Hotel, against a backdrop of lit-up boats bobbing outside.
Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce
LOCAL HISTORY • DRINKS • FISH + CHIPS
FROM TOP Sea lions laze on the dock pilings in Astoria. The Astoria Trolley meanders the waterfront all day with a $1 fare. The famed Bowpicker fish and chips is essential Astoria. The wreck of the Peter Iredale from 1906 is a tribute to the tumultuous Columbia river bar.
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trip planner
ON THE WATER • WATERFALLS • DOWNTOWN Are you an early bird who likes birds? You’ll find flocks of both on the 6.4-mile Astoria Riverwalk Trail, which twists eastward over paved paths and bridges toward Tongue Point, a Lewis and Clark camp spot and former military base. The out-and-back trek makes for a quick and scenic bike jaunt, but joggers may want to U-turn sooner. There’s coffee waiting. Perched over the water on Pier 39, you’ll find a Rogue brewpub, fresh seafood stand, wine shop, and the popular Coffee Girl, which also serves up breakfast and an amazing view. Yes, boys are allowed. The historic wooden pier was home to Bumble Bee Seafoods and is now a free museum with boats, a Jules Verne-esque suit used by divers to clear snagged fishing nets, and no smoking signs. A few blocks away is the city’s best-known cinematic landmark, the hillside house made famous in The Goonies, the 1985 classic about misfits who discover an old pirate ship. This place attracts a steady stream of movie buffs, among them new owners who plan to eventually let visitors inside. To respect neighbors, park at the base of the hill and walk up. Other movie backdrops dot the area, such as the 45-foothigh Youngs River Falls, just 8 miles south of town. Bring a suit. The park and swimming hole, popular with locals in warm weather, featured in not-blockbusters Free Willy 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. (Want more local showbiz trivia? Visit the tiny former county jail, repurposed into the Oregon Film Museum.) Astoria’s downtown is abuzz, with crowded shops, art and entertainment venues, eateries and drinking spots. Fort George Brewery, with an expansive menu that includes pizza, poutine and pilsners, checks all those boxes. At nordic shop Finn Ware, you’ll find a smorgasbord of Scandinavian decor, fashion and food, and not just pickled stuff. Swedish hitmakers ABBA are on the store playlist, so you can be a dancing queen while you shop, for better or Norse. For fifty years, the Arrow No. 2 tugboat ferried river pilots to and from freighters near Tongue Point, making an estimated 250,000 trips. Restored by local skipper Mark Schacher, the historic 53-foot boat now ushers tourists from Pier 39 on calm water sightseeing excursions. Reserve in advance. The tug only fits six passengers. Also, it’s pet friendly and, if you bring it, booze-friendly. Astoria’s colorful culture—and array of flavors—have been shaped by international arrivals. Your palette will be the lucky beneficiary at Drina Daisy, one of the Northwest’s only Bosnian restaurants. Try the pitas made with phyllo dough. Toast the day at fun and funky Dead Man’s Isle tiki bar, with tropical drinks and Polynesian pirate panache. 90 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
Bourbon more up your alley? Around the corner, slip into swanky Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar for Manhattans that would make John Jacob Astor proud. Afterward, night owls can tilt toward MerryTime Bar & Grill, where there are giant blue Salty Mermaid margaritas and you can flap your flippers on more than a dozen pinball games, until late.
Day GOLF • HIKING • ASTORIA COLUMN A quick 14-mile drive down U.S. Highway 101, you’ll find a perfect place for tea time, tee times and sea time. The idyllic Gearhart feels almost lost in time, with Cape Cod-evoking bungalows, a postcard-perfect downtown, and the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi. The links can be challenging because of crosswinds and tighter-thantypical greens, but you’ll forget any whiffs afterward at McMenamins Sand Trap Pub, overlooking the course. Legendary Oregon chef James Beard, once dubbed the Dean of American Cookery, summered in Gearhart as a child, vacationed there as an adult, and had his ashes scattered on beaches nearby. He wrote that on the North Oregon Coast, “life was at its most tranquil.” It’s easy to see and feel why, from the slow-dancing tide on the shoreline to the quaint shops on Pacific Way. Relax with tea (or espresso) at By the Way, browse art galleries, and wander the Natural Nook garden nursery and adjacent Pacific Crest Cottage boutique. At Pacific Way Cafe, savor steamer clams, crab cakes and Caribbean chowder. When Lewis and Clark wintered at Fort Clatsop, parties would hike to the Pacific, about six miles away. You can retrace those steps on the Fort-to-Sea Trail, or catch just the final segment north of Gearhart. Here, the path weaves through bunchgrass to Sunset Beach, which is undeveloped and looks largely the same—aside from a few more four-wheel-drives. For your final stop, head uphill to where the 125-foothigh, art-covered Astoria Column stands above the city. Originally envisioned as a monument akin to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the less-dramatic-but-still-dramatic spire was dedicated in 1926. It lights up at night, on the hour. Parking is $5, and be prepared for 164 spiral steps inside the column. Before you climb, don’t forget to buy a balsa wood glider from the gift shop for $1. From the narrow deck atop, you can see miles in every direction, and across the Pacific to the horizon. Also, in the distance, you’ll probably still hear sea lions. At whatever moment, it is a pretty nice place to be. Exhale, and send your glider silently aloft into the endless sky. Not only does Astoria invite you to get lost, it’s also a good place to find yourself.
Don Frank Photography
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Don Frank Photography
ASTORIA + GEARHART, OREGON
trip planner
EAT Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar www.blaylockswhiskeybar.com Bowpicker Fish and Chips www.bowpicker.com Buoy Beer at the Food Hub www.buoybeer.com Coffee Girl www.thecoffeegirl.com Dead Man’s Isle www.deadmansisle.com Drina Daisy Bosnian Restaurant www.drinadaisy.com Fedé Trattoria Astoria www.fedeastoria.com Fort George Brewing www.fortgeorgebrewery.com The Knot www.bowlinehotel.com/ the-knot-bar-astoria McMenamins Sand Bar www.mcmenamins.com/ gearhart-hotel/sand-bar
Joni Kabana/TravelOregon.com
Pacific Way Cafe www.pacificwaycafe.com
STAY Bowline Hotel www.bowlinehotel.com Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa www.cannerypierhotel.com Hotel Elliot www.hotelelliott.com
PLAY Arrow Tugboat & Tour Co. www.arrowtug.com Astoria Column www.astoriacolumn.org Astoria Riverfront Trolley www.old300.org Astoria Underground Tour www.oldastoria.com
Joni Kabana/TravelOregon.com
Cory Teubner/Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar
Columbia River Maritime Museum www.crmm.org
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Gearhart Golf Links is a beautiful way to recreate on the Oregon Coast without getting wet. Grab a drink or watch the sunset at the historic Pier 39. Astoria’s boardwalk is great for strolls and running. Astoria takes its whiskey seriously at Blaylock’s Whiskey Bar. The obelisk known as the Astoria Column with storytelling of the area.
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Fort Clatsop and Fort-to-Sea Trail www.nps.gov/places/ fort-clatsop-or.htm Fort Stevens State Park www.stateparks.oregon.gov Gearhart Golf Links www.gearhartgolflinks.com Hanthorn Cannery Museum www.canneryworker.org Oregon Film Museum www.astoriamuseums.org Youngs RIver Falls www.astoriaparks.com/parks/ youngs_river_falls.aspx
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Tacoma brings together art, coastal Washington and classic cars in a livable mashup.
Northwest Destination
Tacoma
A collection of America’s most famous cars rides shotgun with romantic waterborne gondolas written by James Sinks
IT’S NOT HARD to imagine cars when you think of Tacoma. As in, lots and lots of cars. Often, in a red sea of glowing brake lights, inching up the Interstate. But escape the traffic and head down the exit ramps, and you’ll discover an entirely different—and immersive—automotive experience. Think copious Corvettes, fleets of Falcons, and one of the fifty-one Tuckers that were ever produced. Once an industrial hub renowned for the acrid “Tacoma Aroma” billowing from local smokestacks, the cleaned-up commuter community along the Puget Sound has raced to the front as one of the nation’s preeminent destinations for automobile aficionados, thanks to nostalgia-filled museums, car-themed diners, even a monthly morning Caffeine and Gasoline car show. 92 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE MAY | JUNE 2023
And nowhere is Tacoma’s car-wonderland vibe as apparent than in the drivers’ seat of a rumbling Ford Model T. Monthly between May and October, visitors to the sprawling LeMay Collection at Marymount museum can plunk down $175 for a how-to class and then crank-start and steer one of eight century-old Model Ts, colloquially known as “Tin Lizzies,” around the 90-acre property. It’s not unlike driving a 20-horsepower time machine, said Todd Kelley, a self-professed car geek who has volunteered for fifteen years at the museum as a docent and recently as cohost of its podcast, called LeMay-zing. Navigating the antiques can be a little tricky—the accelerator is hand operated, for instance—but eventually, visitors are able to get up to maybe 25 miles per hour. “In a Model T, that feels like 80,” he said. The experience is only one part of a potentially day-long foray to Marymount, which houses the state’s biggest car collection and other memorabilia in a former boys’ school. Admission without the Model T drive is $15 for adults and $5 for kids.
Travel Tacoma/Pierce County
northwest destination
northwest destination
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Dale Chihuly at the showy Museum of Glass, which includes an active glassblowing and fusing workshop. Across Puget Sound, venture to Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor to see pieces of the former Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge, famously known as “Galloping Gertie” for its propensity to bounce in the wind. It opened to traffic in July 1940 and tumbled into the water just five months later. Happily, the new version has no such giddyup. At the nearby Devoted Kiss Cafe, grab lunch and smoochy photos overlooking the water. And if you want even more romance to reward your sweetie after a weekend of roaming among roadsters, book cars of the waterborne variety, Italian-style gondolas, and get serenaded on the harbor. Tacoma also serves as the gateway to Mount Rainier—which was known as Taquoma in the indigenous Twulshootseed language and gave the city its name. An hourplus drive away on the mountain, take a ride up Mount Rainier Gondolas to ski, hike or lunch at Washington’s highest-elevation restaurant, Summit House at 6,872 feet. Finish your adventure with a plunge at the slopeside Paradise Village Lodge’s Ukrainian-forged Cannibal Hot Tub, a giant iron kettle that’s heated by a wood fire underneath. Get reservations far in advance and invite friends: You’re renting the entire pot. Make like your own Galloping Gertie and fall into the water, simmer with stories of sedans, and toast to the tantalizing Tacoma that’s not trapped in traffic.
EAT Carr’s www.carrsrestaurant.net Devoted Kiss Cafe www.devotedkisscafe.com Devil’s Reef 253-983-7850 Over the Moon Cafe www.overthemooncafe.net Stink & El Tufo Wine Bar www.stinktacoma.com Summit House www.crystalmountainresort.com
STAY McMenamins Elks Temple www.mcmenamins.com Silver Cloud Tacoma Waterfront www.silvercloud.com/tacoma Hotel Murano www.provenancehotels.com/ hotel-murano-tacoma Thornewood Castle www.thornewoodcastle.com
PLAY Cannibal Hot Tub www.paradisevillagelodge.com Gig Harbor Gondola www.gigharborgondola.com Harbor History Museum www.harborhistorymuseum.org LeMay America’s Car Museum www.americascarmuseum.org LeMay Collections at Marymount www.lemaymarymount.org Mount Rainier Gondola www.crystalmountainresort.com Museum of Glass www.museumofglass.org Point Defiance Park and Zoo www.metroparkstacoma.org Thunder Dome Car Museum www.thunderdomecarmuseum.org
LeMay America’s Car Museum
Chuck Lysen/Travel Tacoma
The place is one of two separate museums in Tacoma made possible by the hobbyist passion of the late Harold LeMay and his wife, Nancy, who began building their fortune collecting rubbish—and then started collecting cars. Before Harold died in 2000, they’d assembled the world’s largest privately owned auto collection, with more than 3,000 vehicles. Across town at America’s Car Museum, next door to the landmark Tacoma Dome arena, visit limos, Nascar race cars, the Fred Flintstone-mobile from the 1994 movie, and the “Tucker Torpedo.” For thrills, try the racing simulator. Just up the road, Thunder Dome Car Museum in nearby Enumclaw is open weekends. And on first Saturdays, savor coffee, donuts and the month’s featured rods or exotics at Caffeine and Gasoline, staged at the national headquarters of Griot’s Garage—which sells car cleaning supplies and automotive accessories—in downtown Tacoma. In June, the stars will be Porsches. Ready to fuel up on calories? It’s a quick drive and sometimes a long line for Buicksized omelets under wall-mounted license plates at breakfast hotspot Carr’s. Tacoma loves auto culture, but it’s also geared for other tastes. An artsy downtown district touts the funky Opera Alley, with fine dining at Over the Moon Cafe and tiki drinks at Devil’s Reef. Prefer tapas? Cheese, charcuterie, and libations await at Stink & El Tufo Wine Bar. Prowl picturesque parks including the Point Defiance Park and Zoo, and admire the handiwork of Tacoma native and artist
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Hotrods and exotic cars at Thunder Dome Car Museum. Tacoma’s beautiful Museum of Glass pays homage to its native son Dale Chihuly. View one of the largest collections of privately owned autos at LeMay America’s Car Musuem.
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Devil’s Reef serves drinks with tropical flair. (photo: Travel Tacoma)
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1859 MAPPED
The points of interest below are culled from stories and events in this edition of 1859.
Astoria Seaside
Milton-Freewater Hood River Portland Tillamook Gresham
Pendleton
The Dalles La Grande
Maupin Government Camp
Pacific City Lincoln City
Baker City
Salem Newport
Madras
Albany Corvallis
Prineville
Eugene Springfield
John Day
Redmond
Sisters Florence
Joseph
Ontario
Bend Sunriver Burns
Oakridge Coos Bay Bandon
Roseburg
Grants Pass Brookings
Jacksonville
Paisley
Medford Ashland
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Live
Think
Explore
20 Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
54 Dan Sadowsky
82
Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve
28 Rogue Picnics
56 FACT Oregon
84
Morrisons Rogue Wilderness Lodge
30 Oregon Coast Wasabi
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The Boutique Retreat: Tiny House Hotel
38 Mercer Lake
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Astoria-Megler Bridge
44 Tommy Ford
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Tacoma, Washington
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AmtrakOregon.com
Until Next Time Wildflowers carpet the landscape near Mount Bachelor. photo by David Dinette
Continue for Special Insert
Soak in mountain views from the top of Tin Hat Mountain along the Sunshine Coast Trail. (photo: Destination BC/ Andrew Strain)
2 CANADIAN GETAWAYS 2023
WESTERN CANADA IS TRULY ONE OF THE MOST GEOGRAPHICALLY AND CULTURALLY SPECTACULAR PLACES IN THE WORLD. From the chic urban scene of Vancouver’s Yaletown to the remote, mountainous and rugged surf towns on the west coast of Vancouver Island, there are hundreds of experiences for all styles of travel. Here are but a few ideas to help you envision your next visit. Get your itineraries in place, then check out the currency exchange rate and enjoy the relative spending power of the U.S. dollar.
A publication of Statehood Media www.1859oregonmagazine.com www.1889mag.com Cover: Pacific Rim National Park (photo: Destination BC/Yuri Choufour)
2023 CANADIAN GETAWAYS
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A ferry travels between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay on the Sunshine Coast. (photo: Destination BC/ @dolfvermeulen)
Sunshine Coast
BUCKET LIST RECREATION
ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Boats sit in the marina at Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast. The bike trail system at Gibsons is just one option for cyclists. A Thunderbird totem carved by Tla'amin Nation artist Craig Galligos. (photos, clockwise from top: Destination BC/Albert Normandin, Destination BC/Stirl and Rae Photo, Sunshine Coast Tourism/ Shayd Johnson)
4 CANADIAN GETAWAYS 2023
JUST NORTH of Vancouver and east of Vancouver Island, British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast is known for its small coastal towns and harbors, its trails and provincial parks, its First Nation arts and culture and pristine lakes. Perhaps the best thing about the Sunshine Coast is that it is accessible only by BC Ferries and short flights from Vancouver or Vancouver Island. The two main regions are North and South Sunshine Coast, with the former being more remote and the latter more popular. Bikes are a common and fun form of transportation throughout the region. Cycling trips along the rugged and beautiful coastline on the two-lane Highway 101 is one rite of passage. Likewise the 180-kilometer Coastal Circle Route is a bucket list item miles
after miles of gorgeous views of the Salish Sea, four ferries and the coastlines of the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island. If you’re bringing bikes, mountain biking should also be on your itinerary. With more than 700 kilometers of trails throughout the Sunshine Coast, the terrain weaves and flows along the coastal rainforest—from the trail network criss-crossing Roberts Creek on the shoulder of Mount Elphinstone to the cross-country trails of Powell River in the north The 180-kilometer Sunshine Coast Trail is another bucket list adventure for intrepid hikers. With fourteen first-come-firstsleep cabins along the trail from Sarah Point to Saltery Bay, you will encounter stunning coastal shorelines, old growth forests, pristine lakes and breathtaking mountain top vistas.
Surrey
A BALANCE OF URBAN & OUTDOORS JUST NORTH of the United States border and south of Vancouver and along the southern bank of the Fraser River is the bustling city of Surrey, with a population of just over a half million people. Surrey is a place for outdoor adventure followed by nights of culture and comfort. You’ll find green spaces, parks and beaches along the shores of Boundary Bay on the western edge of the city. Head to the beach community Crescent Beach in South Surrey to hike along the rugged shoreline or to Blackie Spit on the northern tip of Crescent Beach to spy hundreds of species of birds as part of the Pacific Flyway. For lunch, try the fish tacos and chowder at The Cabin or a certified Neapolitan pizza overlooking the bay at the authentic Italian restaurant Cotto al Mare. Take a stroll along 5 kilometers of trails and encounter exotic trees at the nearby Redwood Forest. Take the self-guid-
6 CANADIAN GETAWAYS 2023
ed tour through the shaded trails and discover more than fifty species of trees. When you get to the mature stand of Sierra Redwoods, it’s time to stop and forest bathe and let the world slow down. At the end of the day, make reservations for Old Surrey Restaurant, a French menu from a Spanish native, and lamb and veal sourced from their family farm. Another intriguing option is Afghan Kitchen, an authentic Afghani restaurant with beautifully executed choices—from mantu to kololi and chicken qorma. Surrey is not short on lovely lodging options either. Retire for the night at the Civic Hotel where you will be treated to a luxurious stay in the heart of downtown. Ask for a high floor to overlook the city from your suite. If you want to stay close to water, book Ocean Promenade Hotel near Crescent Beach and enjoy views of the bay from elegant modern rooms.
ABOVE, FROM TOP Birdwatching at Blackie Spit, where hundreds of species live. Savory dishes from Afghan Kitchen. BELOW Paddling at Crescent Beach along the wildlife conservation area. (photos, from top: BC Bird Trail/ Discover Surrey, Ian Harland/Discover Surrey, Ian Harland/Discover Surrey)
Explore the global flavors and multicultural experiences of Surrey, BC, Canada. Find vacation packages at DiscoverSurreyBC.com.
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, consistent waves roll into Tofino, making it one of Canada’s hidden surfing treasures. (photo: Destination Canada/Brian Caissie)
8 CANADIAN GETAWAYS 2023
The Parliament buildings in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, overlook the water. (photo: Destination BC/Reuben Krabbe)
Victoria & Vancouver Island
COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE & UNEXPECTED SURF ONE OF the true gems of western Canada is Victoria and the surrounding Vancouver Island. Accessible by ferries from Seattle (FRS Clipper) and Port Angeles (Black Ball Ferry) on the Olympic Peninsula, Victoria is a former British colony that retained the early English architecture and history in its old town, which now buzzes with restaurants, galleries and markets, as well as street entertainers. Given the overwhelming number of things to do in Victoria, start with a grounding “Discover the Past” walking tour. Once you have a sense of the history, you have a framework for the rest of your visit. Visit Canada’s largest bonsai garden at the year-round botanical garden, The Gardens at Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. Take a horse drawn carriage tour of the
city’s beautiful and historic sites with Tally-Ho Carriage Tours. Snack your way through the bountiful Victoria Public Market in the historic Hudson building. But Vancouver Island is more than Victoria alone. Plunge farther into the terrain at Pacific Rim National Park. Threeand-a-half hours northwest of Victoria and on the west coast of Vancouver Island, slide into the forested world of the nearly 200 square miles of this national preserve. Paddle the Broken Group Island, hike the West Coast Trail, even surf the rugged west coast of the island. Indeed Tofino on the Clayoquot Sound is one of Canada’s coolest yearround surf hideaways. Make it a vacation within a vacation by taking up at the Wickaninnish Inn, where rainforest meets luxury and surfing.
ABOVE, FROM LEFT Public gardens at Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. A pod of Orcas off the Vancouver Island coastline. (photos, from left: Destination BC/Boomer Jerritt, Destination BC/Reuben Krabbe)
2023 CANADIAN GETAWAYS
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People bike along the seawall at Stanley Park in Vancouver. (photo: Destination BC/Alex Strohl)
Vancouver is the city that sleeps … well. With a healthy mix of urban and green space on the Pacific coast, Vancouver offers a good life. (photo: Destination BC/ Thomas Hill)
Vancouver
BIG CITY ZEN & GREEN SPACES VANCOUVER IS one of the most livable cities on the planet and lovely to visit as well. All of the delights of a cosmopolitan city blend nicely with green spaces and parks that are open and free. Cycle, jog or walk the 28 kilometer seawall around the massive urban park or hit the interior trails in the middle of one of the most beautiful and integrated cities in Canada. Head to Chinatown for world-class dim sum. Jump a quick water taxi to Granville Island and surround yourself with local foods and art at the Granville Public Market. Not far from Granville Island is Vancouver’s Yaletown neighborhood of old warehouses and many alluring restaurants. Among the many choices is Robba da Matti, an upscale Italian restaurant known for its fresh homemade pastas and dishes such as lobster and crab ravioli alongside a glass of bold, smooth and dry Tuscan wine. If you’d rather take a gorgeous car ride for the day, point north along the Sea to Sky Highway. This 101-mile scenic drive takes you from Vancouver to Pemberton with stunning views of the Howe 10 CANADIAN GETAWAYS 2023
Sound, the Coast Mountains and lush rainforest. The Rosewood Hotel Georgia is a luxurious way to experience evenings in the city. Just a short walk from Stanley Park, this property has its own spa to unwind from the day’s activities and elegant and casual dining options to suit your appetite. Or try the chic and colorful OPUS Vancouver in Yaletown, with rooms that have heated floors and soaking tubs. End the day with a nightcap Limonatta di Livande at Spritz, the hotel’s cocktail lounge.
Vancouver’s Chinatown is one of the largest outside of mainland China and brings new thought and cuisine to the city. (photo: Destination Vancouver/Nelson Mouellic)
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