Oregon Variations - Silverton and Pacific City
2021-11-01
We’re in a season that feels a little like wandering in the desert. I’m working with medical offices in both Portland and Salem, and we’re waiting out the lead times between appointments by exploring the region. I have to give Kristin a lot of credit for her creativity planning our stays out here. It’s easy for me to feel trapped here week after week trying to get a diagnosis, or treatment, or something that would let us get out of here again. But the reality is that may not happen for quite some time, so we’re taking it a week at a time and trying to make the most of what we have.
If we must wander, it’s a great time to do it. October in Oregon is a fantastic season, with the crowds gone, the weather generally good and the fall colors emerging. The best fall colors we saw were in Silver Falls State Park. We spent two weeks in nearby Silverton, at a very nice park just a short drive from the falls. We’ve stayed in the park before, during a September family tent camping trip some years ago. Legs were shorter then, so we weren’t able to hike the whole loop, and the fall colors hadn’t started turning yet. This stay was significantly more scenic, and we had the benefit of us not being in Oregon for a while and seeing this place with fresh eyes. I think we took over 100 photos! It felt like every corner had more beauty, and I’m really thankful I was well enough that day to do the whole hike.
Silverton and nearby Mount Angel are adorable little touristy towns, and it felt luxurious to have extra time to explore them. We saw the abbey, and the ridiculously large glockenspiel. Though the most surprising find was the Abbey’s museum. We expected artifacts related to the history of the abbey, its residents, and the architecture. What we got instead was… taxidermy? They have a shockingly large collection of taxidermied wild animals from the region, along with a lot of seemingly random artifacts from around the world in a small room with display cases. Interesting in its way, but incredibly out of place in a Catholic abbey! Never did get the story of why it’s all there.
After another week in Portland taking care of things at the house and seeing friends, we headed to Pacific City to stay at the coast. We’ve been to a lot of places in this country and the Oregon coast remains among our favorites. It feels alive, ever-changing, and full of surprises. This stay was rather wet and cold, even by Oregon coast standards. It made for dramatic scenery, even if we had to bundle up to enjoy it!
We spent a very wet Saturday at the Tillamook Air Museum, a onetime blimp hangar for the army air force. It holds some notable planes, but the building itself is rather the most impressive artifact. They’re… doing their best to keep such a huge wooden structure upright in the very challenging conditions of coastal weather. It mostly works. With a lot more space than money for exhibits, they display whatever they can get.
Oh, and I celebrated my birthday while here with dinner at the Riverhouse Nestucca, a Northwest seafood restaurant in the classic style: get the best fish you can, and don’t mess it up. It was a refreshing, familiar treat after being away from the Pacific for so long.
The weather brightened up near the end of our stay, so we spent as much time as we could on the beach!
But then it was time to take the very twisty Coast Range highways back to Silverton. We got to celebrate Halloween in this adorable little town and blend in with the locals a bit. It felt very “normal” to be in a neighborhood of houses again trick-or-treating. A year ago today was our final move-out of the house in Portland, and we hid candy inside the RV because that’s all we had time to manage. This year we even had time for costumes!
Even in a season of waiting, there are still many wonders to wander among.
