Oregon – 2003/2004
Welcome to my Oregon trip! This travelogue covers the places my wife and I visited on our brief trip to southern Oregon between June 5th and June 9th, 2003. How we ended up in southern Oregon is (as it usually is) a story in itself.
After our Salt Lake City Olympic trip, I settled in to another busy season as a Budget Analyst for the City of Fresno. “Budget season” is stressful enough. However, it was made even more stressful by new Budget Manager who was learning the job as he was going along. Unfortunately, he thought he knew the job better than he did, thus making life miserable for myself and the rest of the staff. After deciding that it would be better to work in a different environment, I (along with the entire staff) found other jobs once “budget season” was over. It turned out to be a great move for me. I became the Airport Finance Manager for Fresno Yosemite International Airport. As all three of you long time readers know, I am deathly afraid of flying. You can be assured that the irony of me being a Finance Manager for an airport has not escaped my family and friends.
Given that I had a new job, I didn’t have any opportunity to take a long vacation. My wife (Dianne) and I did consider going to New England in the Fall of 2002 as we had planned for the Fall of 2001. But, Tom Marihart, my long time travel companion and a reason for going back to New England, decided to get married and hold the wedding in California. We once again shelved the New England trip. Thus, I didn’t take any lengthy time off from February 2002 through June 2003.
By the time May 2003 rolled around, we were both ready to go somewhere outside of Fresno. Since it had been a while since we had traveled, we decided to do a short driving trip to get our travel instincts back. I immediately thought of Ashland, Oregon. Many people had told me how much they enjoyed the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the town that hosted it. With those recommendations in mind, we bought some tickets to the festival’s plays, booked a room at a bed and breakfast, rented a car, and drove up to Ashland.
Overall, it was a very good trip. While the experience was somewhat diminished by a freak heat wave, Oregon was everything it was advertised to be. Ashland was a jewel; the Festival was magnificent; Crater Lake was spectacular; and the Oregon coast was beautifully dramatic. By the time we got back, we were already planning a return visit.
This travelogue is, once again, slightly different from the usual “daily diary” format I’ve used in the past (although I’ve deviated from that format so often that I wonder if I can still call it “usual”). Since we stayed at only one place, and ate at just a couple of restaurants, it didn’t seem appropriate to use the diary format. Instead, I decided to center my writings on our experiences at the various places we visited.
I hope you enjoy this look at our small trip into Oregon. I know that Oregon is a big place, and we only scratched the surface of it. Still, I think that you’ll find there are a couple of useful tips for any potential trip you might be considering into southern Oregon. As always, I appreciate any comments you might have about this travelogue. Thanks for reading!
2004 Update – While working on this travelogue, we took another trip to Ashland in July, 2004 (July 22nd to July 26th). Our second trip helped flesh out some of the impressions we had of the area. We were also able to notice some new attractions that we had overlooked before. So, instead of making another web page on this second trip, I decided to just merge the two trips. 2004 trip information is noted with a “2004 Update” heading preceding the information. I hope this additional information will help you if you are trying to decide to visit Ashland or southern Oregon.
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Unless otherwise noted, all pictures and text are copyright Michael Lima. You can contact me at mikvs@ix.netcom.com.
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