Portland: Adventures with Festivals

  Our two weeks in Oregon were rich with family and the difference of how life is lived in the Northwest. Ron and I  scoop up experiences with our grandchildren to carry us through the next visit.  All were well, the weather was perfect, and there was always  gelato only a block or two away. 

The picture on the left is Mt. Hood, a good view from Hood River Valley and the second time we discovered how faulty our east coast assumptions could be.  The first was our drive to the 5th Annual Tomato Festival.  Ron can never get enough of these.  We'd read in Williamette Week, "Farmington Gardens understands your tomato lust."   What could be bad?

We got lost on the way to Beaverton, another city in the Portland metro area, one still surrounded by farms and fields.  Luckily we found help at a car wash where a customer gave us careful instructions.  This was important because there were no signs heralding "Tomato Festival!"  It was lunchtime when we arrived and walked up to the food table, "What tomato dishes do you have?" 

A  student from Gaston High School, selling food as a fund-raiser, answered, "We have bratwurst and corn."  Turns out the festival had a low profile even on site.  We ate corn, entered a large area where talks were given about tomatoes--and about 60 types of tomato were arranged for sampling inside an open tent.  You picked up a toothpick and went for it.

At Hood Rivee, still following the siren song of the Williamette Week, we went--this time with our daughter and grandchildren-- to "Millions of Peaches."  Trying to find Apple Valley's Labor Day Peach Celebration and BBQ was an hilarious quest.  Turns out that pears and apples are the local produce; the peaches were in jam jars.  The coleslaw with the BBQ was delicious and Zoe got to see goats.

On the way home Zach's intense interest in maps was indulged with the present of a huge puzzle map of the United States.  Though we almost ran out of gas, I had a good time talking with my daughter and the just-in-time, one pump gas station had popsicles.    

We did buy some great produce on the way home.  We laughed at ourselves as New Yorkers who think that events called "festival" will be very big.  As several people in Hood River explained, it's a way to get people to come out for the end of season furits and vegetables.  That worked! 

Comments

[MotherPie]

What a fun time you seem to be having! I do get a kick out of the experience of New Yorkers when they realize that there is a realm beyond. Festivals... the social fabric in the little places.

[m.e.]

thanks for sharing your grandparenting visits....gelato and popsicles and tomatoes and peaches!!!