We allocated this day, a Saturday, to the five hour drive from Ashland to Portland. We grabbed breakfast in our hotel, then began the drive north. I took out my camera to take pictures.
The drive up interstate five is beautiful, passing through forested hills and states parks. On the way north, I forced us to detour a couple of times to view some of the covered bridges Oregon is famous for. We stopped in four towns, viewing perhaps half a dozen historic covered bridges. Most covered bridges look like a barn over a creek. We decided we didn't appreciate covered bridges. In fact, the bridge I liked the most that we saw during our drive was a narrow, sleek, swinging pedestrian bridge (with a "no swinging" sign :> ), not a historic bridge.
We stopped to visit the Saturday Market at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The University of Oregon has a Berkeley vibe, but is less dense, more car friendly, and lacking homeless people.
I found the market more interesting than Portland's Sunday Market (which I visited the previous week). It's also older than the one in Portland. We saw lots of stuff for sale, including arts, crafts, wood-turning (including one stall devoted to polished wood cribbage boards), t-shirts (including one stall specializing in shirts with birds), and tie-dye (we even saw some underwear for sale). There also was an attached extensive farmers market. (It even had locally grown lemongrass!) Finally, there was a large food court, and also multiple stages for musicians scattered around.
It was shockingly hot. Although there are other things to see in Eugene, we had no energy to explore more.
From Eugene we drove to Portland, stopping at the outlet mall in Woodburn on the way. The outlet mall has lots of shops, including Under Armour (which I didn't think did direct-to-consumer sales).
In Portland, Di Yin persuaded me (without great difficulty other than my desire for variety) to return to Apizza Scholls, the pizza joint we enjoyed so much in Portland the previous week.
Sep 25: Ashland to Portland, inc. Eugene
Sep 24: Ashland
On Friday, we idled away the day in and around Ashland, hanging out until our evening play.
The whole morning we relaxed in our cabin until the last possible minute. I was sad to leave the cabin. We ate breakfast in the cabin; I had a peach tart I bought at the farmers market the previous day. It was good like peach pie. I decided to heat it up.
After checking out, we took a brief detour to nearby Hyatt Lake, but found it was nothing special. On the way, we saw cabins by the lake, but none were as nice as ours.
We drove to town, picked up lunch at the Ashland food co-op's deli section, then headed to Lithia Park for a picnic. Lithia Park, which I've explored (and photographed) before, is a large, narrow, remarkably pretty park.
After lunch, we took a walk through a residential neighborhood, walking past pleasant houses. We then strolled around downtown proper. I reiterate my previous statement that Ashland is a traditional cute tourist town. We stopped by the post office to mail postcards. We found a shop, CD or not CD, nominally a music store, with an extensive collection of fun, funny, and funky t-shirts:
- W.W.K.D.? (what would Kirk do?)
- there are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't
- 5 out of 4 people have a problem with fractions. (there were lots of other math shirts as well.)
- a shirt about Monty Python weight-ratios between birds and coconuts
- a shirt of the killer rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- a shirt of the holy hand grenade
- a picture of a mushroom from Super Mario Brothers that is labeled "get a life"
- a shirt that simply says "I don't care about apathy"
We also stopped by an independent bookstore, Bloomsbury Books. I liked the books they picked to promote. We also dropped in Shakespeare Books & Antiques, a cute store with many vintage editions, some the size of almost-square index cards. Next we came across More Fun, a store of "comics for grown-ups." It was fun to browse. :)
Elsewhere, we found a special traveling exhibit on The Art of Dr. Seuss in the Thomas Lee Gallery. I liked seeing his creations up-close in large pieces, more substantial than the smaller renderings his books. Incidentally, some paintings on display were only released after his death.
During this stroll, we noticed lots of street musicians appearing in the late afternoon.
After a brief walk and sit in Lithia Park, it was time for dinner. We went to Omar's Restaurant, a dependable steak and seafood joint that I went to twice before (1, 2), once on each previous visit to Ashland. It wasn't quite as good on this visit; I'd give it a 2 or 2+ on my rating scale. Details of this visit are in the pictures, the only pictures I took this day.
After dinner, we went to our evening show: King Henry IV, Part One. I liked it, especially the elaborately choreographed fight scenes. It's both a history about high-level political (noble) infighting and a comedy. (Falstaff is fun as always.) It loosely follows the real history, though some facts are wrong such as the relative ages of the people involved. The play focuses on Prince Hal as he decides to stop carousing with lowlifes and take his rightful place as a member of respected royalty. As such, through this and other characters, the play explores what people think of or say about themselves versus how they appear to others. Similarly, the play also asks what honor is.
Sep 23: Crater Lake to Ashland, She Loves Me, and an Extraordinary Cabin
On Thursday, we struck camp early to drive to Ashland for the matinee we were scheduled to see. I'd expected the play to be the only interesting feature of day. On the contrary--we saw many great sites on the way to Ashland and by our cabin/hotel in the evening.
I took a variety of pictures this day.
On the way out of Crater Lake, we paralleled the Rogue River much of the way and stopped at various spots along it to sight-see. At some point we left the forests and entered the so-called Rogue River Valley, where highway 5 runs and most of the towns in this part of Oregon are clustered (including Ashland).
The weather was beautiful in the valley. When we'd stopped at our first viewpoint on the way out of Crater Lake, the thermostat has just reached 40 degrees. By the time we left the forest and mountains and entered the valley several hours later, we were in a different climate and at a warmer time of the day. It was 70s in the sun.
We stopped at the Rogue Valley Growers (i.e., farmers) & Crafters Market, which was held this day in Medford, the town next to Ashland. It's a good-sized, wide-ranging market.
Much of it is devoted to food and food ingredients. I liked the selection of prepared foods: lots of bakeries (including one that sold huge scones and another that sold "baklava bites" = little pockets of baklava and a third that sold apple, cherry, etc. pies baked like empanadas/turnovers), a donut stand (that made fresh donuts on-location), a Greek-ish stand (spanakopita, squash pies, apple strudel), a Turkish stand (with a gyro skewer), a good-looking Japanese food truck, and a local ice cream stand (butter pecan, toasted sesame with honey). Of course, as usual there were stands selling vegetables, fruits (the strawberries were cheaper than in the bay area!), mushrooms, honey, pasta, etc. There was a stand selling locally raised meat: beef, chicken, veal, and even buffalo!
Some stands sold plants, including cactuses and carnivorous plants.
The market also had many arts and crafts vendors, selling items ranging from carved wood and jewelry to perfumes and soaps.
We bought a lot of stuff at market for later meals.
After we left the market, we stopped by a park briefly, happened upon some deer on the road and in the park, then made our way to Ashland.
The reason we made Ashland a destination on this trip was because it's the site of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which I've been to twice before and enjoyed (1, 2a, 2b, 2c). Ashland and the festival are the same as always; I won't bother to describe my overall impressions of them in this post because my impressions haven't changed.
In Ashland, we headed to Lela's Cafe for lunch. I'd been there before and remarked that the sandwiches are so good that it alone might be an excuse to travel to Ashland. Well, the sandwiches were as delicious this time! Details are in the pictures.
After lunch, we trotted over to our matinee play: She Loves Me. Here's my reaction, indented so as to be easily skipable.
It's the timeless trope of two people who fell in love writing letters to each other yet had never met. They end up unknowingly working in the same perfume shop and don't get off on the right foot. Meanwhile they're still writing each other passionate letters, not realizing the other is the person they fight with at work. The first half of the play sets the scene; the second half shows what happens when their romantic worlds start colliding.
It's a cute, fun musical of a play, funny at times. I wouldn't call it a full musical because there are fewer dance routines and it has a smaller cast than a normal musical. The story is based on the play Parfumerie (written in Hungarian) by Miklos Laszlo. It was made into a musical by the same guys (Bock and Harnick) who later did bigger musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof. The tale was also adapted into many plays and movies, most notably You've Got Mail.
There are some funky (though nevertheless fun) musical interludes (Twelve Days to Christmas, the madcap dance in the Cafe, etc.) that don't really advance the story. These bothered me a little. (They didn't need to be there.)
Everyone in the story felt real, human, like ordinary working people looking for love. I compliment the play-writers for keeping everything grounded. Fundamentally, as one critic put it, the play is an "unsentimental love story."
I was surprised to notice that there were no deep themes here, no commentary on life or the human condition. This is unusual for plays I see. (Even Shakespeare's comedies have one-off lines or soliloquies that make a broader statement.)
Knowing that we were staying in a cabin this evening, after the play we stopped by the Ashland Food Co-op to pick up supplies to cook for dinner. The food co-op is a pretty good grocery store--quite extensive--with a fun deli section (bison tamales, anyone? sesame noodles? baklava?) and a wall of bulk food bins including things such as buckwheat grouts (roasted or unroasted) and rye berries. The freezer section even had such novel treats as honey pomegranate Greek ice cream. Finally, I was impressed to see a little bin one could put wine corks in to be recycled.
Amply supplied, we drove east on curvy route 66, heading to our place for the night. The road rose above the valley, yielding some pretty views. Although narrow and curvy and sometimes without guard-rails next to drop-offs, the drive didn't bother us because we were already used to Rim Drive in Crater Lake.
We checked in at Green Springs Inn's front desk, which is located in the inn's restaurant. They gave us a key and a map that provided directions on how to get to the cabin. We drove down the one-lane dirt road to our cabin, named Pilot Rock, passing deer on the way.
There, we discovered that our cabin was awesome! Thus begins my encomium. The pictures and especially the videos I recorded present it pretty well. First, it's really well designed / laid out. I've been reading a book on architecture, so I'm even more sensitive to this than usual.
The cabin's a rustic chic. It was built from the wood on the property; indeed, we passed the wood shop where they put things together on the way to the cabin. (They're building more than the four they currently have.) Nevertheless, despite the rustic feel, it has fancy, modern conveniences such as a sound system (for radio, set to NPR) and wireless internet. There's no TV, but we didn't feel its absence. The cabin is well outfitted with amenities. There's a hot tub. There's both a wood-burning furnace (for cozy heat) and a regular heating system. We found a shelf of games: yathzee, scrabble, cribbage, uno. Finally, though we didn't get to use it, there's a barbecue grill and a supply of firewood out back. Also, the cabin is built to the latest green-building specs.
Confirming the cabin's secluded appeal, there's no sound when on the deck. No cars. No other people. One hears only the forest. The only man-made structure in sight was another cabin, but it was a substantial distance away.
Fundamentally, this cabin is an incredibly peaceful, comfortable, special place to be. I think this is the best place I ever stayed in (in its class -- it shouldn't be measured on the same scale as the Peninsula and other four-star hotels). By the time we left the cabin, Di Yin was talking about going back for three days or three weeks. I kept saying, "Three weeks? No! Three months!" It's a great retreat.
The next morning, I spent some time reading the cabin's guest book. It was fun to read; the other guests were as panegyric as we were. Di Yin left a fun note (and an illustration) in the book on our behalf.
Incidentally, we ate dinner this evening in the cabin; Di Yin cooked us a lovely meal.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Day 3: Returning Home
Monday wasn't much of a holiday--I had an early flight back home. After waking up early (though not as early as I got up in order to fly to Oregon on Saturday), I grabbed an apple croissant from the Apple Cellar Bakery & Bistro on the way to the airport. As I bought it and asked the counter-woman about her wares, she revealed that the morning buns were made from the same dough as the croissant. Interesting; I wonder if that's a common practice.
Also on the way to the airport I learned that, in Oregon, all gas stations are full-service. This surprised me, as I don't recall learning it on my previous visit, yet I would've imagined I would've needed to get gas at some point.
I made it to the airport with much time to spare. I polished off my leftover salad from dinner the previous night, then ate the pleasing apple croissant. It had a nice quantity of apple pie goodness inside.
Incidentally, I took these pictures of my Apple Cellar experience.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Day 2: Table Rocks, Coriolanus, and Food
Since I didn't want to see matinees on two consecutive days, I chose to attend an evening performance on Sunday. Hence, I had an entirely open day. I decided to go hiking.
These pictures illustrate the day's activities.
First, however, I needed fuel. I chose to eat breakfast/lunch at the Wild Goose Cafe and Bar, which is really more of a roadside diner. Here's my review.
I drove north to the Table Rocks. The Table Rocks are two hills, the tops of which are flat like a tabletop. They were created when lava covered the entire area. Over time, most of the lava eroded due to the strength of a river. Only these two hills remain.
I hiked both upper and lower Table Rock. They're the same height--they're only called that because one is up-stream of the other.
The day, despite being overcast, was hotter than I expected or in fact brought clothes for on this trip.
I hiked the lower Table Rock first, mainly because its parking lot had space when I arrived and the upper one did not. This hike was perhaps six miles round-trip and eight hundred feet elevation gain. The upper Table Rock hike was shorter; I did its round trip in a bit more than an hour. The sights seen on both hikes were basically identical. I took practically no pictures on the second hike because everything looked the same as on the first one.
While hiking, I passed many families with kids, often six or eight years old. Why is this worth mentioning? Because the parents were about my age. Some were even younger. Scary!
After hiking, I returned to Ashland for an early dinner at Omar's, a seafood and steak place where I ate during my last visit. Here's my new review. Over dinner, I eavesdropped at the table next to me. One guy, my age, was visiting two people I assumed to be his parents. They turned out not to be. I'm not sure what their relationship was. The guy had just moved from San Jose to Alameda; the group spent much of dinner talking about features of various parts of the bay area. (I think the older couple previously lived down there.)
Then I went to see the evening show of Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's tragedies that I never heard of before. I thought the last theater was a nice size. This one was tiny: a square stage is surrounded by the audience on all sides; there's only six rows of seats. I was in the third row.
Here's my reaction to the play:
A decent tragedy set in Rome, when the patrician, aristocratic, wealthy, landowning, generally military class rules, and the plebeians farm, serve as foot soldiers, and generally exert no power.
The play is about class conflict in a nation beset by war and is, as such, timeless. It’s also about the difficulty in translating military fame in political power and in translating military knowledge and strategies into political ones. In addition, it comments on how easily public opinion can be swayed. Finally, in its title character, it portrays how modesty can, surprisingly, live side-by-side with egotism.
Costumes were modern. Characters wore 20th century military or revolutionary outfits with rifles, pistols, laser sights, knifes, etc. Plebeians in particular often wore sweatshirts (hoodies) with faces of activists such as Lennon.
In the play and in the performance, blood (or at least a red liquid) flowed.
Given the staging’s modern feel, it's not surprising scene changes happen much like they do in movies: a flash, loud noise, a dramatic shift in lighting, and an obvious changing of the place the viewer is supposed to look.
The actor playing Menenius (an old patrician) was great! And I’m not simply saying that because I liked the character. It’s clear he put his heart and soul into every word he spoke and physical action he made.
Interestingly, in both plays I saw, a couple sitting near me never returned from intermission.
One thing that struck me, perhaps prompted by the theme for the play, was that the Shakespeare festival in general seems to be filled with old, white, possibly wealthy people. (The tickets aren't cheap.)
Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Day 1: Lithia Park, The Clay Cart, and Food
In late April, I wanted to travel somewhere. At the last minute, I jaunted to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. I went in a previous year and had a blast. This year, due to my spontaneous planning, I didn't bring anyone with me. (I figure, with more advanced planning, I can return with people to see more plays.)
Because United was having a sale, rather than driving the six-ish hours each way to Ashland, I flew to Medford, a nearby town, on Saturday morning and rented a car. Soon after, I took my first picture from the trip. Here's all the pictures from this day's adventures.
I had lots of time to kill. The first play I was to see was a matinee. Because I didn't want to risk missing it due to a delayed flight, I took the earliest flight in the morning. Thus, I found myself in Oregon at nine am with about four hours idle away.
After driving to Ashland and picking up my tickets, I decided to hike Lithia Park, to explore it in more depth than I did last time. It was a beautiful, clear day. (Everyone at the airport commented on how much nicer this day was than every day the previous week.) I hiked, listened to my ipod, lay in the sun, and read. Eventually, it was time for lunch.
For lunch, I headed to Lela's Cafe, a cafe/bistro that I sent my friends to last time--I couldn't go myself--and they returned with raves. I knew I had to go. I'm glad I did: it was terrific. It might've been reason enough to fly to Oregon. Here's my review.
I saw The Clay Cart by Śūdraka, as translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen. I had a great seat in the center of fairly small amphitheater with a clear view down to the stage. Looking around, it appears there are no bad seats in the theater.
Here's my reaction to the play:
A good, complex drama about star-crossed lovers. The story, which includes many characters, may be bit foreign to American audiences: a married man, known for his honorable and noble behavior, falls in love with a courtesan (high-class prostitute), and she him. This is considered perfectly acceptable.
The acting is very good all around. Some characters are actually one-dimensional, stock characters, but the acting often adds most of another dimension to them. The characters are dressed in colorful Indian costumes which often show lots of skin. Some costumes are notable: for instance, at one point the courtesan’s skirt unrolls into a sheet long enough to stretch almost across the stage.
The play occasionally included dancing. The big dance numbers look good due to the vibrant, flowing costumes and the coordination between the moves. The small numbers are often seductive: e.g., as the courtesan takes off her jewels. Obviously, the skimpy costumes helped fuel this effect.
The story is optimistic: things all work out in the end, thieves can be redeemed, and people with truly bad intentions will get public censure of their bad motives. Another underlying theme is that character is more important than caste or wealth.
The circular stage, probably a dozen meters across, was nearly empty. Pillows were often used to indicate setting: they represented walls, couches, buildings, etc. A multitude of Indian statues surrounded the stage. Above it hung many lanterns, all different styles, that added atmosphere. The performance did great things with colored lighting for mood. For instance, during a thunderstorm, the stage was lit in green and the lanterns swayed as if in the wind. Behind the stage, three musicians played Indian instruments.
The play, an English translation of an old Indian play, uses modern language. Sometimes the way things are phrased is funny—those parts are rightly played for laughs.
For dinner, I tried a Mexican fusion restaurant, Tabu. Here's my review.
After dinner I checked into the same passable hotel, the Ashland Motel, that I used on my previous trip. I couldn't be bothered to find a nicer one.
Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival
I spent Friday, June 16th 2006 to Sunday, June 18th 2006 in Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a trip I organized for some friends and I.
The whole trip was great! I saw two plays and both were very well done. And I got to eat at a few decent places and two surprisingly good ones; these reviews are recorded elsewhere.
The Merry Wives of Windsor, a fun play I saw on Friday night and one of Shakespeare's verbally witty and slapsticky comedies, had a very obvious theme: don't mess with women. My only disappointment with the performance was a very surreal ending scene. (I'm also a little disappointed by the bumpiness of the plot, but I'll take that up with Shakespeare.)
On Saturday night I saw Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. It was an excellent, emotionally exhausting romantic tragedy set in the seventeenth century. I was tired just watching it; I'm amazed at the energy had by the actor playing Cyrano. He was great and appropriately received a standing ovation. Superficially the theme dealt with the difference between inner and outer beauty. After deeper thought, one realizes it's more about the difference between visual beauty (i.e., physical beauty) and oral beauty (i.e., verbal eloquence).
Sadly, I had to skip a third play to participate in an online puzzle competition I do every year, and I think I did as well as I usually do. Not great, not bad, but I'm happy with it. A few people on the trip asked about the puzzles I was so devoted to that I skipped on performance. I showed them and they went over really well -- some people got addicted and spent a couple of hours working on these.
As for Ashland itself, it's a cute town that very much reminds me of Banff (Canada). Both towns are cozy and small, surrounded by verdant hills, and filled with neat little independent stores and boutiques (targeting the upper-class tourists that visit both places). Although expensive to purchase anything, they're fun for window shopping and have a wide variety of restaurants.
Even the five to six hour ride to Ashland was pretty pleasant, with nice views of Mount Shasta and Black Butte for long portions of the drive.
And the two people that I didn't know well before the trip I clicked with fairly well during the trip -a pleasant surprise-.
All in all, good clean fun.
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