JUNE 2006

Willamette Valley, Oregon We're here for another month so have been able to explore the area. One weekend, though, we drove over the Santiam Pass to Bend again to see the hot air balloons. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't too cooperative, so we only saw the evening Balloon Glow which was still fun to see.

Bend, Oregon "Balloons Over Bend"

Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, OR One of the best state parks in the USA that we've visited has to be Silver Falls State Park which is only 30 minutes from Salem, OR. There are 10 falls (probably more lesser ones) that you can hike to, depending on the damage caused by any winter rains! A few of our favorites: (if you look closely, you'll see you can walk behind these!)

Lower South Falls, Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, OR

South Falls, Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, OR

Willamette Valley, Oregon...farming!

Windrowers cutting grass for grass seed in Linn County, OR..."95% of the World's Grass Seed is Grown Here."

While staying in the area, we saw a sign indicating that most the world's grass seed is grown in this county! No wonder our noses bothered us! We were fortunate to meet one of the farming families of the area and learn about how they grow and harvest the grass seed. We missed the combining, but were able to see the windrowers begin cutting the acres and acres of grass all around the area. This was in addition to some wonderful berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, etc.) and cherries that we found were coming into season while we were there. Lots of U-Pick It farms where you can find just the perfect berries! When traveling up I-5 in the summer, plan to spend a few days in the area picking up some local produce for the road trip! (There are several nice campgrounds in the Willamette Valley area.)