Edgefield

In my early post I put a link to the McMenamins website. We went to the Kennedy School but we also visited Edgefield outside of Portland. It was originally built in 1911 as a county poor farm and now is a 74 acres of restored buildings with organic gardens, golf course, a hotel, a spa, a glass blower, a potter, restaurants, a winery, distillery and small pubs through out. We had fun exploring the grounds.

The Little Red Shed

(it looks more like a hobbit house to us)

The little red shed is a pub and cigar room. It has a wood burning stove in it and around 10 seats.

Kit inside

Daffodils and fruit trees.

The Distillery

Inside the Distillery

The Distillery tasting room.

Near the brewery.

We also went to the Greatful Dead pub, pool house and more. It was a perfect end to a great day exploring the waterfalls outside of Portland.

Waterfalls and Rainbows

There is a great hike in Eugene called Spencer's Butte that has great views of the surrounding area and the Cascade Mountain Range. The hike is uphill around a mile and a half to the top of the butte. It is a great workout and we  try to hike it at least once a week.  Below is a picture from the top of the Cascade Mountain ranges in the back (they are mostly covered by cloud, but still beautiful).

Last weekend when we went back to Portland we decided to drive to the Columbia River Gorge and see some amazing waterfalls. The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon with the Columbia River in it, that is 80 feet long and connects with the Pacific Ocean. It also separates Washington and Oregon. Along the River there a ton of waterfalls and totally worth the 30 minute drive from Portland. We saw some magnificent waterfalls in New Zealand and we were a little bit skeptical about how these waterfalls would be compared to the ones at Milford Sound, but they exceeded our expectations. You can get right up to the waterfalls and even walk underneath some of them.  The day was sunny/ rainy so we saw a lot of rainbows also.

 The Columbia River Gorge: Oregon on the right, Washington on the left

Horse Tail Falls

Pony Tail Falls

Walking behind Ponytail falls

We did about a 3 mile hike around the falls, everything was so green.

The Train tracks

Multnomah Falls which are around 621 feet long.

And lastly rainbows,  I love them they are so beautiful.

Rainbow over the Gorge

Rainbow in Eugene.