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July 8 - 14, 2008 |
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Tour
Highlights
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- Six Nights of Deluxe Accomodations
- Portland City Tour
- Sisters Quilt show with Quilt Lecture & Dinner
- Portland Rose Garden
- Cannon Beach /Columbia Gorge
- Admission to the Warm Springs Indian Museum
- 2 Days of "Shop-Hopping"
- 9 meals - 6 Continental breakfasts, 3 Dinners
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Per
Person Rates
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$1220
- Per Person Double Occupancy
$500 - Additional for Single Accommodation
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Arrival
and Departure Information
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Day
1
Hotel check-in is after 3:30 p.m. Baggage storage is
available for earlier arrivals.
Day 7
Return transportation to Portland International Airport is included. Please plan for flights departing after 3:30 p.m.
Oregon, "The
Land of Promise"
Won't you join us on this exciting tour that bridges
the past and present? The beauty of the legendary West
is one of America's greatest treasures, still visible,
unspoiled, and waiting for today's adventurers. Like
pioneers of long ago, our adventure takes us where pristine
mountain peaks soften into a patchwork of farmland and
forested hills, and jagged cliffs overlook wide vistas
where sandy beaches rendezvous with spectacular Pacific
Ocean waves.
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Detailed Itinerary
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Day
1 - Welcome
You’ll arrive on your own at the Portland
International Airport where convenient transfer service taxis are readily
available for transfer to our hotel. Our Welcome Meeting starts at 7:30
p.m., which allows for a convenient arrival and leisurely dinner.
Day
2 - Shop Hop!
Today we’ll traverse the great city of Portland to visit shops that are filled with fabric, needlework, and quilt supplies! In our quest to bring you the best that Portland has to offer, we’ll shop our way through buildings the size of a small aircraft hangar, and as cozy as a country store. Along the way we’ll experience the great city of Portland, both past and present as we wend our way through vintage cobblestone streets, and Victorian architecture, and into to the new downtown Portland. (C. Breakfast)
Day 3 - Pacific Shores and Samplers
This morning we travel to Cannon Beach on Oregon’s fabled coastline. A mecca for artisans, Cannon Beach is lined with shops and galleries that showcase one-of-a-kind handcrafted items. Enjoy a leisurely stroll on the beach where bubbly seafoam rushes in and departs, leaving wondrously shaped driftwood pieces. Gazing into the distance, we see cliffside houses, the palatial and the weathered, hugging a rocky shore, and fog-shrouded islands populated only by nesting seabirds.
A short walk from the beach is the local quilt shop specializing in gorgeous 100% cotton fabrics, as well as books, patterns, notions, and gifts. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day 4 - Oh Sisters!
Today we depart the Portland area and travel south, passing verdant valleys and rolling hills on our way to Salem, capital of Oregon.
Our visit here is like a step back in time. Unique shops, antique emporiums, and department stores form part of the charm of this “city for walking.” Nestled among the storefronts is a quilters fantasyland, a shop filled with all kinds of fabrics, notions, trims, books, and the most whimsical displays.
Our next stop is another memorable town, this one nestled at the foot of the Cascade Mountains. Looking more like the set for a cowboy movie than a real town, Sisters truly is a place right out of the old West! Its old-fashioned main street is lined with frontier stores stocked with all kinds of goodies! Tomorrow these buildings will be covered with quilts, hung every which way, to celebrate the annual Sisters Quilt Show. Today, though, before the crowds arrive, we can do a little pre-show shopping, especially at the popular Stitchin’ Post quilt shop. Later we’ll join in the fun at one of the show’s most popular events—a picnic dinner in the park featuring a popular quilt lecturer.
Afterward we’ll be ready to check into our hotel in Bend, Oregon, our home for the next two nights. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day 5 - Show Time
It’s Quilt Show time in Sisters, and we’re just a grapes-throw away from this festive one-day celebration. Quilts appear everywhere…hung on the sides of buildings, over balconies, in windows, draped over fences and posts…this is the LARGEST OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW IN THE WORLD! With the ambiance of an old-fashioned country fair, the streets fill with friendly folks, both quilters and non-quilters, who’ve come to celebrate this glorious day. And for the real “Quilt-aholics”, join us for a shop-hop to this area’s favorite quilt shops. (C. Breakfast)
Day
6 - Native American Treasure
This morning we enter the Warm Springs Indian Reservation where we’ll see one of the most extensive tribally owned artifact collections in the nation.
The Museum at Warm Springs showcases a prized collection of heirlooms, protected by tribal families for generations, and can now be seen by the public for the first time. Included in the over 600 items on display are magnificent beaded artifacts, beautiful storage baskets, ceremonial buckskin clothing, and glorious woven textiles.
The history and traditions of these once-powerful tribes comes alive as we enter a song chamber and are surrounded with traditional singing and drumming. We’ll observe many such facets of life in and around the Indian dwellings meticulously reconstructed here.
This afternoon sit back and relax as our coach wends its way north passing lush forests and rich farmlands, framed by towering snow-capped peaks. Get your cameras ready for the incredible vistas and ancient landscape of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area are soon within our view. We are awestruck by the great Multnomah Falls, the second highest year-round waterfall in the U.S., plummeting a staggering 620 feet to the river gorge floor…it is Oregon’s number one tourist destination. And our minds begin to whirl as we try to imagine Lewis and Clark navigating these once-treacherous, pre-dammed waters. We’ll also see the Bonneville fish hatchery, and learn about the fascinating fish ladders where millions of native fish are released annually into the Columbia River.
Tucked between the Columbia River and a steep rise to the Mt Hood Orchard region lays the frontier Village of Hood River. Here 100-year old storefronts and restaurants wait to tempt us with us Pacific Northwest treats. One of our favorites is the Apple Valley Country Store whose homemade goodies include mouth-watering jams and jellies, as well as some serious “comfort” foods. Don’t miss the pear dumplings, stuffed with sugar and spices, wrapped in flaky pie crust, baked to perfection and topped with a “yummy” sauce…or a homemade 4lb deep dish apple pie-(we can always share!)
We’re sure to have lots of memories to share this evening at our Farewell Dinner. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day
7 - The Rose Gardens
You may wish
to enjoy a stroll through the lush gardens of our resort prior to our
mid-morning brunch.
The afternoon
finds us entering the fabulous International Rose Test Gardens,
the oldest rose test garden in the county. Wander over four fragrant acres,
and see the 400-plus varieties and 10,000 bushes that make up this wondrous
Elizabethan-style garden.
We’ll say farewell to the City of Roses, and to our new found friends. For departing guests the airport will be our next stop, and then on to our starting hotel for those guests staying on. (C. Breakfast) |
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