August 25 23rd day OTR

We spent a few hours at the Woodburn Factory Stores late yesterday afternoon. The traffic into and out of Portland was quite heavy and we did not get to Woodburn until 3:30pm.  Oregon has no sales tax but I didn't find anything that was a bargain.  The shopping complex is nicely laid out with some covered areas and some open areas.

Around 6 pm we drove to Gervais Oregon to meet with someone connected with my geneology research group.  She had invited us to spend two nights with them.  What a joy Leah and Ed are.  And so gracious to open their home to us.  One of the first things we did was take a tour of a hop growing operation.  The hop picking season has started.  It is quite an operation to get the hops (a perennial plant) cut, stripped, dried and packed for the breweries.  It is somewhat labour intensive even though the cutting, drying and packing is done by machine.  The plants must be hung on a conveyor belt to feed through the machines.  It makes me appreciate beer flavour more having seen this operation.

Feeding the hop plants for stripping

This morning we drove to Mount Angel.  There is an Oktoberfest here around the 16th of September and the Donau Schwabian researchers usually attach a meeting to it.  We wanted to attend but the date was too far away from our disembarkation and we will be home before the Fest starts.  Mount Angel is a little German town, really not very big.  There is also a Benedictine Abby and seminary on the hill.  There is a wonderful view of the Willamette Valley from the top of the Mount.

                                                                  Mount Angel Hotel

After our break this morning here at McDonald's we will head over to Silver Falls State Park to hike and view the waterfalls.  When we return to Gervais, we will take our hosts to dinner.

Tomorrow we head to the Oregon coast and get started on the trip home.