Ashland, OR

Had another great weekend in Ashland, OR! Tim and I drove down to meet his parents. We had a rocky start. Thursday night we left after work and on the way, I managed to hit a large 2x4 in the middle of the highway with nails in it. Luckily we were able to make it to the hotel...but the next morning we had FLAT tires on the passenger side. So Friday we started our trip at Le Schwab tires getting two new tires and a repair. We left by 11am to continue down the road....stopped for lunch at one of the McMenamin's http://www.mcmenamins.com/ for lunch, which was YUMMY! Came out to find a FLAT tire AGAIN!. I thought Tim was going to kill someone! Anyway, we went to Le Schwab tire AGAIN...and another hour later, we were on the road. Turns out if we put the pedal to the metal we MAY make it to our first show. We arrived in Ashland about 8:10pm...and ran into OTHELLO within the first 15 minutes...we had seats in the balcony until intermission then moved to sit with Tim's parents for the remainder of the show. It was a great play! (this is my second time seeing the play, 5th time seeing the story) We went out for dinner after the play at Standing Stone Brewing Company http://www.standingstonebrewing.com/ with some yummy soup and pizza...then we turned in about 1:30am!

Next morning we were up and eating breakfast in our hotel, the Stratford Inn http://www.stratfordinnashland.com/ We have stayed there the past two years and it is nice! We went to a Backstage Tour of the theaters and the Shakespeare Fest about 10am which was very interesting, we got to see behind the scenes and some of the places the actors, stage manager, costume designers, etc are during a production plus a little history about Ashland OR and the Shakespeare Festival! Then we walked around shopping, had lunch at Greenleaf http://www.greenleafrestaurant.com/ which is always YUMMY! Then continued shopping and walking around. Went back to the hotel to wait until dinner then headed to Omar's http://www.omarsrestaurant.com/ for dinner before our show. They had the most incredible Prime Rib cooked in rosemary and herbs! We managed to roll out of there in time for our show, OUR TOWN (I never get tired of seeing this play). It was particularly cold in the theater that night...well it is an outdoor theater fashioned after the Globe in England...so you have to dress like you are at a football game. It was between 25-35 degrees both nights we saw the plays and we BUNDLED UP!! For more about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival check out their website! We are already planning for next year. http://www.osfashland.org/index.aspx

We left Ashland on Sunday after eating an incredible brunch at Morning Glory http://morninggloryrestaurant.com/ and headed to Portland, OR!