Jill's Journal: We’ve gotten a good taste of Southern Oregon, Central Oregon, Northern Oregon, and Coastal Oregon. While we’re here, we might as well add Eastern Oregon to the mix. Why not, right?
Today we drove another 100 miles to the east, parallel along the magnificent Columbia River, before dipping just a little south to a small agricultural town named Hermiston. It is a stunning change from the rest of Oregon we’ve experienced. It’s not lush and green. Trees are few and far between. It’s not mountainous. It feels more like New Mexico than it does the Oregon we’d gotten to know. Hermiston appears to be some sort of a mild desert, bordering Oregon’s high desert (which encompasses almost all of the southeastern quarter of the state), and agricultural to the core. Hermiston is exactly halfway between Seattle and Boise.
Watermelon seems to be king here and we enjoyed our first Hermiston-grown watermelon for dessert tonight. As an aside, we are so impressed by the great variety of food and fresh fruits and vegetables in Oregon. We’ve never seen so many farm stands along roads as we have in Oregon. We even did part of the “Fruit Loop” the other day, a 35-mile loop in the Hood River area that features dozens of orchards and farms (all with their own stands, of course). It is said Oregon grows enough food to feed the entire nation all on its own. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to learn a little more about that in the coming days.
4 comments:
I thought it looked like southern NM. We stopped in there at ate at Fudruckers on our way back.
Gary, that's exactly what I said! I just can't believe this is Oregon and not New Mexico -- it's so different from everything else we've seen in Oregon.
We thought of you when we drove past Fuddruckers yesterday! I've never been to one; we just might have to go in honor of you.
Fuddruckers = Yummy!
Hmmmm, now we might really need to go! Gretchen, you're talking me into it. :)
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