Favorite Places

Memories of my summer in Oregon have been coming up in conversation a lot lately. I think that is partly due to some new decor in my work office that included 2 inspirational posters (1 with mountains and 1 with an ocean) and my Oregon map converted to framed artwork. Plus, I love talking about traveling and each time I talk about the Pacific Northwest, I feel more and more confident that I will one day return to that area of the country. For today, I thought I’d relive some of my favorite travel memories from the past year and a half. I’d love to hear your stories too, so feel free to share in the comments!

Badlands National Park & the Black Hills

I first traveled in this area in May 2010. Badlands NP was my first ever visit to a National Park…and it did not disappoint. While in the Black Hills area, I visited Badlands NP, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Memorial. Below are pictures of me at Mt Rushmore and sunset after the rain driving through the Black Hills.

Yellowstone National Park

I was also here in May 2010…about 2 days after I was at Badlands NP. I love roadtrips because you get to see so much, if you choose to. The day I was at Yellowstone NP the weather was chilly, windy, and snowy. It was all still beautiful. One of the cool things I saw was buffalo frolicking in the snow. The picture below is of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, located on the eastern side of the park. The river shown is the Yellowstone River.

Olympic Peninsula (Washington State)

I’m so happy that we (my friend Jenny and I – hi Jenny!) decided to include the Olympic Peninsula as part of our road trip (May 2010). Originally, our plans for the last 2 days of our trip was to do something in Oregon and/or Washington. We realized during the trip, that we’d be able make it all the way up to the peninsula. Our main destination goal was Forks, WA, because we’re both fans of Twilight and seeing parts of Olympic National Park, Olympic National Forest, and the Pacific Ocean were huge bonuses. The rest of Washington was also gorgeous. The pictures below were taken at First Beach on the La Push Reservation and in the coastal portion of Olympic National Park.

Oregon

I was lucky enough to live in Oregon for summer 2010 while completing an internship at Eastern Oregon University (hi all at EOU…miss you!). While I got to see and do quite a bit in Oregon, there was not enough time to do it all. Two of my favorite mini trips during the summer included a solo trip for a long weekend in Portland and a day hiking trip with co-workers to Wallowa Lake State Park. Those two spots are in the pictures below. I really could go on and on about my time in Oregon, but most of what I have say has already been put on the blog here. Check out the EOU Internship and Travel categories.

Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard

Another excellent side trip during my summer in Oregon was actually up in Washington. Southeast Washington has more wineries and vineyards than I could count. I picked one to visit that offered a tour and tasting for a reasonable price ($15!). Terra Blanca was beautiful. Plus, it was fun to learn about the process of making wine. The picture is from the terrace at the winery.

Madison, WI

I interned at UW-Madison for the 2010-2011 academic year. I had a great time being part of a university that is iconic and steeped in tradition. The picture below is from the Terrace at Memorial Union. The tables were stacked ready for winter storage and I just loved the colors. The other picture is of the WI state capitol building from the top of Bascom Hill.

Baltimore, MD

In March 2011, I had the opportunity to travel to Baltimore for a national conference. I was lucky enough to travel with a friend/co-worker (hi Steph!) who loved to travel as much as I do. Besides conferencing, we made a point of taking in all that we could in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. The picture below is of me with the Baltimore skyline in the background.

Laura Ingalls Wilder tour

In May 2011, I revisited the Dakotas through a roadtrip with my sister (hi Julie!). Before we hit the Dakotas, we visited 3 different Laura Ingalls Wilder homesites (Pepin, Walnut Grove, & DeSmet). I loved this part of our road trip so much because my sister and I grew up reading the Little House books. It was cool to see where those stories actually took place. The picture below is from DeSmet, SD.

Return to the Badlands!

I loved my return trip to Badlands National Park this past May! I also loved that it wasn’t 90 degrees this time around.

Duluth, MN & the North Shore of Lake Superior

With my relocation to northern Minnesota, I became a tourist in my own city. However, this was necessary to start learning about my new home. I’m excited to keep exploring the city and the North Shore in the coming months and years. The pictures below are of the suspension lift bridge in Canal Park right in Duluth and also of Gooseberry Falls State Park about 30-45 minutes up the shore from Duluth.

Just a note: I have had the good fortune to travel more places in the past 1.5 years than I’ve mentioned in this post. Luckily, I have enjoyed each of the places I’ve visited and would recommend any of the locations I have listed on my Travels page.

Second note: links for all of the locations I talked about are located on the Travels page.

Hiking & Wine: Pacific Northwest Style

I recently realized that I’ve been only posting about once a week the past couple weeks. I guess that is because I’ve been having some fun the past few weekends. I had the opportunity to go hiking with some co-workers a couple Saturdays ago and this past weekend I visited a winery/vineyard in Washington. Both were experiences that I would not be able to duplicate in Wisconsin.

I went hiking at Wallowa Lake, which is about 75 miles from La Grande. In actuality, it’s probably closer than that because it’s just over the Wallowa Mountain Range. However, we had to drive around the mountains to get there. It was a beautiful drive. It was nice to be a passenger so I could just soak in the scenery. Plus, other people knew where they were going, I did not. Wallowa Lake is one of those places that I was told multiple times by multiple individuals that I HAD to visit there before I left. It’s known as Oregon’s “Switzerland.” The actual hike wasn’t bad at all. It was about an hour long and our destination was a waterfall that was part of a mountain “stream.” It was a hot day and gorgeous all at the same time. It was nice once we got to the water because it was ice cold!

View of Wallowa Lake along our hike

Destination: Ice Cold Waterfall!

Prior to coming out to Oregon, I was not a huge outdoor/hiking person. I had done some hiking before – one of my favorite previous hikes was at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. I would like to continue to going hiking and traveling around Wisconsin to enjoy the nature that is in my home state. That’s something I haven’t done a whole lot of – enjoyed all the different things that Wisconsin has to offer. It’ll still be good weather for a few months when I get back. I’ll have to get some hiking in before the snow flies.

Wallowa Lake is somewhat of a tourist area seeing as there are several things to do: hiking, camping, boating, etc. One of the neat things we decided to do was to take the tram up to the top of Mt. Howard. We ascended about 5,000 feet to the top of the mountain in about 15 minutes. It’s a good thing I’m not that afraid of heights because we were at an elevation of 8,200 feet at the summit of the mountain! After lunch at the outdoor cafe on the mountain, we did some more hiking around the summit.

The views along this hike explain why Wallowa Lake is Oregon’s “Switzerland.” It was stunning and so peaceful. Of course, the peacefulness was interwoven with laughter, visiting, and a small snowball fight. Yes, a snowball fight! There was still some snow on top of the mountain and we came across some right next to the trail. We couldn’t resist. The snow was especially fun because there were a few Midwesterners in our group. Myself and Le (he’s from IL) hadn’t seen snow in July before, so it was great fun for us! Well, I’ll the pictures speak for themselves.

View from the top of Mt. Howard

Me, 8,200 feet high! Believe or not, I’ve been higher in elevation. Jenny & I drove through a mountain pass in Wyoming that was just over 9,000 feet high.

The group on the very summit of Mt. Howard. L-R: Elilai, Bennie, Christy, Le, & myself (Linda’s behind the camera).

Fun weekend trip #2 in this post was to the wine country of Washington state. I had never visited a winery or vineyard before, so I wanted to find one that I could take a tour at and learn more. Even in my fun and travels, education still seems to be at the forefront. I soon quickly realized that I had a TON of wineries to choose from and I just wanted one. I did some research on the Yakima Wineries website, along with the Washington Tourism website. Both were extremely helpful. I found a winery/vineyard that had tours and tastings on Saturdays. I was sold. I ventured my way north about two hours from La Grande and found myself in Benton City, WA, at the Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard.

  

From the grape to the barrel. I had some fun playing with perspective while I was taking pictures.

Delicious would probably be the best way to describe the day. Our group endured some heat and enjoyed a stroll in a part of the vineyard. We learned about how the establishment started in the mid-1990s and production process for the wine. Terra Blanca sits on the same latitude as Bordeaux, France, and they are working on giving French wines a run for their money. The two locations have similar climate and explains why there are so many wineries/vineyards near Terra Blanca in Washington. We tasted 7 different wines throughout the tour. I’m not the hugest red wine person, but I had some yummy ones on the tour. Prior to the tour, I had the opportunity to taste some wines that weren’t being featured on the tour. Also yummy. After the tour, I bought myself a couple bottles of wine – both whites and delicious. I also just sat on their terrace and enjoyed the view – and took a few pictures of their gorgeous property.

Trying to be a bit artsy with my photography.

View of Yakima Valley from the terrace of the winery.