Oregon's Wine Country - from Independence to Eugene

Wednesday morning: around 25 deg F (-4 C) with an ice-cold wind - not typical for Oregon! We left our very comfy hotel on the Willamette River and drove to Inspiration Garden Project in Mt. Fir Park. Originally, the land was part of a lumber mill, but the land was donated to the city in the early 90's. It is a project of the university OSU, and comprises of a series of garden areas along a creek. Though not too much was in bloom right now, a Chinese Apricot seemed to have been confused and showed her beauty (photo) despite frost. Throughout there are trees, pollinator-attracting plants, an oak savannah, Asian garden, roses, fruit trees, vegetables, and more. What a place in summer!

On to Corvallis, county seat of Benton Couty, with a population of around 60,000 and the location of the Oregon State University, OSU, leading in Forestry and Oceanography as well as in Agriculture. We explored downtown with its murals (below), and, the campus lateron.

More on that university, the city and the county is taught in The Benton County Historical Society’s Corvallis Museum on Main Street. Main focus is the legendary Horner Collection, formerly at Oregon State University. Museum mascot Bruce the Moose greets you in the museum lobby. The collection includes photos,  documents, textiles, quilts, clothing, domestic arts, farm implements, natural history, scientific instruments, furniture and personal possessions. It's not your usual crampy, old-fashioned history museum, but a modern, nicely arranged and informative museum in a modern building. Glad we found it!

Pfeiffer Vineyards - in Junction City, half way to Eugene - used to be the Pfeiffer chicken ranch and sheep farm in the 1940s. It's on a serene parcel of land  at the end of a lush valley in the foothills of the Coast Range - beautiful location (see photo above!). 

Since the Pfeiffer land offered a fertile Bellpine soil, on an ideal elevation, Robin Pfeiffer, the son, convinced his father to grow grapes, mostly Pinot Noir. It became the first premium vineyards in the South Willamette Valley. Together with his wife Danuta, Robin created a winery with a beautiful tasting room (photo below), an event space and beautiful gardens. We had a chance to meet with the GM and the assistant winemaker and got a tour through the winery with barrel tasting and lots of information before we proceeded to a "regular tasting" of their top-notch Pinots (and Chardonnays).

Eugene wasn't far away anymore, a city with about 170,000 population, soon-to-be place of the World Athletics Championships (Track & Field), in July of this year. More on that tomorrow. We are staying at the Hyatt Place at Oakway Center (a modern shopping mall) and in the evening, we still had a chance to see the new part of 5th Street Market in downtown. For the rest, we had another wonderful Oregon dining & drinking experience at The Bier Stein with our good friend and tourism rep Meg. 

 A former hole-in-the-wall bar has grown into a restaurant and bottle shop, with over 30 evolving taps and 1,000 different bottles of beer from around the world. They are to some degree focused on Bavarian food, with bratwurst, pretzels and such, excellent sandwiches, soups, and salads.  It's the widest cold stored selection of beer in Oregon under one roof and staff was exceptional in recommending and describing beers!