Scenic Travel to Newberg, OR

For those of you who don't know, one of our major goals was to come to Newberg to visit our very dear friend Francie Richey.  Viv and I both taught with her for several years and were very close friends outside of school as well. Francie decided to move to OR and has been inviting us to visit her for several years.  She has recently moved to a complex for seniors called Friendsview.  We are staying in guest accommodations until Monday and then Francie will host us at her cousin's beach house in Lincoln City.  From there our travels will continue.

She is trying to give us a a real feeling for the area and help us see as much of the area as possible. On Tuesday night she took us to the Joel Palmer House owned by her cousin Jack Czarnecki who is world renowned restaurateur and mushroom expert.  The meal was beyond description and the ambiance was superb.  Each menu item was carefully and artistically presented.  The flavors blended and enhanced each dish.  Of course mushrooms were prominently featured in many of the dishes.  Her nephew Chris, Jack's son, is currently the head chef and is running the business.  Even though he was very busy, he came out to greet us and took us on a tour of the wine cellar. I have never seen a wine cellar, but it was definitely extensive and I am sure filled with many fine wines.  Most of the wines are made right there in Oregon.  The wine that they are celebrated for is Pinot Noir.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures, but you can look it up on line if you're interested.

While traveling to Newberg we took a scenic route and found landscape that we had all imagined we would see in OR.