March 7-9, 2024
Ashland is a city in southern Oregon...home to leafy Lithia Park (oldest park in southern Oregon) and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that started in 1935.
Several years ago, one of Joel's former employees (Molly Marchetti), moved from LA back home to Phoenix, a town near Ashland. She's a real estate agent at Windemere Van Vleet & Associates and offered to show us properties in her area - including nearby Medford, Jacksonville, and Applegate. Although southern and central (inland) Oregon were out of our initial focus, we thought it best to consider all options. Plus, it was a perfect opportunity to reconnect with Molly, meet her family, and experience more of Oregon's bountiful beauty.
We thoroughly enjoyed the eye candy drive from Winchester Bay & Reedsport to Ashland on east 38 to the 138 - to the 5...especially our first sighting of snow this winter! We passed the lovely small towns of Scottsburg, Elkton, Oakland, Roseburg, Myrtle Creek, Canyonville, Azalea, and Grants Pass...here are some highlight pics (in that order):
For some reason, Joel and I imagined that Grants Pass would be different...in fact, we were originally planning to stay there a few days. We drove around the city...it's surrounded by rivers, mountains, a beautiful and large community park (Reinhart Volunteer Park) and walkable, modern Town Center Plaza, nice neighborhoods - but, it's also really crowded. And, it's got a serious drug and homeless situation, and the crime rate statistics are fairly high.
So, for us, the best part of Grants Pass was a visit to DQ, aka Dairy Queen (minus the slow service and dirty -almost everything) for a chocolate shake and confetti cake ice cream cup:
We eventually pulled in and plugged into the Ashland Creekside Campground. A friendly office greeting set off the adventure - not the most private spot, but a nice pull-through site. We were so relieved to be out of damp, wet weather for a few days. Speaking of RV park atmosphere, we're amazed and pleasantly surprised at how "non-dramatic" these campgrounds are...we've found just about all of them (thus far) to be relatively efficient and comfortable.
Molly arrived soon after we got setup, and we headed out for an evening tour of Ashland, featuring Lithia Plaza, a beautiful quaint town full of cute shops & restaurants right out of a Hallmark movie. After strolling the streets, we landed at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant for dinner. A favorite of Molly's, this place didn't disappoint with its British-inspired food + a bit of Oregon hippie/eclectic vibe thrown into the mix.
Joel had the blackened chicken caesar, I loved the vegetarian forager pot pie, and Molly opted for fish & chips. Bread pudding for dessert (creamy with a load of cinnamon - not pictured) which we all concluded was the best we'd ever tasted. Yay for the Bitburger NA option!
After dinner, Molly drove us back to Max, and accommodated for a quick stop at the Shop-n-Kart grocery store. She picked us up the next morning, and drove us to see a handful of properties. All were interesting, but none of them checked our key boxes (we're really selective in this search). This effort definitely provided some clarity for us that we really did want to be close to water of some sort. It did solid overview of the Ashland surrounds, though, and we're grateful for the opportunity to explore it with an experienced native!
We enjoyed another dinner with Molly, joined by her mom Linda, sister Cass, and family friend Paul, at the Caldera Brewing Company. This place is literally hoppin'! They brew loads of different beers...fortunately they had a bottled Erdinger NA! Since this was a party of six, won't bother to list what everyone ordered...but, we were pretty damn happy with our delicious seafood entrees - salmon with polenta and seared tuna with garlic mashed potatoes. The pretzel ball appetizers (not pictured) were an absolute fave, too - everyone devoured 'em. Fun ambiance and attentive service. Highly recommend!
One thing worth noting at this point is the fact that many of the restaurants in these areas close around 8 pm during the week, which is pretty early for us cuz we're unapologetically late eaters.
We said our goodbyes to everyone. If you know Molly, you won't be shocked that by morning, she'd already sent new properties for us to review. After considering these options and a team huddle, we opted to stick to our original quest: coastal, or "lakey" mountainous land!
Another day, another stay. We boogied out.
Up next: Shady Cove, OR!
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