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July 6 - 12, 2010 |
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Tour
Highlights
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- Six Nights of Deluxe Accomodations
- Portland City Tour
- Sisters Quilt show with Quilt Lecture & Dinner
- Portland Rose Garden
- Cannon Beach /Columbia Gorge
- Admission to the Maryhill Museum of Art
- 2 Days of "Shop-Hopping"
- 9 meals - 6 Continental breakfasts, 3 Dinners
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Per
Person Rates
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$1240
- Per Person Double Occupancy
$500 - Additional for Single Accommodation
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Arrival
and Departure Information
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Day
1
Hotel check-in is after 3:30 p.m. Baggage storage is
available for earlier arrivals.
Day 7
Return transportation to Portland International Airport is included. Please plan for flights departing after 3:30 p.m. |
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Detailed Itinerary
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Oregon, "The
Land of Promise"
Won't you join us on this exciting tour that bridges the past and present? The beauty of the legendary West is one of America's greatest treasures, still visible, unspoiled, and waiting for today's adventurers. Like pioneers of long ago, our adventure takes us where pristine mountain peaks soften into a patchwork of farmland and forested hills, and jagged cliffs overlook wide vistas where sandy beaches rendezvous with spectacular Pacific Ocean waves.
Day
1 - Welcome
You’ll arrive on your own at the Portland International Airport where convenient transfer service is readily available for transfer you to our hotel. Our Welcome Meeting starts at 7:30 p.m., which allows for a convenient arrival and leisurely dinner.
Day
2 - Shop Hop!
Today we’ll traverse the great city of Portland to visit shops that are filled with fabric, needlework, and quilt supplies! In our quest to bring you the best that Portland has to offer, we’ll shop our way through buildings the size of a small aircraft hangar, and as cozy as a country store. Along the way we’ll experience the great city of Portland, both past and present as we wend our way through vintage cobblestone streets, and Victorian architecture, and into to the new downtown Portland. (C. Breakfast)
Day 3 - Pacific Shores and Samplers
This morning we travel to Cannon Beach on Oregon’s fabled coastline. A mecca for artisans, Cannon Beach is lined with shops and galleries that showcase one-of-a-kind handcrafted items. Enjoy a leisurely stroll on the beach where bubbly seafoam rushes in and departs, leaving wondrously shaped driftwood pieces. Gazing into the distance, we see cliffside houses, the palatial and the weathered, hugging a rocky shore, and fog-shrouded islands populated only by nesting seabirds.
A short walk from the beach is the local quilt shop specializing in gorgeous 100% cotton fabrics, as well as books, patterns, notions, and gifts. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day 4 - Oh Sisters!
Today we depart the Portland area and travel south, passing verdant valleys and rolling hills on our way to Salem, capital of Oregon.
Our visit here is like a step back in time. Unique shops, antique emporiums, and department stores form part of the charm of this “city for walking.” Nestled among the storefronts is a quilters fantasyland, a shop filled with all kinds of fabrics, notions, trims, books, and the most whimsical displays.
Our next stop is another memorable town, this one nestled at the foot of the Cascade Mountains. Looking more like the set for a cowboy movie than a real town, Sisters truly is a place right out of the old West! Its old-fashioned main street is lined with frontier stores stocked with all kinds of goodies! Tomorrow these buildings will be covered with quilts, hung every which way, to celebrate the annual Sisters Quilt Show. Today, though, before the crowds arrive, we can do a little pre-show shopping, especially at the popular Stitchin’ Post quilt shop. Later we’ll join in the fun at one of the show’s most popular events—a picnic dinner in the park featuring a popular quilt lecturer.
Afterward we’ll be ready to check into our hotel in Bend, Oregon, our home for the next two nights. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day 5 - Show Time
It’s Quilt Show time in Sisters, and we’re just a grapes-throw away from this festive one-day celebration. Quilts appear everywhere…hung on the sides of buildings, over balconies, in windows, draped over fences and posts…this is the LARGEST OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW IN THE WORLD! With the ambiance of an old-fashioned country fair, the streets fill with friendly folks, both quilters and non-quilters, who’ve come to celebrate this glorious day. And for the real “Quilt-aholics”, join us for a shop-hop to this area’s favorite quilt shops. (C. Breakfast)
Day 6 - Oregon's Finest
We invite you to sit back and relax this morning as our coach wends its way north through lush forests and rich farmlands, toward the majestic mountain range of Mt Hood. Tucked between the Columbia River and a steep rise to the Mt Hood Orchard region is the frontier Village of Hood River where 100-year old storefronts and cafes offer the works of high caliber regional artists. We’ll have plenty of time to explore this charming village before our journey continues on to the legendary Maryhill Museum of Art.
Resembling a castle-like chateau, this stunning museum is perched 900 feet above the Columbia River Gorge and is surrounded by thousands of acres of gardens and ranchland…but it is the treasure within that is the real show-stopper here! Among the museum’s collections are; Rodin sculptures, Faberge’ creations, Native American artifacts, American and European paintings…and the world renown Theatre de la Mode French Fashion Mannequins.
Having recently returned from a world-wide tour, the mannequins are one-third-sized models that made their world debut at the Louvre in 1945. They were created by French couture designers, as a way to present a runway show with the little fabric that was left following World War II. By creating miniature models, the artists could sizzle without skimping on style. Famous designers like Worth, Nina Ricci, Balenciaga and Hermes clothed the tiny-waisted figures in miniature ensembles with meticulous attention to detail. Tiny zippers that really zip, handbags that include little wallets, and compacts, real pearl buttons, gloves…and even jewelry by Cartier and Van Cleef and Arpel! The show was a huge success, and the little mannequins having done their job were abandoned and forgotten. In the late 1980’s the mannequins were rediscovered and sent back to Paris for restoration before making their home at Maryhill. And now, once again, the little mannequins are modeling for all the world to see
Later today we’ll check into our water front hotel on the banks of the Columbia River, where we’ll enjoy a memorable Farewell Dinner. (C. Breakfast) (Dinner)
Day 7 - A Grand Farewell
You’ll want to have your cameras ready this morning as we journey to the spectacular vistas and ancient landscapes of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. We’ll visit the great Multnomah Falls, the second highest year-round waterfall in the U.S., plummeting a staggering 620 feet to the river gorge floor. Here our minds begin to whirl as we imagine Lewis and Clark navigating these once-treacherous, pre-dammed waters.
Our journey continues amidst the towering cliffs and cascading waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge Highway as we return to the great city of Portland and our final visit to the fabulous International Rose Test Gardens, the oldest rose test garden in the county. We’ll wander through four fragrant acres, to admire the
400-plus varieties and 10,000 bushes that make up this wondrous Elizabethan-style garden. A fitting farewell to the City of Roses, and to our new found friends.
For departing guests the airport will be our next stop, and then on to our starting hotel for those guests staying on. (C. Breakfast)
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