My sister and I headed off to Ashland for a belated birthday adventure over the past weekend. She had always wanted to go to Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival but had never been, so this year for her birthday (way back in May) my gift to her was tickets to see The Taming of the Shrew which neither of us had seen before.
We ate dinner at Il Gardino. We both ordered the Risotto dish with saffron, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and chicken. It was well worth the wait....even if it was a VERY LONG one...and the owner insisted we have a special treat "because de waita wasa so longa". He brought us vanilla icecream with fresh sliced strawberries and balsamic vinegar! As weird as it sounds, it was VERY yummy. The balsamic vinegar actually has a sweet base to it so it pairs nicely with the berries and cold icecream.
The play was another marvelous experience with full shakespearean dress as we had hoped it would be. The actors were world class entertainers as always and though we nearly shivered out of our skin (because in our rush to get to dinner we mistakenly forgot to bring along our sweaters to fend off the chill in the open air theatre....which, believe me, will NOT happen again), we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
I also bought her tickets for a backstage tour of all three of the theatres, so we were up and cruisin' the town by 9:30 am. Now, on the website and the advertisements about the tour it says you will be walking 6 flights of stairs. What they neglect to tell you is that you will be walking these 6 flights of stairs......SEVERAL times! Oy! It was neat to learn about the festival and understand a little more about how they pull it all off.
Afterward, since we had skipped breakfast, we ate lunch at Munchies which is always a must on any Ashland trip. We must have very similar palates because we ordered the same thing for the second time: a BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado).....oh yummy.
I introduced my sister to letterboxing a little on the drive down. We stopped at a couple of boxes in Cottage Grove and then we attempted Green Tortuga's box at the Applegate Rest Stop. That was fun! After pacing out 39 individual "X paces at W degrees" instructions we found ourselves not where we should have been and after hunting in the heat for about a half-hour we decided we couldn't find it and would try again on the way home. After rehashing the clue again, we discovered that THE WHOLE TIME we had been travelling in the exact OPPOSITE direction because I was reading the compass wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After laughing our hineys off, we opted to travel on to Ashland and try that mess again on the way home.
After lunch at Munchies, we headed out into Lithia Park. I wanted to check on a letterbox I had planted there last March, so I let her figure out my clues and we had a great time. I helped her find the Shakespeare Series and we hunted Romeo's Ex, which had a very creative puzzling clue. Unfortunately, the first box of the two had been vandalized. We salvaged what we could and I will mail it to the owners as soon as possible. I had another box to plant so we hunted for a good hiding spot and found the perfect one. All in all, we hiked pretty much non-stop for 6 hours! WOW! My shins were pretty sore the next day.
We ate dinner at Il Gardino. We both ordered the Risotto dish with saffron, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and chicken. It was well worth the wait....even if it was a VERY LONG one...and the owner insisted we have a special treat "because de waita wasa so longa". He brought us vanilla icecream with fresh sliced strawberries and balsamic vinegar! As weird as it sounds, it was VERY yummy. The balsamic vinegar actually has a sweet base to it so it pairs nicely with the berries and cold icecream.
The play was another marvelous experience with full shakespearean dress as we had hoped it would be. The actors were world class entertainers as always and though we nearly shivered out of our skin (because in our rush to get to dinner we mistakenly forgot to bring along our sweaters to fend off the chill in the open air theatre....which, believe me, will NOT happen again), we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
I also bought her tickets for a backstage tour of all three of the theatres, so we were up and cruisin' the town by 9:30 am. Now, on the website and the advertisements about the tour it says you will be walking 6 flights of stairs. What they neglect to tell you is that you will be walking these 6 flights of stairs......SEVERAL times! Oy! It was neat to learn about the festival and understand a little more about how they pull it all off.
Afterward, since we had skipped breakfast, we ate lunch at Munchies which is always a must on any Ashland trip. We must have very similar palates because we ordered the same thing for the second time: a BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado).....oh yummy.
I introduced my sister to letterboxing a little on the drive down. We stopped at a couple of boxes in Cottage Grove and then we attempted Green Tortuga's box at the Applegate Rest Stop. That was fun! After pacing out 39 individual "X paces at W degrees" instructions we found ourselves not where we should have been and after hunting in the heat for about a half-hour we decided we couldn't find it and would try again on the way home. After rehashing the clue again, we discovered that THE WHOLE TIME we had been travelling in the exact OPPOSITE direction because I was reading the compass wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After laughing our hineys off, we opted to travel on to Ashland and try that mess again on the way home.
After lunch at Munchies, we headed out into Lithia Park. I wanted to check on a letterbox I had planted there last March, so I let her figure out my clues and we had a great time. I helped her find the Shakespeare Series and we hunted Romeo's Ex, which had a very creative puzzling clue. Unfortunately, the first box of the two had been vandalized. We salvaged what we could and I will mail it to the owners as soon as possible. I had another box to plant so we hunted for a good hiding spot and found the perfect one. All in all, we hiked pretty much non-stop for 6 hours! WOW! My shins were pretty sore the next day.
We have many more plans in the works about Ashland and letterboxing, so I'm sure this is only a drop in the bucket. What a blast!
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