After Silver Falls State Park, we overnighted just outside of Welches at a campground that I’ll give little information on. Trillium Lake Campground. Wouldn’t go back. Filthy bathrooms. Noisy people. Moving on.
Karma was about to set things right.
A house-sit where we could park undercover. A rare find indeed. Even the trailer is in there!
Gordie.
The home we would stay in, where we would sit for almost three weeks is gorgeous. Located in the heart of Welches within viewing distance of Mount Hood, it is a golf community home. The home is backed up against the 7th hole, on one of three 9-hole sections within this golf resort community.
27 Hole golf course. Our walk every day. Stunning.
The neighborhood is great, quiet streets and very well landscaped. And though most folks have a dog, you'd hardly see or hear them except during "the morning walk."
The morning gang. Click the gallery above for more info and a better look.
Along the golf course, Western Red Cedar (above right), Sequia, Japanese Cedar, Indian Cedar trees are common here. I'm not used to seeing cedar trees 150 feet tall, and 9 feet wide at the trunk!
Our main objective here was to look after Gordie, our first experience with a Labradoodle. Gordie made house sitting fun, easy and never boring. The golf course offered a great opportunity for long walks which we took full advantage of.
We took in a few sites while we were here including Mount Hood and a day trip to Portland.
Mount Hood as seen from the Timberline Lodge designed by one of my favorite architects, Gilbert Stanley Underwood.
(Click on the galleries)
Interior of the Timberline Lodge (Click on gallery)
Fortunately, we were able to get most of the errands done just outside city limits, though the traffic was still pretty thick. I’ll let the photos speak for our experience here (we’re still here as I write this!), but let us just say, if I could afford it, I would give serious thought as to living here. Of all the places we’ve seen thus far, this are seems to be affordable.
Fresh sauce with pasta (L) Roasting tomatoes. (R)
We visited a few breweries and wineries while we were here. We also took advantage of the small vegetable garden next to the house. Yvette made a great fresh tomato sauce with the tomatoes!
Some of our errands while we house sit are done at the very end, such as food shopping and any other last minute items. Cooking food in advance and buying things for the freezer keep us well stocked once we're back on the road.
Click on the gallery above for captions and better photo quality
We tend to stay away from heavy traffic whenever possible. But we had to head to Portland to do some shopping and exchange a pair of boots. "Traffic" wasn't bad, but it was slow at times. Part of our reward was a nice lunch out at Aunt Tillie's Deli.
So, we will leave this house-sit on Sunday and head to Nehalem State Park, back on the Oregon Coast. And on the way, I have a little "sprucing up" to do. Stay tuned.
Multnomah Falls, Portland Oregon