By Madeline Lau Marin-Foucher
Oregon is the kind of place you just can’t beat in the summertime. Mountains, beaches, forests, unlimited hiking trails, rivers to kayak, small town summer festivals to attend – my friends, it just does not get any better. Believe me, I’ve looked all over to find paradise and I can spot it a mile away: Oregon in July.
This is why my little family hit the Oregon Trail and hightailed it out of Chicago to spend the summer in Stayton before moving to the wilds of Mexico this fall. I agreed to said international arrangement on the grounds I could always have my Oregon summers, and my children would experience that aspect of their cultural heritage, just as important as the Mexican one. My husband, a good old fashioned outdoorsy guy, thankfully agreed.
My baby and I arrived in mid-July to a balmy Oregon evening and two grandparents that were beside themselves with excitement. A few days later came the hubs and family dog in a too-small rental car packed with all of our old Chicago life stuff. We dumped it in a pile and hit the woods!
With baby in frontpack we traversed the beautiful new walking trail behind Florence Street in downtown Stayton, meandered through the North Santiam wilderness out by Mehama, splashed and swam in Thomas Creek with dogs and horses, crossed behind the waterfalls at Silver Falls, and witnessed many a gorgeous, sun-drenched grass field rippling in the wind.
Catching up with friends, savoring time with the family, dining al fresco in the backyard to the sounds and smells of small town neighbors doing weird things, it felt good to be home.
Some “explOregon” (a not-very-original term I “coined” this summer) firsts for us were trips to the Santiam Harvest Festival and Mount Angel Octoberfest. We left the baby with his still-beside-themselves grandparents and went from monster trucks to Glockenspiels as we ate and drank our way through two awesome events.
Have you ever seen the opening ceremonies at the Octoberfest? It features myriad dancing children in traditional German outfits bopping along to super happy old timey music, skipping and holding hands. Needless to say, I bawled my eyes out. Now that I’m a mom anything cute involving kids just about flattens me!
We visited Mount Angel Abbey’s legendary taxidermy collection, heard the monks sing, and chowed down on bratwurst, schnitzel and beer with long-time Staytonians, and unofficial Octoberfest ambassadors, Anne and Ron Etzel.
Manuel and I decided, like so many other festival-goers, to make the Octoberfest a family tradition and can’t wait to run the half marathon next year,
In a totally different vein was the Harvest Fest, or “Harv” as it’s often called by Canyon folk. Manuel and I had our faces painted in full camo by the National Guard, cheered for the tractor pulls (I kept trying to explain it to him but how do you explain the attraction of a tractor pull?) while rocking out to heavy metal music. It was a cultural experience to say the least!
After a glorious Oregon summer we re-loaded all of our Chicago life stuff, a little smaller after jettisoning many things via Craigslist, into 3 suitcases, got the family dog the requisite shots and paperwork, and hopped an international flight to our new home in Cozumel, Mexico.
Grappling with the heat and humidity of a Caribbean island, a language barrier, a different set of cultural norms and etiquette, and terrifying driving standards, Cozumel is taking a little getting used to. It’s absolutely beautiful here, and we are lucky enough to live on the beach where we can see all the way to the mainland and my husband can practice kite surfing, but it helps me adjust to know that in just a few months we’ll get to have the best of both worlds and return Stateside for another magnificent Oregon summer.
Until then, come down to the island and say hi! I’ll have a margarita waiting for you.
Madeline Lau, granddaughter of a veteran jouranalist, has been sharing her adventures with Our Town readers since the paper was new and she was 16. From a teen’s search for something to do, to high school graduation, college discoveries, travels to Asia, Europe and Australie, working in Eastern Oregon, love, marriage, and becoming a mom, we’ve gotten an occasional glimpse into her life. Catching up always gives us a grin. We hope you enjoy it, too.
