From watching them grow from a graft and afterwards in Oregon, here is what I have seen. Grower comments are you need to stay on top of it when young...stake to keep it straight, candle for good shape early. Looks great if you stay on top of it at 3-4, 4-5 or 5-6ft...really opens up and has a much more spreading canopy when left alone here...could be the enviroment, dont know. I planted a 6'+ B&B from Van Meter Nursery (it is a selection from Morris Van Meter I believe) about 12 years ago..candled the first year and left it alone. Really opened up (canopy wise)about two years later..have always wondered how it did elsewhere

Looks like a really fun time. Deanna, your bag is terrific and the things that filled it are great too. Homemade beer and root beer are a nifty gift, Theresa. John, grilled black cod is my favorite fish. Sadly black cod is almost never available here, either in fish counters or on restaurant menus. Occasionally Whole Foods has it, always in a marinade. Sake kasu is easy to buy here and I would prefer to buy the fish fresh and know how long I have it in the marinade. Dim sum and Izakaya dishes would be a fun combination; I hope you do host a CF party. I'm looking forward to the photo and hope you all will have more Pacific Northwest meetups. Lee

LOL! We saw a little of the "studying" that goes on at the top of Pilot Butte - similar to studying in lots of places. Bend is a lovely city, with many very beautiful homes on the river front. Unfortunately the light and the angles from the street weren't good for photographing the homes and yards and it was pretty cold in the early evening to walk. Bend, population 76,600 is smaller than Boulder, pop. 97,000 with Boulder county population of just under 300,000 but I can easily see that many of the same people would be attracted to both cities. So you can see Lars that it has grown immensely since you were here. Both Boulder and Bend have unique shops and good restaurants. We are really enjoying our stay here. Tonight we went out with about 16 people from Max's workshop group - some painters, some spouses and significant others, the instructor and his wife and the workshop organizer. Food was good; I had seared ahi on a salad and Max had prime rib, and the company was a lot of fun. Unfortunately no pictures. Tomorrow night we have reservations at the cooking school restaurant and I'll take some photos. I think restaurants at cooking schools are almost always good and always fun - we look for them wherever we travel. Annie, we are both enjoying every bit of the trip. I've done some shopping, a first Trader Joes run and buying the deBuyer iron pans, and just enjoyed being in a lovely hotel while Max is painting. Most days he can meet me for lunch. The pace is perfect for me. Cathy, Linda and Lars, I will share a few photos of Max's paintings from the workshop but I don't think there will be photos until Friday. I'll put a few in here from the Santa Fe workshop tomorrow. Cathy, I can really see the differences in Max's paintings now that he has much more time to paint. I'm so glad that we finally got my medical bills paid off and he was able to retire. Deanna, we are in Bend until Saturday morning, then spending the weekend in Portland, and then driving up to Port Townsend, WA to see a friend for two days and then winding our way home. We haven't been in Oregon and Washington for about 25 years and it's lovely to be here again. To end with last night's dinner and keep this food related, here is my dinner from Pho Viet. I had grilled pork with a grilled shrimp garnish. Everything was fresh and yummy and the owner of this small and unpretentious kept us and everyone else in the restaurant smiling and laughing throughout the meal. He has a great personality for working with customers. Lee

I live near Portland and am not a native Oregonian--been here since 2001. I have found Oregonians to be friendly and polite. The Columbia River Gorge is a must see and there's plenty of hiking. Some of the waterfalls can be seen without a hike. Latourell Falls is one of my favorites. They'll be smaller that time of year because there's probably not going to be much snow melt from Mt. Hood. You could drive from Portland to Bend and spend a few nights there. Bend had been overrun with Californians, so there's good food and lodging there. There's some interesting volcanic landscaping in central Oregon, which I think you'd enjoy being from the east coast, where everything is eroded, geologically speaking. Smith Rock and the Painted Hills are pretty cool. Also Paulina Peak, which is a mountain of obsidian and like being on the moon, and Newberry Crater. I got this from their website: The crater boasts one of the most amazing collections of geological wonders found anywhere in the Pacific Northwest: cinder cones, lava flows, waterfalls, crater lakes, several gigantic obsidian flows, jagged cliffs, and steep yet forested crater walls. All of this can be seen from or encountered on the climb to the summit of Paulina Peak. (It's a short, easy climb.) I've never been to Crater Lake--just never seemed worth the drive. But from the lake you could then drive back up 5 to 42 out to the coast at Bandon. That's a pretty area and a good place to start the drive north up the coast. I haven't driven 42 but I imagine it's a long slow drive, but any drive out to the coast is. I would see the coast between Bandon and Newport because of the tide pools and wilder aspects of the coast line. At Lincoln City you could head inland to McMinnville, which is kind of a foodie place. Then go to a few wineries in the Dundee area, where you're an hour from Portland. While Cannon Beach is a nice beach town (day trip for Portlanders), there's not much between Cannon Beach and Lincoln City. It's inland and there's only the Tillamook Cheese Factory (whoop-de-do), and that adds 1 1/2 -2 hours to your drive. If you do go to Cannon Beach, go to Ecola State Park and take the drive through the forest to Indian Beach. Order their travel guides--they're excellent for having in the car with you so you know what to see. Oregon Travel Guides