Stop Two: Oregon Garden Resort

After spending the afternoon at the Mission Mill, we drove 15 miles east to the Oregon Garden Resort, near Silverton, Oregon. This resort is situated on 11 acres and is a boutique resort with over 18,000 square feet of meeting facilities, a wedding garden, garden view restaurant, a lounge with an amazing wood burning fireplace, a full service day spa and 17 guest cottages that house six rooms each with private patios or decks. (Do I sound like an advertisement yet? :-) ) Oh, there is also a fitness center and outdoor heated pool and hot tub. Unfortunately, the pool is seasonal and not open until June. One of my favorite aspects of staying here is it is right next to the Oregon Garden, with its own private entrance that hotel guests can enter with their room key, even in the hours the garden is closed to the public. After checking into our cottage, the Ginko (each is named after a plant), we wandered down into the garden to explore the 80 acres that felt like it was ours alone. We only saw a handful of people since it was after hours. The kids LOVED running down the paths and exploring the childrens garden, complete with a tree fort, hobbit house, train garden and whimsical plants throughout. The Oregon Garden has 20 separate garden areas and is beautiful throughout all the seasons. More about the garden in the next posting, for now back to the hotel. For those that travel with pets, there are pet friendly rooms here as well as an outdoor pet area for the dogs to run.

Our room was very fresh and light, with vaulted ceilings, iron beds, hand painted furniture, fireplace and a ceiling fan (love it!). The bed, for a hotel, was SO comfortable and was tripled sheeted, as well as having a very thick and warm down duvet. We had a private deck and being away from the lights of town, were amazed at how brilliant the stars were. There was a small fridge and microwave in the room as well as a coffeepot. Harry was impressed with the flat screen tv too :-).

Room reservations include admittance into the garden as often as you want during your stay and a full American buffet breakfast in the restaurant. The breakfast was by far one of the best we have had in a hotel and it included hot foods like scrambled eggs, potatoes cooked with onion and peppers, sausages, and it had fresh pastries, fruits as well as cold cereal. YUM! It gave us good ammunition before heading back into the garden for a few more hours.

The resort is child friendly and the garden has many attractions for kids as well-our kids did NOT get bored, which is amazing! We can't wait to go back and HIGHLY recommend this spot as an escape from home that is less than an hour away.

Heading back to the lodge after exploring the garden upon arrival.

The restaurant, which has three tiers of seating and a patio which all have a fabulous view. The dinner menu looked wonderful as well, featuring NW ingredients.

Just behind the lodge is the wedding garden with pavilion as well as the Rose Cottage which brides may use to get ready.

Main lobby and front desk.

Lounge with wood burning fireplace. If we ever go without the kids, this would be a great spot to relax and unwind.

Private entrance for hotel guests into the garden. The wood structure has benches so that guests can wait for the tram that tours the garden in the summer months.

Another lounge picture.

The lodge the next morning.

The wedding pavilion.

Guest cottages.

Entrance to spa. Fitness center is around the corner.

Our room with two queens. The fireplace is in the corner and is thermostat controlled. The only way to heat the room is to turn the thermostat up which turns on the fireplace. Surprisingly, it didn't take long to heat the room up and then we had to sleep with the windows wide open to cool down a bit.

Our room looking towards the deck. It was clean and spacious.

Another guest cottage.

With two tired girls, we had dinner in our room. For those who wish to go into town, Silverton is minutes away and has many great restaurants on a creek in the downtown core. There are also many great shops to explore.

Up next: The Oregon Garden!