We spent the weekend at a charm-filled Inn, located in the quaint little town of Cottage Grove, Oregon this past weekend. It was a birthday present to me from my Rock n' Roll buddy.
My birthday is in December, which is just a ridiculous busy time for my family, with three birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and Christmas, so we opted to go on my birthday trip after all of the hoopla was behind us.
That turned out to be a fabulous idea, because there is no nicer way to spend the first weekend in the new year, than a two nights of complete and total relaxation, with no scheduled activities filling up your time.
The first morning after breakfast, the girl at the front desk gave us a little guidebook to help us find our way around town. Well, I am a sucker for creative marketing materials and this little book was very clever. How could you not like a community that boasts a "cute" part of town?
I hope I don't offend any of Cottage Grove's residents, but, as it turns out, the town wasn't all that cute (not compared to Camas, anyway, although I may be a wee-bit partial.) but the people were all very nice, and we did manage to find a few interesting things...they had lots of murals around town...
( Buster Keaton filmed the silent movie "The General" here way back in 1926)
pretty cool, huh? (Hey! Maybe cute lil' Camas should do a mural on one side of that Paper Mill?)
...and seven covered bridges that you could walk through...(which I somehow managed to take zero photos of...)
Our room was full of cottage charm and character. A bed with a headboard made to look like an old gate...
...a fireplace, and even our very own cozy courtyard with a sweet little picket fence. A nice restaurant with old brick walls, painted beadboard, and oodles of paned windows, was located right on the property in walking distance from our room. We had good wine with dinner, and delicious waffles for breakfast.
It all made for a very relaxing, and memorable weekend.
The most special part of it all, if you know my Ralph, is that staying in a charm-filled Inn, in a quaint little town...is so not him.
But he knew it would be so me.
And that makes my heart swell.
