CareVacations... PORTLAND???

That's right, you read it correctly... Portland. Not Portland, Maine; not Portland, Texas; and no, not Portland, Michigan. We are talking about the one and only, Portland,Oregon. To be more specific, CareVacations has a satellite office located in Hillsboro, Oregon, just about 17 miles west of Portland. So how did a cruise industry provider end up with an office in Hillsboro? That's a story for a different day... today we're just hoping to tell you a little bit more about one of the great states CareVacations has the privilege of calling a part of our international family.

Oregon's a funny state in a lot of ways... there are quite a few people who don't even know where Oregon is located. When I travel and meet new people, and I tell them I'm from Oregon, the most common question I get is, "Doesn't is rain there all the time?" Another question I get often... and this always surprises me... is, "Isn't that by Utah?" (you can really insert just about any state here) I used to laugh out loud; now I just chuckle to myself and respond, "No, Oregon is the state between Washington and California." It's funny to me that there are still people out there who don't know where Oregon is located. Sticking with that sentiment, I decided I was going to give people a little insight to our beautifully green and diverse state. Are you ready for your lesson on Oregon?

Let's start with the basics...

Oregon entered the Union in 1859 as the 33rd state. We are a population of nearly four million Oregonians that call the Beaver State home... yes, the BEAVER STATE... what about it? lol ;-)

As you can probably guess, our state animal is the beaver, and one of our major state colleges, Oregon State, has the beaver as its mascot. You can imagine that we hear a lot of beaver jokes in our days of rooting for the black and orange of the Oregon State Beavers... we've learned to just accept the jokes, and now some of us play along. Wanna know something funny? I've lived in Oregon for over 20 combined years, and I've never seen a beaver in real life!!! LOL I digress...

We don't just have the Oregon State Beavers; you might have heard of University of Oregon... Ducks! Not much better, right? Well, we're from Oregon; we're limited on the animals we have to chose from. The Ducks made most recent news with their trip to the 2010 Rose Bowl... they lost. Moving right along...

U of O also gets notoriety because of one of its primary supporters and boosters, Phil Knight. Don't know who Phil Knight is? Do you recognize this symbol:

That's right... Nike. Phil Knight is the founder of Nike, which calls BEAVERton (sticking with the beaver theme), Oregon home to its World Headquarters. Nike's not the only major company calling Oregon home; Netflix, Adidas, Intel, Harry & David, Merix Corp., Lucy Activewear, and more. Even Royal Caribbean Cruises has an office in Oregon!

Oregon's capital, contrary to what most might think, is not Portland; our state capital is Salem. I have a soft spot in my heart for Salem, since this is where I was born and raised. It's a small-ish city/big-ish town that's a great place to raise a family, is rich in history, and filled with beauty. Speaking of beauty, check out this spring shot of our capital building taken earlier this week by a photographer friend of mine, Megan Jones. Megan has an eye for beauty, like that of an angel, and her talent for capturing the serenity in otherwise seemingly ordinary subjects is incredible to me. You can check out more of her work at her website and catch up with her through her blog. Thank you, Megan, for sharing your work with me!

And then we have Portland... beautiful Portland. The second largest city in the Pacific Northwest (after Seattle) and the largest city in Oregon, this is the city most people recognize when talking about Oregon. Our summers are warm and dry; our winters are mild and wet with occasional snow. Just how beautiful is Portland? When the official nickname for the city is the Rose City, well that's pretty beautiful. In addition to the hundreds of private and public rose gardens throughout the city, Portland's highways and freeways are also lined with some of the most beautiful rose bushes you'll ever see! Nestled near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and between the amazing Coastal and Cascade Mountain Ranges, Portland is known as the most environmentally friendly (green) city in the U.S., and the second most in the world. We are known for our amazing hiking, walking, and biking trails/roads; we love our microbrews and our NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers! The shopping is great; the food is divine and diverse. We have skiing and snowboarding on Mt. Hood or Mt Bachelor and we're only an hour and a half from the Oregon Coast. There's no loss for things to do in Portland and throughout Oregon. Portland is lucky to have CareVacations, and we're lucky to have Portland!

So here are a few other fun facts about Oregon that you may not know:

• Lewis & Clark trekked through Portland in 1809, eventually ending their journey in Seaside, Oregon
• Oregon's Willamette Valley vineyards are recognized worldwide for the amazing Pinot Noir 
• Some of the earliest rhinoceros fossils in the world were found in the John Day fossil beds
•  A coin toss decided the name of Portland in 1845. The losing name was Boston
• Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach is the third largest coastal monolith in the world. It rises 235 feet 
  
• Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet maximum depth
• The Tillamook Air Museum is housed in an old blimp hangar from World War II that is the largest wooden clear-span building in the world. 
• Oregon has more ghost towns than any other state
• The Columbia River gorge is considered by many to be the best place in the world for windsurfing
• Oregon and New Jersey are the only states without self-serve gas stations
• At 8,000 feet deep Hells Canyon is the deepest river gorge in North America
• The hazelnut is Oregon's official state nut. Oregon is the only state that has an official state nut. The hazelnut is also known as the filbert.
• Oregon's state birthday is on February 14, Valentine's Day 

And the list goes on and on! 

Okay, so I know most of these facts are useless for most people, but that's alright. This is just a glimpse in to the diversity, deep history, and rich beauty of our state. Maybe you want to visit sometime? We'd love to have you! 

So CHEERS to Portland, Oregon, and all our neighboring cities and towns! 

CareVacations loves Oregon!