Today was a much needed day off from House Hunting. We decided to take a trip east to visit Ashland, Oregon. Population-wise it is about the same size as Klamath Falls, but the two cities are as different as can be.
Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival which brings in people from all around world to its three major stages for around 800 performances over 7 months. Because of this it has a big city feel, with a vibrant downtown full of shopping and dining.
Klamath Falls is a city with has the heart of a small town and has a unique blend of roughneck and sophistication. Its downtown is the poorer cousin to Ashland, the businesses here are fewer and not as ritzy. But like Ashland you can find just about everything you with its large arrays of national chains in the surround area.
In Ashland you will be surrounded by Prii and BMWs while in Klamath Falls you are more likely to be surrounded by Subarus and jacked-up Pickups (some of them unfortunately spouting clouds of black diesel exhaust.) In Ashland a nice 3 bedroom/two bath house with a two car garage will set you back around $350K, while in K Falls it will be more like $250. All in all we still prefer Klamath Falls, even with its occasional redneck rolling coal, and we’ll leave Ashland for a dose of “culture” when we need it.
Last Wednesday was the day we would have gotten our haircut back in Aiken and one of the things we still have to do here is find a spot for us both to get our haircut. The human head has approximately 100,000 hair follicles, while Donna’s are probably all going strong, only about 38k are operating as designed. When we got to Ashland this morning it was about 8:30 and a lot of the stores were not open yet. So we stopped into a Starbucks for a snack. Afterwards while exploring more of the downtown we stumbled on a place that was open, called Hair City. They had just opened and there was no one in the joint. There were 2 stylists there and only one had a couple of standing appointments, so the other one took us in.
After the fresh haircut we headed over to Lithia Park, a 90 some odd acres of forested canyonland around Ashland Creek for a walk. It was in full fall color mode and it was crowded full of costumed runners participating in the annual Monster Dash. When I say crowded, it really wasn’t, the park swallowed all 250 participants and we hardly knew it was until we stumbled on the finish line while walking the tree filled trails on both sides of the creek.
We also managed to spend about $15 at the last farmers market of the year and spend nothing at the nearby artists market. Before we left town we had lunch of wood fired pizza at Pie + Vine and a few edibles to go at Breeze Botanicals.
Somewhere on Clover Creek Road west of the town of Keno the Ladybug zipped past the 38,000 mile mark.
Glad you were able to take a day away from house hunting and get out and explore. Sometimes, it allows for a fresh perspective (and the hope something new will hit the market in the meantime that will check all the boxes)!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!