This Christmas vacation, we had hoped to go sledding up in the mountains. I even found snow pants for the kids at Costco and snow boots at BiMart. But El Niño is making us wait till later in the winter. For that and some other personal reasons, we decided to make our last family trip of the year be a low-key local one.
Where to go locally that wouldn’t involve a lot of walking, being outside in the cold rain, or a long drive, that we hadn’t already been to? Brownsville! Today we went to the Living Rock Studios and Kirk’s Ferry restaurant in the small town about a half hour away from the Eugene/Springfield area. We all enjoyed them, even our teens and our littles!
I’m actually surprised I’d never been to Living Rock Studios. If you know me well, you know I love rocks! I think I assumed it was a cheesy tourist trap, but I’m not sure why I thought that. It is very Christian-owned and oriented. There are Biblical scenes made out of rocks, backlit for spectacular effect, and there are Bible verses everywhere. But they are all very focused on love, and it had a positive vibe, so it did not feel dogmatic or pushy in any way. Howard Taylor, the man who built it, was a conservationist, and lobbied on behalf of one of the birds on the tapestries hanging on the wall, according to his daughter-docent. The family didn’t seem concerned with how old the Earth is, but just wanted to acknowledge what a beautiful world God created.
The building itself is fantastic. The stone structure is round, with a wheelchair-accessible ramp going up around the edge of it to the upper floor. There are all kind of rocks to see along the way and at the top, including many from various parts of Oregon as well as from around the world. Some you can light up with your phone flashlight to great effect. Others you just admire. There are historical items, too, including the pump organ that the docent’s ancestors played on when they were homesteaders in an old community that is now at the bottom of Cottage Grove Reservoir. Despite being a history teacher, I can get a little bored in museums of local history sometimes. But this place was very interesting, and our tour guide/docent was as much fun as the docent at the Municipal Elevator in Oregon City! Chris plied her with questions about historical events and practices, and happily soaked up her stories.
The admission price is donations only. We put some in the jar, and the kids loved buying beautiful rocks in the gift shop. Everything was very reasonably priced. We got there before noon, thinking we’d only spend a half hour there, but I think we spent an hour and a half! The kids got restless toward the end, but Chris and I could have looked at things and listened to her stories for much longer. She took a family photo of us, and with the Christmas decorations in the background, it’s now our official Christmas family photo! With no kids kicking each other! Here’s the website if you would like to check it out.
http://www.livingrockstudios.org
After exploring the rock studio, we were famished. We headed to Kirks Ferry Trading Post to eat. The restaurant was built around Alexander Kirk’s cabin from the 1800s. He operated a ferry across the river nearby. The restaurant’s website says it is the “oldest standing building in the state of Oregon,” but I can’t verify that elsewhere on the internet. Regardless, it is really cool! The cabin has been preserved (without the roof) and houses antiques, some of them for sale. The tables of the restaurant surround it. Our table was right next to one of the cabin windows. The food was reasonably priced (a perk for our family of 7) and delicious. I recommend the Broken Top Bourbon Burger, and dipping the sweet potato fries into their bleu cheese dressing. (For those of you not from Oregon, Broken Top is one of our picturesque volcanoes making up the Central Oregon skyline) Here is their website if you want to visit:
The last thing I’ll leave you with in the year 2023 is an artist I enjoy and purchased things from this year. I discovered her art a few years ago from an article I’d seen online. But this year I went to her website to see the rest of her art, and happily bought a calendar and a puzzle gift for fellow National Park nerd friends the Sheldons. If I’ve written about artist Amber Share before, I apologize for the repeat. But I love her art! She had the brilliant idea of taking one-star reviews of national parks from TripAdvisor or wherever, and making vintage-style art posters based on them. I love the look of the old WPA travel posters, and I love Amber’s sense of humor! She picked the most ridiculous one-liners from people who obviously missed the point of the park they were at. Her art shows how beautiful and pristine the park is despite the review. Check them out here:
With that, I say good-bye to 2023 and look forward to new adventures in 2024. I may write some reflections on Monday, but until then, have a happy new year’s eve!
The Compass Rose Queen 