All aboard, it's Pear country! . . .
Yesterday we took a trip on the Mt. Hood Railroad. We had received a gift certificate at Christmas so decided to use it for their Brunch train. Upon arriving at the depot at about 10:15am and checking in we had about 45 minutes to wander in downtown Hood River. It was a perfect sunny day for grabbing a cup of coffee and browsing the downtown shops. We discovered Hood River is really a cool town. Lot's of bike shops, eclectic kitchenware & clothing shops, lots of places selling windsurfing gear and the outfits to go with that gear. A McMenamins type Historical hotel, a few brew pubs, lots of coffee shops with beautiful hanging flower baskets out front. It's weird sometimes how you judge a town that you quickly drive by on a freeway frequently and it's nothing like you thought it would look like. As we boarded for our train trip, which was a total of 4 hours that included a delicious 4 course brunch, we discovered what is hidden from freeway view of the "real" Hood River. 
As our train climbed back behind town, headed toward the halfway point to the town of Parkdale our conductor gave us a brief history lesson. Hood River is the "Pear Capital" of the world . . it's true, we passed acres and acres and acres of gorgeous pear and cherry orchards. There are a number of fruit processing plants that we traveled by that have been in business since the 30's.
As far as you could see there were trees, with the beautiful backdrop of Mt. Hood. We learned to make pear wine that when the fruit is very small on the branch, they place a wine bottle over the fruit so it continues to grow inside the wine bottle. When it is harvested at a certain size, they send the wine bottles to vintners that fill them with pear wine. The fruit is forever preserved in the bottle and apparently if you are a fan of pear wine, it is the best you can buy. 
This is a trip that is well worth the fare, especially if you can catch a sunny Oregon day as we did. So tell your friends and visitors to Oregon, take a relaxing trip on the Mt. Hood Railroad. 
Yesterday we took a trip on the Mt. Hood Railroad. We had received a gift certificate at Christmas so decided to use it for their Brunch train. Upon arriving at the depot at about 10:15am and checking in we had about 45 minutes to wander in downtown Hood River. It was a perfect sunny day for grabbing a cup of coffee and browsing the downtown shops. We discovered Hood River is really a cool town. Lot's of bike shops, eclectic kitchenware & clothing shops, lots of places selling windsurfing gear and the outfits to go with that gear. A McMenamins type Historical hotel, a few brew pubs, lots of coffee shops with beautiful hanging flower baskets out front. It's weird sometimes how you judge a town that you quickly drive by on a freeway frequently and it's nothing like you thought it would look like. As we boarded for our train trip, which was a total of 4 hours that included a delicious 4 course brunch, we discovered what is hidden from freeway view of the "real" Hood River. 
As our train climbed back behind town, headed toward the halfway point to the town of Parkdale our conductor gave us a brief history lesson. Hood River is the "Pear Capital" of the world . . it's true, we passed acres and acres and acres of gorgeous pear and cherry orchards. There are a number of fruit processing plants that we traveled by that have been in business since the 30's.
As far as you could see there were trees, with the beautiful backdrop of Mt. Hood. We learned to make pear wine that when the fruit is very small on the branch, they place a wine bottle over the fruit so it continues to grow inside the wine bottle. When it is harvested at a certain size, they send the wine bottles to vintners that fill them with pear wine. The fruit is forever preserved in the bottle and apparently if you are a fan of pear wine, it is the best you can buy. 
This is a trip that is well worth the fare, especially if you can catch a sunny Oregon day as we did. So tell your friends and visitors to Oregon, take a relaxing trip on the Mt. Hood Railroad. 
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