Sunday, October 30, 2011

Autumn Color at Mcminnville, OR

For several weeks I had planned to take a day and spend it taking pictures of the autumn color around Mcminnville, my hometown in Oregon.  Today was the day.  The weather forecast called for clouds in the morning and then clear skies in the afternoon.  First thing in the morning, I saw it was very foggy outside so I took a quick walk around the block to take a few pictures before the fog burned off.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.


Our neighbor's Smoke Tree

Trail at Tice Park behind our house

Viewpoint at Tice Park


Next, I gathered up the family to go downtown to grab a little breakfast at the local market (and take a few pics of course.)  Downtown Mcminnville is basically only one street: 3rd St.  It is very small but very nice with a lot of nice restaurants and quirky little stores.

An older neighborhood near downtown


David and Laurie walking toward downtown

The little market where we got breakfast

Can you see the giant carved pumpkin in front?

David eating his coffee cake



Benjamin Franklin





Our favorite restaurant in Mcminnville.  It is SO good.









La Rambla - A spanish restaurant which I have not yet tried

Mini!

Funny little statue I never noticed located next to the library

The old section of the public library

The city park David calls "Dragon Park"

Viewpoint at Dragon Park




 After breakfast, we came home and carved pumpkins.  I just realized I forgot to take pictures of the finished pumpkins.  Oops.


David really gets into carving pumpkins


 Finally, the fog lifted and we had some sunshine.  Laurie and I jumped on our bicycles and rode to the McCabe Chapel and the South Yamhill Cemetery which are almost right next to each other.  We've been to these two places about 100 times this summer but I had to get some pictures at the peak of autumn.  I had 22 miles left to complete my 100 mile challenge this month, so Laurie and I split up and I continued on to Linfield College and Riverside Dr.


Old Sheridan Rd.

Old Sheridan Rd.

McCabe Chapel



View from McCabe Chapel

South Yamhill Cemetery





Old Sheridan Rd riding back

Linfield College

Linfield College - What a spectacular fountain eh?  Haha.  It's usually more impressive.

Linfield College

Linfield College

Linfield College.  There used to be a huge 150 year old oak tree here but it blew down a few years ago.  Tragic loss!  I think I have some old pictures of it somewhere.

Linfield College

Riverside Dr.

I caught a glimpse of these palm trees right down the street from our house on the ride back.

I took two videos while I was out riding, the first was a video of riding through downtown Mcminnville, however, somehow the file got corrupt and I lost it.  I was so annoyed.  This is a little video of riding on Riverside Dr.  See the red highlighted portion of the map to see where this video takes place.  Sorry for the annoying wind noise.




Later that evening, the family got dressed up for a Halloween party at the church.  Laurie is a zombie - check out her mummified doll!  David is a web surfer and Byron is an identity crisis.