Sunday, April 19, 2009

Saturday in the Willamette Valley

It was a warm and sunny morning in Salem yesterday when Betty and I headed over to Salem Hospital for the Open House Tour of the new tower that opens next month. We saw emergency rooms, an open-heart surgery room, video x-ray and all kinds of state-of-the-art equipment. It was very impressive!Lobby is more like a hotel lobbyBig, expen$ive imaging machine

And one thing that really caught my eye was the Room Service Menu. I looked through it and wanted to stop and order lunch! It made me think about when Mike was in the Mexico City hospital and the staff went next door to get him take-out for his meals or they heated something up in a microwave...ROOM SERVICE!!! (And look at how thick the menu it is - they even offer rice milk!)

The other draw for our visit was Betty’s son, Tim, who works in Media Services at the hospital. His morning was busy, and here we caught him diligently working on getting a monitor up and running for the Tour. Nice job, Tim!

After the hospital Tour we went home to get Ron (Mike wasn’t feeling well and he stayed home, but he's much better this morning) and together we headed north to Woodburn for the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. The Wooden Shoe Farm has about 40 acres of bulbs and for the festival there are activities for kids, crafts booths, pony rides and even Mexican food! The pictures speak for themselves.Yep, that's Ron and Betty
After the Festival we went south to Mt. Angel and had lunch at the Glockenspiel Restaurant, a charming Bavarian restaurant with servers in dirndls, lederhosen and knee-high socks. I had an open faced sandwich with asparagus, Swiss cheese and Black Forest ham – in fact they had a whole fresh sheet with asparagus specials!

The restaurant is named for the Rathaus-Glockenspiel of Munich and at certain times throughout the day the Glockenspiel (see the 2nd and 3rd floor openings) opens with chimes and wooden, moving characters re-enact stories. Sure enough right before 4:00 yesterday people were gathering in the streets of Mt. Angel for the “show.” We watched along with everyone before heading home to Salem.
What a great day. Thank you Betty and Ron!

4 comments:

Jill said...

I love the tulip gardens. Last year we even had short helicopter rides around the field.

Thank you Cynthia so much for your kind thoughts of us. We so appreciate your notes and concern.

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Hi Jill - I didn't seen any helicopters, but I did see the Cow Train and the Clog Train towing people around the Festival! Take care.

Steve Cotton said...

Cynthia -- I hope Mike is feeling better. I thought of the two of you several times on this trip.

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Mike IS doing better! He injured his rotator cuff in a fall, but we went out to breakfast today and then to Riverfront Park. Unfortunately, the warm days earlier this week have turned chilly again and our park visit was short. Sitka liked it though!