On to Oregon

Oregon is home to so much.  Dense forests, a northern boundary along the mighty Columbia River, a plethora of craft beers, wineries, and miles of Pacific Ocean coast. We’ll explore some of that later, but for now, there are a couple places that we found interesting.

When I started the planning for this trip, one of the ways I decided to economize was to only make purchases that were either A — Immediately essential, or B — Could be used on this trip. Much to the dismay of some of my friends, and you know who you are :-), that included my wardrobe. One of my purchases was to get two flannel shirts — and on the most casual of casual days, I would sometimes wear one to work (at my gig in PetSmart’s Legal Department). The oft-heard comment was that “this is the day that Eileen dresses like a lumberjack”.
Perhaps because of my alleged affinity for lumberjack attire, I always wanted to tour the Pendleton Woolen Mills. They are famous for their wool blankets, but also offer apparel such as shirts, coats, hats and the like. We stopped at the original mill in Pendleton, Oregon, which was built in 1909. They conduct tours throughout the day.

The tour was quite interesting, demonstrating the process involved in getting the wool from its rough format  and loaded onto spindles where it can be woven into the blankets made in the facility and sold worldwide.

While the tour was interesting, I think that a missed opportunity is that it was conducted by a non-professional tour guide. She was certainly pleasant, but lacked that “pizazz” that can make a narrated tour more stimulating for the visitors.  A professionally narrated tour makes it more memorable and can turn an impartial visitor into a fan of the brand.  I think it’s a miss to turn it over to an amateur — especially given that they offer about 20-25 tours a week. As concerning, there was no call to action at the end of the tour…just “put your headsets on the table, and thank you for coming”. I would have expected something like, “and you can see the fine Pendleton blankets that are made right here in this factory, in the back corner of the shop”. (I guess I will always have marketing in my blood).

Next…meeting up with friends!