This area of Oregon has more wineries than we have seen in a while. Some of the views and products rival those of Germany or Italy. A real plus here, and the reason the Tillemas are settling here, is that the real estate prices are particularly low, coupled with the fact that Oregon has no income tax for retirees and there is no sales tax ... pretty good combination. McMinnville is a community of about 30,000 and very similar to New Braunfels, Texas. Nice small town feel and a really viable downtown with a bunch of shops and restaurants we are slowly sampling ... neat place.


Over the last weekend, our daughter Leighanne and her husband Brooks took a break from their very successful wedding photography business in Dallas to pop over to this area and see the ol' folks. Here's Brooks and Leigh and us in the sunset at one of the local wineries.

In the next picture, if we were in China, Brooks would be saying, "What kind of sauce would go good with this one?" However, we're here at the vinyard with little Kenny, the mascot of the Tillemas and he isn't on the menu tonight.

Right now though it's a pretty steady rain and 52 degrees