Home+Garden, Live Oregon

Three Home Renovations

Inside three fantastic remodel projects around the state, including an architect-designed beach house, a prefab cabin in the woods and a historic city loft written by Melissa Dalton   Creativity, elbow grease, patience. All home renovations have the same requirements. We step inside three fantastic remodel projects around the state, including an architect-designed beach house, a prefab cabin in the woods and a historic city loft. What else do they have in common? Homeowners who love where they live. For three years, Cole and Lea Anne Gerst sought a little piece of coastal property to call their own. They came close to buying a different house before they found a true gem. “Cole is a designer. I could tell that his eyes did not light up on the previous property,” Lea Anne Gerst said. “When we went and saw this home, his eyes just went crazy.” Their find was special…

Ski guide PNW
Explore Oregon, Recreation

Pacific Northwest Ski Guide

Find your favorite spot to shred the gnar pow this winter written by Kevin Max When it comes to skiing in the Pacific Northwest, we are pleasantly spoiled with options. Many of us are here to be in the mountains year-round, whether it be mountain biking or alpine skiing. When snow tops the Cascades, Blue Mountains and the Kootenay Rockies, skis of all widths come out of storage wax and their owners go into planning mode. Do we ski the same place we have forever because it’s familiar? Or do we break out and find a new place that has a cool ski culture and try something new? Here, we’ve brought together some of our favorites based on the alpine and nordic ski culture behind these winter destinations. OREGON Mt. Bachelor Because the nordic ski trails at Mt. Bachelor sit at about 6,000 feet elevation in the Cascades, this resort…

Union County Oregon
Trip Planners

Trip Planner — Union County

Union County is a mix of rugged beauty, farmland hospitality and a few surprises written by Catie Joyce-Bulay Of Oregon’s thirty-six counties, Union may not be the sexiest—you won’t find any sweeping beaches, hipsters or third-wave coffee, and the only haystacks are made of actual hay. What you will find is a nature lover’s playground spanning a diverse landscape, from high desert shrub steppe to rugged mountains, where three national forests converge over three mountain ranges, lush farmlands sprawl across valley floors and genuine local hospitality echoes the pioneering spirit of the Oregon Trail. DAY 1 MOUNTAINS • BREWS • BOUTIQUE HOTEL Oregonians are probably most familiar with I-84 along the Columbia River Gorge, but it’s no less scenic once it parts ways with the river. The stretch crossing into Union County is one of my favorite drives and a perfect example of how incredibly beautiful overlooked Eastern Oregon can…

Palouse Falls
Explore Oregon, Northwest Destination

Northwest Destination — Palouse Falls and Pullman

Visiting one of Washington’s zen wonders and its collegiate neighbor written by Kevin Max After years of hearing about the natural wonder of Palouse Falls, I finally put it on my schedule. Neither my regular driving nor typical flight routes would ever get me close enough to this remote southeastern Washington site to make it feasible. Starbuck, Washington, where Palouse Falls flows, is at least an hour-and-a-half drive north from Walla Walla, southwest from Spokane and northeast of the Tri-Cities. But, damnit, this was named Washington’s state waterfall in March 2014, and I was determined to see why. Kids from Washtucna Elementary School, 17 miles away, helped write the bill that would designate this as a state gem. I wanted to see what they saw. As a rule, I never overplan. Nothing unexpected ever comes to those who overwrite possibility with assurance. I packed a one-man, one-dog tent, a good…

Union County, Oregon
Trip Planners

Trip Planner: Union County

Union County is a mix of rugged beauty, farmland hospitality and a few surprises written by Catie Joyce-Bulay OF OREGON’S THIRTY-SIX COUNTIES, Union may not be the sexiest—you won’t find any sweeping beaches, hipsters or third-wave coffee, and the only haystacks are made of actual hay. What you will find is a nature lover’s playground spanning a diverse landscape, from high desert shrub steppe to rugged mountains, where three national forests converge over three mountain ranges, lush farmlands sprawl across valley floors and genuine local hospitality echoes the pioneering spirit of the Oregon Trail. DAY 1 MOUNTAINS • BREWS • BOUTIQUE HOTEL Oregonians are probably most familiar with I-84 along the Columbia River Gorge, but it’s no less scenic once it parts ways with the river. The stretch crossing into Union County is one of my favorite drives and a perfect example of how incredibly beautiful overlooked Eastern Oregon can…

A mother-daughter duo writes a YA novel set on the Oregon Coast
Oregon Books

A mother-daughter duo writes a YA novel set on the Oregon Coast

interview by Sheila Miller Kim Cooper Findling and her daughter, 14-year-old Libby Findling, seem to have pulled off a near-impossible mother-daughter feat—they’ve completed a major project together and are still on speaking terms. The Findlings started writing a novel together four years ago, working together on the plot, developing the characters and crafting the story. Fast-forward four years and the book, The Sixth Storm, is a young-adult novel from Dancing Moon Press, which Cooper Findling purchased last year. The duo has traveled around Oregon doing readings, school visits and other publicity for the book, which The Oregonian recently named a new and notable YA title.  The young adult novel, set in a fictional Oregon Coast town called Starfish Cove, follows Skye Clancy, a girl whose family has a strange relationship with the weather, which has wrought death and destruction on them for decades. While the story is fictional, it picks…