The weather didn't cooperate, but when does it in Oregon? After almost two years of watching the…read morerestoration of the historic Arch Bridge, the Willamette Falls Festival celebrated the reopening of the link between West Linn and Oregon City by the scenic falls. The organizers planned a nice event. A 3-day festival and each day has a different theme: Friday - "An Evening of Arts & Culture" Saturday - "Family fun Day" Sunday - "Get Active Day" The rain put a bit of a damper on some of the activities, but it was still a nice, small town event. In downtown Oregon City, the focus of the festival, you could walk around town to the sounds of a barbershop quartet. There was a small farmer's market on one block and an artisan's market on the next. We saw fireworks Saturday night from the McLoughlin Promenade. On Sunday there is a 5k Fun Run, as well as a run/bike/paddle race starting at Clackamette Park. It is also the official bridge reopening for walkers, bikes and antique cars. We enjoyed this festival all weekend long and one of the highlights for me was taking the trolley tour of Oregon City and West Linn. We were lucky to have the President of the Old Willamette Historical Society as our guide. Very informative and just a lovely way to continue to learn more about our local area. Many of the historic homes in the area, on both sides of the river, were also open expanded hours and volunteers in period costume were there to provide information, assistance and a dose of fun. The Arch Bridge will officially open to traffic at 5:00a on Monday.

it was wonderful that was great food and dancing. Also a fantastic jet boat ride I think so very…read moremuch for the wonderful fun festival.

We attended the 6th annual Clackamas County Lavender Festival which is held just outside of Carver,…read moreOregon. What a great location. I didn't realize this location was there. I had a great time listening to the band and drinking lavender lemonade. They had several craft vendors on site as well as free demonstrations on how to make lavender wreathes. The Clackamas River Basin Council had a nice set up of native plants in a portable display kind of fun to check out, however, the placement was next to face painting so I don't think they got as much foot traffic as they had hoped for. They had plenty of u cut lavender. I'm sure they will continue to have that throughout the season. Check out the scene. It's really nice there.

Went to their 10'th Annual Lavender Festival for my first time here and it was so lovely! The first…read moresite of seeing fields of lavender just blew my mind as I was in the parking area from afar walking in. I was welcomed with the sound of festivities with live bands, drinks, food, various vendors, and u-pick lavenders with a choice of making it into a lavender bouquet or wreath. This place is beautiful and has efficient sprinkler mist system and waterfall ponds for kids to play in, which was perfect for this very warm sunny day. The festival lasts for two days, so this year it was on June 25-26, 2016. The event is free! I was bummed that I forgot to bring a nice camera. Great lavender fields for photography! The scent of lavender everywhere just adds that aromatic touch to the whole experience. *These lavender bushes attract a lot of bees. There will be many bees per lavender bush, but they don't really bother you.

2.7-3.0 Held each summer, on the last Sunday of August is…read morethe Oregon City Antique Fair & Vintage Market. This was their 22nd year. They advertised having 80-100 vendors. I would say that was incorrect. It was more like 30-40 vendors. Including people selling non antique stuff like homemade soap, Anderson windows, snow-cones, and hello fresh meal delivery. If you live nearby, sure stop in to this mini antique fair but I am not sure it is worth a long drive. Plan something else to do before and after because it will take you only about 45 min-1 hour to zip through it. I will say they did get some talented musicians to perform so that is a plus for this event.

0 stars, parking was $15 for ONE day. At that rate, you have to park somewhere else and walk thru…read morethe park to avoid the $45 for 3 days. But strange enough, you couldn't buy a one day pass entrance to the actual festival so you had to pay for the entire 3 days @ $15 per person. So my family of 4 spent $75, for nothing. Rides were expensive, not much games for kids. The balloon show at night glow didn't pan out, Sunday morning balloons didn't sail off so my poor children got up at the butt crack of dawn walked a 1/2 mile to find out they wouldn't be taking off. How disappointing. There are many more reviews on google than on here so I suggest if you consider going to go read those as oppose to the ones on here. We won't be returning in the future.

A complete waste of time and money. No balloons, booths mostly consisted of aggressive sales…read morepitches for unrelated services like timeshares and home renovations. You can only buy a 3 day pass for $17, park for $15, then take a shuttle for another $2, but for what? We were done in 30 minutes. I supposed we could've spent $9 on a slice of carnival pizza and $10 more for a bag of kettle corn. But we just spent $51 for basically nothing. Yes, there was supposed to be balloons at 5:45 am in the morning, weather and pilot permitting, which is another way to say that there probably wasn't any balloons. Even if we woke up early to see no balloons, the rest of the booths open up at 10, and the music doesn't start until 5 pm. Honestly, do the organizers expect us to wait 10 hours between the possiblitity of seeing a balloon and the free live music, because those are the only things you get for your money. Never again.

This was my first time at this particular Renaissance Faire and the last Ren Fair I'd been to was…read morein the Bay Area back in the 90's!! So I was SUPER excited to bring my family here. We drove up from Grants Pass just for this faire! We arrived around 10:30am and luckily enough found a decent parking spot fairly quickly. We were very confused when we saw the line, it was several blocks long and seemed to be doubling around....we initially could not figure out where the end of the line was. When we finally figured it out we discovered the wait was over 2 hours long! We did not get inside the Faire till around 12:45ish I believe. Of course we missed the opening ceremony. Being newbies we were not dressed up so we ended up buying outfits to wear from the vendors.... beautiful options but very expensive! Still, once we got dressed up and in the spirit we enjoyed ourselves tremendously!! Almost everyone was decked out in costumes, which was so much fun to witness!! Many people were decked out so elaborately and authentically, it looked as professional as a movie set!! Just incredible!! We were also VERY impressed with the quality of merchandise....the majority of vendors were selling beautiful high end or hand crafted items. I loved what I got! Although the prices were much higher than I've seen in recent times, still I guess you have to pay to play. The food lines were ridiculous! Very chintzy portions for waaaayyyy overpriced food. The only thing we got to eat was a very anemic almost empty looking gyro for the outrageous price of $14 each, the taste was decent....but after waiting an hour in line to get it? Not worth it. I would bring my own food next time. Luckily I did get a beer and the commemorative mug which was soooooo pretty! The beer line went super fast which was nice. Overall I loved going to this Ren faire on their opening day, Saturday which was Fantasy/Fairy day! If I lived closer I'd go every weekend and see it all! I sadly did not get to see the jousting or any little shows as we were not well prepared or organized enough this time around. We did stay the entirety of the faire and only left at closing time around 7:00pm.

We've gone every year for the last four. Faire has been a constant and something we've looked…read moreforward to every year since we started going. Usually parking is a pain but the line has never been more than maybe 10 min wait. No ADA accessibility was a final straw for my disabled mother last year.. AND THEN this first Saturday was a joke and we all left highly disappointed. There weren't enough portas in the parking lot, so tp was out and tanks were full by 330ish. We missed most of the shows waiting for 2.5 hours to get in with one of the longest lines I've ever seen (don't forget having families stand in the road). Then we found out most of our favorite faire food was sold out. Waited in line for other food to be told they had very limited options. Proceeded to wait almost an hour for mead. Highly disappointed in the fact that Faire sold as many tickets as they did but continued to keep ONE entrance, ONE check in booth, and the same amount of space. Also seems like the food vendors were highly unprepared for the amount of people. Unless things change, I don't see us spending money for this Faire next year. Which is a huge shame. AND ON TOP OF IT ALL, people couldn't even be bothered to say HAZZAH.

Curse? What curse? I…read moreguess folks in Louisiana don't like being challenged for crawfish supremacy. My family has been going to this festival for years and it is the biggest event in Tualatin. 2010 marks the 60th year of the festival, which makes it the nation's oldest. On Friday night, admission is free and the festival is held in the Tualatin Commons around the lake. The Tualatin Riverkeepers [1] were renting boats, so it was quite funny to see this quiet man made lake filled with canoes and kayaks for the night. Great music (sadly no Zydeco), lots of dancing and food booths. Mostly local restaurants, but My Brother's Crawfish comes every year. I was a little annoyed that you had to buy festival food tickets and couldn't pay vendors directly. On Saturday, they charge admission and the festival expands to Tualatin Community Park. The day is filled with parades, a 5k fun run, dog show and crawfish eating contests. So if you don't have plans today, and aren't afraid of an old voodoo high priestess, get yourself to Tualatin. [1] Full disclosure - Mr. K is one of their volunteers.

Just a note, no Crawfish Festival for Summer 2022 (covid killed off 2020 and 2021) but also the…read morewhole concept is getting trash binned. The City of Tualatin announced no further Crawfish Festivals. see their link at the City of Tualatin. https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/recreation/city-bids-fond-farewell-tualatin-crawfish-festival

What a beautiful place to stroll and enjoy. The sheer number and variety of flowers is amazing. The…read moreblooms were prolific and well tended. We looked at the amazing community gardens too. The fact that this is all volunteer grown is quite impressive. Worth a visit.

I had never heard of this garden. A friend knew I love visiting gardens and flower festivals, he…read moreput it on my radar. I decided the next time I did a delivery in Lake Oswego, I would make sure to pay a visit. So glad I did! Clematis are a fairly new to me flower variety. I mean I've seen them, but haven't paid close attention. I've visited friend's gardens that contain clematis, and noticed how beautiful the blooms are. So perfect they almost seem fake! The clematis garden has different varieties. All of them so beautiful! There are plants for sale, I'm planning on moving soon, didn't buy any now. I really want to get some to plant in my next space!

Let me paint you a picture…read more.. In my bucolic little 'burb, there is an annual arts festival in one of my favorite parks. To folks in Portland, yes, there are two Willamette Parks. This one is located at the confluence of the Willamette and Tualatin Rivers in my lovely West Linn. The fields are green and lush and there are rows of white roses in bloom along the border. Children are splashing in the fountain and people are laughing and eating festival food. I am so impressed by the organization of this annual event. The layout of the vendor stalls, plus music and a food court are all excellent. While the number of diversity of the art booths are outstanding this year, the food court is pretty minimal. So you may want to bring your own picnic or stop for lunch in the Old Willamette District. However, I am always a sucker for the burgers served by the West Linn Lions Club. Now, a couple notes. While the artists and their offerings are diverse (watercolors, baskets, glass, pottery, textiles, jewelry, photography, furniture, garden statues), it is not alternative. An art festival in the Alberta or Hawthorne neighborhoods of Portland would look quite different. This festival is comprised primarily of local artists and although there are some from Portland, you are more likely to see the artistic endeavors of folks from Lake Oswego, Oregon City and Canby. There isn't a lot of angst going on in this part of our metro area. The other thing is that it was already packed and parking almost gone when the festival opened at 10:00a. So you can either park in the Old Willamette neighborhood and walk or take one of the free shuttles from West Linn High School (http://www.westlinnartsfestival.com/parking.html). It is kind of a pain, I know. Willamette Park is down a steep hill from Old Willamette, so if you park and walk, be prepared for a steep climb upon your return. If you ever had the desire to visit West Linn, this is a great time and event. Everything is looking very good in my 'hood.

We are definitely going to be coming back to this festival! Husband, me and 16 year old teen had a…read morereally good time here. Yes it's not cheap but if you can afford it, I would say it's worth it! Got the weekend pass and did not camp there so we definitely are looking forward to pickathon every year! Recommend you try this festival!

This farm's biggest claim to fame is of course the annual Pickathon music festival, which runs the…read morefirst weekend (Thurs-Sun) in August. Very diverse musical menu with over 60 different bands/musicians and DJ's playing usually twice on I think 8 different stages. We attended this last weekend and had a blast. As a ticket to Pickathon allows you to camp in the woods onsite, we set up our tent as we have the last 5 times we've attended. The community that springs up here takes quite a Herculean effort, so they rely heavily on volunteer efforts, which entitles those interested to trade time and effort for a complimentary ticket. Was everything perfect? No. Having so many people walking along trails back and forth from the festival sites to their campsites does kick up some dust. Oh well. I'll bring a kerchief next time. And are there other minor annoying aspects? Of course there are. But by and large Pickathon becomes a magical space if you come prepared (sunscreen, mosquito repellent and a kind attitude) and have realistic expectations about what a music festival/experience is. Oh, Sherry and Scott Pendarvis are wonderful people who also open their farm to weddings and other events. It's a very funky and cute farm with currently 3 horses and lots of ripe blackberries to pick during Pickathon.