ROAD TRIP! Don’t Drink the Water and Off to the Coast

Lithia Park (image: A.N. Smith-Lee)

In 1908 the Women's Civic Improvement Club of Ashland petitioned for the creation of community space along Ashland Creek for a city park. The town engaged John McLaren, superintendent of Golden Gate Park, to design the new space. McLaren served as landscape architect of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in 1870. The original name of Lithia Springs Park was later shortened to Lithia Park; initially, there was a spring-water source at the park. The discovery of lithia water near Emigrant Lake (south of the city) led to a plan to establish a mineral spa on the grounds. Voters approved bonds to pay for the project, which included piping the mineral water from its source to Ashland.

image: A.N. Smith-Lee

Although the park was popular, the mineral spa plans proved too expensive and were abandoned in 1916. Probably a good thing, since a fountain in the park spouts full-on Lithia water, which leaves a bright red/orange stain where it flows and tastes like salty rust; I couldn’t even swallow it, perhaps envisioning my interior permanently stained the color of active lava. But the park, though not large, was eminently beautiful, capturing the best of autumn colors along its unsullied paths. Just outside the park is the roundabout that fronts Ashland's city hall (left).

Ashland Springs Hotel (image:oyster.com)

Many of Ashland's historic buildings have been preserved and restored. The city has 48 individual structures and two historic districts (the AshlandRailroad Addition District and the Downtown District) on the National Register of Historic Places. One that stands out (literally) is the nine-story AshlandSprings Hotel, towering over the town like an Art Deco wedding cake. “The tallest building between Portland and San Francisco” in 1925 when it was built, it’s been completely renovated from ruin.

We drove around for a while, searching for the “bad” neighborhoods in Ashland, with no luck. No rundown homes with rusting cars out front, no iffy trailer parks. What’s wrong with this picture? We headed north and found a few of them in Medford, which reminded me too much of the California town I grew up in, a poster child for uncontrolled suburban sprawl on a too-flat landscape. We ate at a vegetarian café in the pretty older section of town – the café will go unnamed, because the food was mediocre and they forgot half the order until we went up to the counter to ask for it. The older section of town was predictably deserted, victim of the uber-malls at the edges of town. Great little coffee shop there, though – the Limestone Coffee Company. There’s a lot that can be done with these all-too-familiar parts of too many towns, and Medford is making an effort to do it. In my travel books, I’ve been to dozens of places where residents loved their home enough to have gotten together and re-created a vibrant downtown as a center for the arts, restaurants, and boutique hotels – a destination for visitors and homies alike. Medford has a massive Harry & David plant (fruit gift baskets, confections, bakery) with tours, and beautiful surrounding country including an up-and-coming wine region that may eventually outshine Napa Valley. We decided to explore some of it: we drove north and veered west for the coast…

ROAD TRIP! A Great Introduction

Lithia Park, Ashland  (Image by A.N. Smith-Lee)

A scenic spot at Lithia Springs

Ah Ashland. What a beautiful little town. We cruised into our stop for the night, and the initial impression was…Yikes! We had booked a room at Lithia Springs Resort, and pulling off the highway at dusk, the approach was slightly less than desirable. The resort property was fronted by a number of auto dealerships with attendant fluttering BUY NOW flags and neon-bright come-ons. Farther back on the road, the resort itself shared space with a memory-care facility. Fortunately, first impressions were totally overblown. This place was great! Beautiful, carefully maintained landscaping (seriously fat Koi in a pond); spacious, clean, well-thought-out rooms similar to separate floors in a townhouse; and the water! I knew Ashland’s natural spring water was sulfur-based, so I expected the place to reek (each room had its own two-person tub for private bathing, and there was a swimming pool and hot-tub not far from our door). Oh, those clever spa folks! The water was filtered and “ozonated” – a fancy word for air bubbling through it in holding tanks (no chemicals!) - leaving almost no odor in the silky, alkaline, mineral rich water. It was hard to leave that tub, though the excellent fresh multi-choice full breakfast was a good reason. The staff was exceptional, too. Lithia Springs Resort is very much worth its tariff – even though they couldn’t predict who bought the land that fronted them.

Image courtesy TravelOregon

The Resort was a superb introduction to the town that has become synonymous with Shakespeare: During the city’s July Fourth celebration in 1935, Civic Leader Angus Bowmer arranged the first performances of what would become the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The festival grew during the 20th century, and has become an award-winning, internationally known setting for regional theater and other art events. The festival is also responsible for spawning a host of Shakespearean names for hotels and restaurants (A Midsummer’s Dream, Romeo Inn, Oberon’s Restaurant etc.)

Speaking of which – no Elizabethan wordplay here – we chanced upon a restaurant by the name of Sauce. What a lucky find! Dozens of excellent vegetarian, meat and allergy-sensitive food items, so fresh you could smell the dirt they grew in (wait – that doesn’t sound appetizing!). Better to say we both enjoyed a really welcome hot meal in friendly (and very popular) surroundings.

And in a direct connection to San Francisco, Ashland used the same famed park designer, John McLaren, for their own city park – where we were delighted to visit on Day Three