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 Transplant Okie
Posts: 1206
 
Location: Always on call..... | Hubby and I are taking a 5 year anniversary trip to Pendleton for the Round Up in September. We are planning to be in Pendleton Tuesday - Thursday of that week. Any recommendations of what else to do in Oregon the rest of our week? Is flying into Portland the best? Must do things while we are in Pendleton?
Thanks for any tips! |
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  Champ
Posts: 19623
  
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | Pendleton as a long interesting history. Lots of things I didn't realize until I watched a program on Oregon Public Broadcasting station on the area and the history of the rodeo itself. There is an underground city where they had saloons. I bet if you did a search on Pendleton, you would find some tours. There are also some very interesting things happening as part of the roundup. They have Native American heritage events going on during the day and the Happy Canyon Pagent is every evening. Those are "must do's". I think you could spend the whole time just seeing those in addition to the rodeo. If you like gambling, there is a casino up the freeway from Pendleton and there are some historical places within driving distance as well. |
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Champ
Posts: 19623
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | The Oregon Trail that the settlers used to get west is through that area. Be sure to drive up the Columbia Gorge. It's breathtaking when you've never seen it before. 
Edited by OregonBR 2014-07-23 10:59 AM
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 Hugs to You
Posts: 7551
Location: In The Land of Cotton | Portland is a great airport to fly into. That way you can also do the Gorge and see the sights on the way to Pendleton. Hood River, The Dallas. All very neat places to see. Also St. Michelle winery is great. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 223
Location: Idaho | Shop! There's Hamley's and other cool western stores worth checking out! Can cross over towards Walla Walla Washington and go on a tour of the winerys too. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 356
| Definitely do the Underground tour! Super interesting! The Happy Canyon pageant was pretty good. I would've really liked to try to make it to Hood River and check out the Pendleton distillery and Purple Cowboy winery, but we just ran out of time. The parade is wonderful as well. And I 100% agree with SHOP! Hamley's is awesome! |
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 Vodka for Lunch
Location: Lala Land | Drink and gamble! I always like touring the Pendleton Wool company as a kid. |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I've only been through Pendleton, and we had the truck and trailer so I didn't get to do anything but it looked like a cool town. I would have loved to have been able to get out and just walk down the street.
ETA also Portland is quite a drive from Pendleton BUT it's a pretty, scenic drive. A lot of it goes along the Columbia River.
You could even take a day to do things in downtown Portland if you flew in there, but personally Portland makes me want to gouge my eyes out. My girlfriend just moved there and while it's a really pretty town, finding a place to park ruins the experience for me haha.
Edited by livexlovexrodeo 2014-07-23 2:19 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 316
| Here are some fun things to do in Pendleton during the rodeo:
Pendleton Underground Tours
http://www.pendletonundergroundtours.org/
Pendleton Woolen Mills
http://www.pendleton-usa.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=MillTours&parentName=Heritage
Happy Canyon Night Pageant
http://www.happycanyon.com/
Dinner at Cimmyotti's is really nice...restaurant was orignally started by the Cimmyotti's who were steer ropers...food is better than Hamley's
http://virgilsatcimmiyottis.com/ourstory.aspx
Pendleton Round Up Hall of Fame is interesting to walk through at least once. It's just across the street from the Round Up Grounds.
If you like to golf the Wildhorse Resort & Casino has a nice golf course and there are a lot of great winery's in the Walla Walla area, too.
You can fly into Portland, which is usually a little cheaper, but is about a 3.5 hour drive. Or you can also fly into Pasco, WA and it's about an hour and 15 minute drive. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 922
Location: Juntura, Oregon | Flying into Portland would probably be cheapest...but also check out Pasco, Washington, as it is closer. I would definitely recommend "Happy Canyon"! Though I have never been, but would like to go, the Underground Tours are supposed to be really cool. There is always the Pendleton Woolen Mills too. Main Street is full of vendors and things to do, which is within walking distance of the Round-Up grounds, and Hamley's is on the corner of that too. And as someone else said, there is Wildhorse Casino right outside Pendleton if you are into that. There is a dance and casino after Happy Canyon every night as well.
But, if you don't have hotel reservations yet, I would get on that ASAP. They are really hard to come by this time of year.
Have fun!! It's easy to do there, lol! |
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Transplant Okie
Posts: 1206
Location: Always on call..... | Thanks everyone for the tips! Sounds like there is a bunch to do besides the rodeo. That underground tour would be cool. I booked hotel rooms back in April, so got those. Getting ready to book flights - but was wondering what the best place to fly into was.
I wouldn't mind spending a day in Portland, just to check it out. But I can barely get hubby to go to Oklahoma City! He probably wouldn't enjoy the city. The wineries sound nice, I do love to drink wine. I'll check into that.
We didn't really get a honeymoon since I was in med school and we were broke when we got married. So we have literally planned this trip for 5 years! We are super excited to go. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| Dr. J - 2014-07-23 11:01 PM
Thanks everyone for the tips! Sounds like there is a bunch to do besides the rodeo. That underground tour would be cool. I booked hotel rooms back in April, so got those. Getting ready to book flights - but was wondering what the best place to fly into was.
I wouldn't mind spending a day in Portland, just to check it out. But I can barely get hubby to go to Oklahoma City! He probably wouldn't enjoy the city. The wineries sound nice, I do love to drink wine. I'll check into that.
We didn't really get a honeymoon since I was in med school and we were broke when we got married. So we have literally planned this trip for 5 years! We are super excited to go.
Flying into Portland will be less expensive than flying into Pasco - just a heads up.
If you fly into Portland and want to do something neat/ interesting ... check out the day tours of the local breweries. They are awesome! I think there is almost 20+ small craft breweries in the area.
Portland also has AWESOME food. PM if you'd like some great ideas. I lived in the area for 30+ years and still have family there.
The drive up the Gorge from PDX to Pendleton is neat. Stop at Hood River and hit up the wineries and distillery too.
Good Luck! I wish I was going this year too!
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 Toy Story Fanatic
Posts: 4148
Location: Oregon | Portland also has the shanghai tunnels.
http://www.shanghaitunnels.info/ The Evergreen aviation museum which is 45 min from portland, however it is towards the coast not in the direction of Pendleton.
http://evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/popular-exhibits/
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 Go Your Own Way
Posts: 4947
Location: SE KS | you can either fly into Pasco or Portland - 4 hr drive from Portland if I remember right.
Go to the Pendleton factory - that is where they make the Pendleton blankets, shirts, pillows, etc..... you can take a tour.
I love Pendleton - if you are an antique buff, they have lots of antique shops, stores...... you can go to the tri cities and get apples, onions, etc
Happy Canyon Pagentry at night is very interesting. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 246
Location: Idaho | Too bad you wont be there on Monday. Thats when they do the barrel slack. Now Im a bit biased but i think (and i dont think im alone here, even people who arent barrel fans agree) barrels at the round up is the best event to watch! Watching them run makes me want to cry... not sure why, but watching a horse full out run and trying its heart out kinda gets me teary eyed. |
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Transplant Okie
Posts: 1206
Location: Always on call..... | TSlashO - 2014-07-25 10:51 PM Too bad you wont be there on Monday. Thats when they do the barrel slack. Now Im a bit biased but i think (and i dont think im alone here, even people who arent barrel fans agree) barrels at the round up is the best event to watch! Watching them run makes me want to cry... not sure why, but watching a horse full out run and trying its heart out kinda gets me teary eyed.
We will be there Monday!! We actually planned our trip around the slack schedule more than the perf schedule. Lol. We are coming to Pendleton on Monday morning so hubs can watch the steer roping slack and I can watch the barrel racing slack. Then we also wanted to watch the team roping slack on Tuesday.
I'm getting pretty excited about it! |
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 Roan On The Range
Posts: 7889
Location: Stephenville, TX | Flying into Portland will be your best bet. The drive from Portland to Pendleton is about 3-1/2 hours, its easy and its gorgeous.
If you're into historical stuff, I highly recommend the Pendleton Underground tours. I've been twice and wouldn't hesitate to go again! Happy Canyon is a must see if you have time. The legendary Let'er Buck Room (Pendleton's iconic bar) is...well...an experience to be had at least once LOL! The Hall of Fame and Pendleton Woolen Mills are both pretty cool (if you're after official Pendleton logo merchandise, you can get it at the Hall of Fame). Most people think of Hamley's for leather stuff, but Severe Bros is also in Pendleton. The Umatilla tribe dances in Roy Raley park (or Round-Up park, if you ask a local, right next to the arena) its free, low key and fun. If you like shopping, there are lots of vendors set up in parking lots all up and down Court St and downtown. The people watching is pretty good too....drunk people climbing into the back of a stranger's pickup truck with a cardboard sign duck taped to the door that reads "free rides" scribbled in sharpie pen...a pretty common sight during Round-Up! Pendleton is a small town with A LOT of extra people in it during Round-Up week, it is beyond busy, so keep that in mind when making plans to find parking, eat in town, drive across town, go through museums, etc.
Enjoy!!
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Veteran
Posts: 246
Location: Idaho | Oh good!! Well then you will be there for the best part! ;) Another thing we have done is when they close the Let'er Buck Room at 6 everday, we pick a good spot and watch what comes out! :) that can be pretty entertaining too! One year a guy tried to ride his horse into the Let er Buck Room and got pretty far because security was kind of laughing!. Another time we came out and several of the horses left tied in the arena after slack had their saddles on backwards! You seriously never know what you will see there! :) As said before, parking can be hard. We walked everywhere we wanted to go... i think we even took a ride from a random person giving rides out of the back of his pick up! :) |
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