March 2011 enewsletter

The Sip! 2011 McMinnville Wine and Food Classic will showcase some of the best wines, food and art in the Willamette Valley from March 11-13. Tickets are $15 and include admission to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, live music and wine tasting classes.

Our favorite time of year is when the tulips bloom! From March 25-May 1, view over 40 acres of tulips and daffodils, buy cut flowers, or order bulbs for fall planting at the 26th Annual Tulip Fest. Each weekend offers a variety of events for the whole family.

There's bound to be a whole lot of dancing in the streets—or at least in the aisles—during Downtown Marketing Initiative's two-for-one tickets days. A range of arts groups, including Portland Center Stage, White Bird Dance, Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Oregon Symphony, will offer two-for-one tickets for events through the end of March. The two-for-one deal—combined with dining and hotel packages—offers an easy, inexpensive night on the town.

Enjoy all of the fabulous activities at the Oregon Zoo for only $4! Children under 3 years of age will, as always, be admitted free of charge. Save even more when you ride MAX: Visitors who arrive via MAX or the bus receive an additional $1.50 off general admission and are not required to pay the $2 per vehicle parking fee. Discounts require proof of ridership.

Lakewood Theatre Company presents Lend Me a Tenor. It's September 8th, 1934, and Cleveland's premiere opera producer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The tickets are sold, the stage is set and the thirty-piece orchestra is ready. But it's about to become un disastro gigantesco, because it's three minutes to curtain, and the leading man has gone missing!

Learn about the amazing adaptive power of the brain when the largest Brain Fair in the country returns to OMSI from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year's cerebral celebration will include interactive exhibits, real human brains, crafts, demonstrations, prizes, and OHSU neuroscientists explaining their groundbreaking research.

Don't miss an exclusive Mabel & Zora trunk show featuring local jewelry artist Taylor Nussbaum.

Oregon Children's Theatre presents On the Eve of Friday Morning, a magical story about the power of stories themselves. Nassrin is a young girl in modern Iran whose father has just been arrested for smuggling banned books. To ease Nassrin's fears, her mother begins to tell a story. Concurrently, Bahad, an orphan boy from a thousand years past, listens as a wandering storyteller narrates the same tale. The two worlds intertwine as Nassrin and Bahad step into the story and meet.

Join the World Forestry Center Discovery Museum for Spring Break Around the World. Explore a new and exciting region of the world each day, including: Russia, Mexico, Japan, South Africa and Hawaii.

The Albany Visitors Association is thrilled to offer an opportunity to taste the wonderful world of Oregon's Wine Country during the Albany Nosh Tour. Via Albany's Historic Trolley, the Nosh Tour takes participants back stage to many of Albany's home-grown restaurants; tasting food and drink samples, viewing all the behind-the-scenes action, and speaking with the people who make it all happen.

Portland Japanese Garden presents Ohara Ikebana, an exhibition of flower arrangement distinguished by its asymmetrical form and the use of "empty" space as essential features of the composition. Ikebana shares these aesthetic characteristics with traditional Japanese paintings, gardens, architecture and design.

Lan Su Chinese Garden presents Bats, Bugs, Frogs and Fish. Enjoy a bat coloring activity and a bug display with partners from the Oregon Zoo, see goldfish up close, discover your Chinese fortune, try Tai Chi, learn to play mahjong and more.

Oregon History Museum presents Perseverance: Black Pioneers in Early Oregon. Throughout Oregon's early history, the presence of African Americans in all parts of the state are recorded in documents and photographs. Though small in number, through determination and perseverance their presence added to the fabric of the Oregon community.