All the possibilities of the wide-open, Central Oregon landscape and Native American culture await at Kah-Nee-Ta. Explore the high desert trails by horseback or tackle the 18-hole championship golf course. There’s also volleyball, tennis and swimming in the resort’s signature hot springs pool. Enrich the family in the traditional arts of basket making and jewelry in the nearby Museum at Warm Springs. Adults can step away to throw a few quarters into the slots at the resort casino or sashay to Spa Wanapine for massages, facials and manicures.

If the family is feeling the pull of the coast, Newport’s your spot. Voyage out to sea with Marine Discovery Tours as part of Spring Whale Watching Week, March 19-26. Oceanic wonders are within reach at the tidepools and other hands-on displays at the award-winning Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Hatfield Marine Science Center. The exploration continues in Mariner Square, in the Undersea Garden, Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not, and The Wax Works. Newport’s two iconic 19th century lighthouses, Yaquina Head and Yaquina Bay, beckon from their spectacular bluffs.

Eugene offers up a mix of worldly gee-wiz and local Willamette Valley flavor. At the Science Factory Children’s Museum and Exploration Dome, local scientists go small — no, smaller — in explaining the cutting edge of molecular research during Nano Day, March 26. Kids see the secrets behind their favorite toys in the exhibit Toys, The Inside Story. Oregon Duck fans can hop a Eugene Pedicab for the Duck Sports Hall of Fame Tour. Discover how the first Nike shoe was created at the Nike Store, visit historic Hayward Field, check out the new Matthew Knight arena and explore several local halls-of-fame. Also, don’t miss foot stomping in the Barn Dance at Spencer Creek Grange, and a local rendition of The Wizard of Oz .

If Portland is your destination for Spring Break you can hit three great family-friendly attractions in Washington Park and never lose your parking spot.  Or, take the TriMet Light Rail Service (Max) right there if you are traveling green.  First, you can monkey around at the Portland Children’s Museum as Curious George kicks off Spring Break. Next, venture around the world at the World Forestry Center where each day explores the unique and interesting cultures of five locations including: Russia, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and Hawaii. Last, but certainly not least, pop over to the Oregon Zoo for a tropical celebration.  Get crazy with crocodiles and party with the polar bears during the Zoo’s Gone Wild.

• February 13: After a good breakfast at Mother’s at SW 2nd and Stark, I’d walk up to the PDX Jazz Pavilion at Pioneer Courthouse Square for the Portland State University Jazz Band (12:00 PM) as the official festival opening performance. From there, move 3 blocks up Broadway to the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA) for the Terence Blanchard Jazz Conversation in The Art Bar under the main lobby rotunda (12:30 PM). At this point I’m going to be in the PCPA for most of the day. I go up the staircase to Brunish Hall for an exciting afternoon for any jazz fan. Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall and Blue Note Producer Michael Cuscuna will participate in a Jazz Conversation (2:00 PM) followed by a panel discussion moderated by author Ashley Kahn and featuring Bruce Lundvall reminiscing with two of his favorite artists, Dianne Reeves and Joe Lovano, as well as Michael Cuscuna (3:00 PM). From there it’s back down stairs to the Art Bar, which will be pouring Jazz Guy Ale! There will be two Jazz Conversations with Joe Lovano (5:00 PM) and Dianne Reeves (6:00 PM), but at some point I’ll miss something and step out for a quick dinner. I’ll want to be at the Schnitzer for Gonzalo Rubalcaba (7:30 PM) followed by Terence Blanchard’s A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) with full orchestra. For this one, I’d get the best seats available and plan to sit in them all night. When the concert is over, there are numerous choices. I really want to see Scenes with John Stowell, Jeff Johnson and John Bishop at Rogue Public House (9:00 PM), and it’s another opportunity for a Jazz Guy Ale. I’d also like to check out the Anomalous Quintet at West Café (9:00 PM), but it’s easier to return to the Art Bar and see New Orleans-now-Portland premiere tenor sax player Devin Phillips (9:00 PM). It will be past a 12-hour first day when I make my way up Broadway past the PSU campus to SW Jackson and The Cave under the Green Onion for the first of four late night jam sessions (11:59 PM). After last call and the final note, it’s time to crash in anticipation of another long day Saturday.

• February 14: Happy Valentine’s Day! Try for a Valentine’s breakfast at The Bijou, and then off for the second day of Blue Note Jazz Conversations with Michael Cuscuna and Ashley Kahn at Brunish Hall (12:00 PM). Make time to go down to the PDX Jazz Pavilion and see a few minutes of an exciting student trumpet player, Tree Palmedo (1:30 PM), and then loop around to the Portland Art Museum to see Joe Lovano’s new 2-drum quintet Us5 preceded by the always exciting Jacky Terrasson (2:00 PM). I may sneak out before the end of Joe’s set in order to see the Blue Note conversation between Ashley Kahn and Cem Kurosman at the Art Bar (4:00 PM) followed conversations with John Scofield (5:00 PM) and Don Byron (6:00 PM). At some point I’ll sneak out for dinner, and since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’ll remember to make reservations at either the Heathman or Higgins which are both close to the PCPA. At dinner, there are difficult choices to make. I really want to enjoy Dianne Reeves with the Oregon Symphony (7:30), but that would mean missing at least the first part of John Scofield (9:30). I may slide down to the RiverPlace Hotel to see young Kate Davis or over to The Nines for Michelle Medler (both at 8:00 PM), and then be back at the Art Museum for the beginning of Scofield’s trio. After Sco, I’ll bounce back to the PCPA for the second set of the trio of John Gross, Dave Frishberg, and Charlie Doggett (9:00 PM). I’m again aware of what I’m missing like Eddie Parente at Rogue, John & Yuko Keyser at Dragon Fish, Jed Wilson at the Benson Hotel, and Robert Moore at the Tugboat, but I also hope to catch a few minutes of Bryant Allard’s quartet at The Cave before the second of the late night jam sessions (11:59 PM). I have a feeling that this will be a late night!

• February 15: Hopefully I’ll get to sleep in, and all I’ll need is coffee before being back at Brunish Hall for the final installment of Somethin’ Else: Blue Note Records @ 70 with a panel discussion involving Blue Note Cover Art with Michael Cuscuna, Ashley Kahn, Los Angeles jazz critic Josef Woodard, and several prominent graphic designers. If Blanchard’s Requiem for Katrina and Dianne Reeves with the Oregon Symphony were the major events of the first two days, most certainly the McCoy Tyner/Joe Lovano quartet is Sunday’s highlight, especially with Don Byron’s really special Ivey-Divey Trio (2:00 PM). There’ll be time for a quick dinner across the street at the Hilton’s Bistro, and then upstairs to the Hilton Pavilion Ballroom for vocalist Judi Silvano followed by the West African guitar wizard Lionel Loueke (6:30 PM). I’m then going to try and get up to the Crystal Ballroom for the Greyboy All-Stars (9:30 PM). Then again, I may not!

• February 16: Happy President’s Day! It’s also Monday, yet there are two exceptional events to choose from Monday evening. I’m really curious about Brain Chemistry for Lovers with Valerie Day, Darrell Grant, and the OHSU Brain Awareness Center at the Newmark Theater (7:30 PM), but I think I’ll go to check out Lebanese avant-garde saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui presented by Creative Music Guild (8:00 PM). In either case, I’ll plan on finishing off Monday night at the White Eagle where young guitarist Chance Hayden holds court (8:30 PM) where they’ll also have Rogue Jazz Guy Ale like all other PDX Jazz venues.

• February 17: I always try to get to at least one of the performances of The Incredible Journey of Jazz. This year I’m planning to attend the afternoon performance at SEI in N Portland. I’d love to sneak into Sherman Clay Pianos to watch some of Nancy King and Mary Kadderly’s Jazz Singing Workshop. The real highlight for Tuesday, however, is Andrew Oliver’s very exciting Portland Jazz Composer’s Ensemble at Old Church (7:30 PM).

Editor’s Note: Bill Royston is the Portland Jazz Festival‘s Artistic Director, and writes about the festival at Bill’s Beat. Stay tuned for Part Two of Bill’s Guide to the Portland Jazz Festival. The complete festival schedule can be found here.

Friday
Home base was a luxurious suite atop the plush Hotel Monaco, in the heart of downtown. We made a pit stop at their nightly wine and beer reception before heading over to Red Star Tavern and its linger-longer four-hour happy hour. That gave us ample time for passionate debate on one of life’s most pressing matters: football. Forget trying to be 25 again — we were going for 15.

Saturday
We scattered the brain-fog with French press coffee at Mother’s Bistro; they’ve been serving up one of downtown’s best breakfasts for a decade. We feasted on savory salmon hash and prosciutto-garlic-tomato scrambles, then rumbled off to North Plains to play the Ghost Creek course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, consistently rated among the nation’s finest. And it’s easy to see why: finely manicured greens, challenging fairways and enough trees to keep Daryl’s ball from properly advancing toward the pin, much to our amusement.

Afterward we ventured over to North Portland, one of the newer neighborhoods to register on the city’s beer-loving scene. At the The Hop & Vine, we found the Oregon Beer Odyssey, a consortium of three beer geeks who offer classes on everything from sour beers to rare European brews. Ours covered hops, and brewer Ben Edmunds discussed and explained beer’s key flavor ingredient with professorial passion and expertise. Before the night was over we tasted 11 distinct brews and learned why Portlanders, in a city with the most breweries in the world, are deluged in growlers of microbrew: most U.S.-grown hops are cultivated right here in the Yakima [Washington] or Willamette [Oregon] valleys. (Classes rotate through several locations, so check their website for more information.)

We rounded out the night with a few frames at Grand Central Bowl, an upscale bowling alley dripping with plasma TVs and neon mood lighting. After marveling at Daryl’s technique (how can such a horrible golfer dominate in bowling?) we settled into leather couches, feet up and warmed by a fireplace, and toasted to our greatness.

Sunday
The final day of our trip started appropriately with a fishing trip on the Willamette River, just upstream of Portland, with Mark Lytle and his outfit, Lytle Charters. Lytle hosts visitors from as far as Brazil for river and sea fishing, but today he got three neophyte fishermen who couldn’t tell a Chinook salmon from a steelhead if it jumped in the boat.

We launched in the churning waters near Willamette Falls, the U.S.’s largest waterfall by volume and the site of ancestral Native American fishing grounds, which gave us welcome perspective of our place in time. Then we sped downstream to lure one of the 20,000 or so Chinook headed home after a trip to the Bering Sea. “They can smell in parts per billion, which means they can smell Idaho from the ocean,” said Lytle.

As time went on, it became clear that it wasn’t our day to reel anything in. But this weekend wasn’t about results — it was about experience, and our time on the river was as relaxing as any of us could collectively remember.

After docking, we headed off to our grand finale: a Trail Blazers game, in seats close enough to hear (and occasionally participate in) the trash talk. We first headed to Spirit of 77 for a pre-game drink and dart competition. It’s a sports bar in name (reflecting the Blazers’ 1977 championship) and big screen TVs but with distinct Portland twists like an espresso stand, menu options like pistachio pesto roasted vegetable salad, and a refurbished local high school basketball court forms the wall behind the bar.

The Blazers won with ease, providing the proverbial icing to our weekend. As the clock ticked down the fourth quarter, Daryl said, “It’s going to be tough to go back to work tomorrow.” What started as a break from reality only whet our appetites for more adventures in the Rose City. We might even bring our families next time.

If you are looking for a special St. Patrick’s Day celebration, take part in the 30th annual “A Wee Bit O’ Ireland” in Heppner, Oregon. Located southwest of Hermiston, Heppner doesn’t look like the Old Country, but the Irish spirit will be alive and well at the March 15-18 event. Enjoy food, drink, music, arts and crafts, sheep dog trials and amateur boxing. “The Gothard Sisters,” a popular Pacific Northwest fiddle and dance trio, will perform Saturday night. Visitors will enjoy the welly toss, the Great Green parade and road bowling.

March 16-17, the town of Lakeview in southern Oregon remembers the history and heritage of its 19th Irish immigrants with the annual Irish Days Festival. Friday evening features a corn beef and cabbage dinner along with traditional Irish step dancing. Saturday will see unique competitions like potato hockey, a bartenders race and outhouse races, along with various food competitions and a parade, music and a barbeque.

Portland Highland Games celebrates its 60th anniversary on July 21, 2012, at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham. The event showcases world-class pipe bands, Celtic entertainment, and top competition in heavy athletics, Highland dancing, solo fiddling, piping and drumming. The kilted mile run, sheepdog demonstrations, caber toss, and parade of massed bands are among traditional favorites. Bring the kids for games, a fun run and a tug-o-war.

Head to the village of Yachats on the central Oregon Coast for the Yachats Celtic Music Festival Nov. 9-11. In its 11th year, the festival features Celtic music from world-class musicians from Ireland, Scotland, Asturias and Galicia as well as dancing, food and spirits. The weekend usually includes whiskey and beer tasting, Irish step dance classes, and fiddle, flute and whistle workshops.

The Saturday Market opened its proverbial doors in 1974 and has always been a must-do event for me throughout it’s every season, which runs from March through December. More than 1 million visitors each year seem to feel the same way I do. Every weekend, local vendors showing off their hand-made goods, get prepared for the crowds to come, browse, and buy.

Here’s a bit of trivia for you. Did you know that Portland Saturday Market is the longest-running outside market in the entire nation? Yup, it’s true! Now, you’re ready for that next round of Portland Trivial Pursuit.

Stretching between Waterfront Park and Ankeny Park, with the Portland bridges and Willamette River as it’s backdrop, it’s the most perfect place for any event, but even more so for a relaxed, no-stress, open-air marketplace.

The rows and rows of food vendors are what turns me on the most. The smells from every type of goodies from all over the world fill the air and pull me in any number of directions. To this day, I think my favorite has to be this certain Asian food vendor that serves up spring rolls and sauce that are to die for.

The music performers in the surrounding streets and on the Market’s two performing stages give me another reason to hang around for hours. Grass-roots and Portland-like sounds of jazz, rock, blues, and folk are continuous throughout the day.

As Spring turns into Summer, I know for a fact I’ll be heading downtown many more times to take in all Portland Saturday Market offers up, with my wife and friends in tow. Once Christmas comes around and the streets of the city are adorned with sparkling lights, things will really kick into high gear.

Good times to be had by all!

Oregon Bark from Sahagún’s Handmade Chocolates is a combination of Madagascan dark chocolate (64%), hazelnuts and sour cherries. It’s a Portland favorite and very Oregon, we thought. The company also makes a wildly popular Luscious Caramel, which, Freivalds says, “When you eat it in one bite it just explodes.” It’s a popular holiday gift choice (if you are shopping for someone beside yourself).

For the most savory Oregon chocolate, Freivalds pointed us toward the creations of Xocolatl de David. Here you’ll find such concoctions as the Parmigiano-Reggiano bar (72% Cocoa Ecuador), the Bacon Chocolate bar (72% Cocoa Ecuador) and the Olive Oil bar (68% Cocoa Bolivia).

Prize for most unique goes to Cocanú Chocolate. Creator Sebastian Cisneros (who happens to work at Cacao), weaves unexpected flavors like Moonwalk — dark chocolate, cocoa nibs and Pop Rocks — and the unusual Holywood — dark chocolate infused with sweet Palo Santo wood.

Best hands-on effort goes to Woodblock Chocolates, one of the state’s first bean-to-bar chocolatier. Wife and husband team Jessica and Charley Wheelock are turning out varieties like Seventy, Salt Nibs and Salt, hand wrapping each bar after taking raw beans through sorting, roasting, cracking, shelling, grounding, aerating, aging, tempering and pouring. “The quality is fantastic,” says Freivalds.

For more chocolate stories and a selection of Oregon’s artisan chocolate producers, check out this list and sweeten up your December.  And lest we forget…do begin your Oregon-chocolaty adventure right where we started by sampling one of Cacao’s delicious drinking and hot chocolates.

Editor’s Note: For a celebration of all things chocolate, head over to the Oregon Chocolate Festival taking place March 2-4 at the Ashland Springs Hotel.

The 2012 edition of December to Remember was bigger and better than ever, stretching from December 2-10, with seven shows at the Crystal Ballroom, one show at the Roseland Theater, and one show at the Rose Garden. I was lucky enough to see two of the shows this year (almost all sold out in less than one day). Both shows I saw were at the Crystal Ballroom, a McMenamins property. If you’ve never experienced the Crystal Ballroom, it should be on your Oregon bucket list.

The Crystal Ballroom is a wonderful space; spacious and beautifully decorated, featuring paintings by local artists.  I should also mention that the Crystal Ballroom has a unique floor called a “floating dance floor” or “spring floor.” The Crystal Ballroom’s spring floor is made of woven wooden battens so when people start to jump up and down you feel as if you’re on a trampoline with everyone in the room. It’s quite the surreal concert experience!

While McMenamins does bring in nationally renowned bands to play at the Crystal Ballroom, they also hire a number of regional and local musicians to play at their brew pubs, which are liberally scattered throughout western Oregon and Washington (if you’re traveling through the state, you will most likely cross paths with a McMenamins property). Some of my very favorite properties include Edgefield (where they have summer concerts on the lawn), The Kennedy School and Old St. Francis School.

Even if you missed this year’s December to Remember, don’t fret because you will have many more live music opportunities in Oregon throughout the year. Thanks to 94.7, The Crystal Ballroom and Portland’s amazing music scene, I certainly did have a December to remember.

When and Where
July 26 – 29, 2012
Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland

Oregon Beers to Try
This year’s festival will feature 85 handcrafted beers from across the country. Here are a few crafted right here in Oregon that we’re excited to try:
10 Barrel Brewing Company Raspberry Crush
BridgePort Brewing Stump Town Stout
Fort George Brewery Quick Wit
Laurelwood Brewing Portlandia Pilsner
Oakshire Brewing 25
Prodigal Son Brewery Splendor in the Glass V: The Splendor Under the Stairs

Find a full list of beers with descriptions here.

Buzz Beer Tent
A limited selection of highly-prized brews are available for tasting in the Buzz Beer Tent. Come early, as the tasters here will go quickly. Look for the chalkboard outside the tent, or follow the Buzz Tent on Twitter @OBFBuzzTent for the latest updates.
New this year, the Sour Beer Tent will celebrate one of the newest trends in the craft beer world.

Beyond the Beer
Look for exhibits by hopgrowers, homebrewers and beer writers. Minors and designated drivers will enjoy the free root beer garden, and everyone can soak up the live music all weekend long.

Admission to the Oregon Brewers Festival is free; to taste, you’ll need to purchase a mug ($6) and taster tokens ($1).