Right in Ashland are two main attractions. The first is Lithia Park through which runs Ashland Creek. It is spectacularly beautiful right now with the redbud, dogwood, rhododendrons, azaleas, lilacs and other flowering trees and bushes in full bloom. There are great wood chipped trails running along both sides of the creek for about 1 1/2 miles. The ascent is mostly gentle, but another section is a climb up, which we did. It is wooded with picnic tables and other amenities all along the trails.
We learned that Lithia Park is named for the lithium in the water, which in previous days was believed to have restorative powers. There is still a fountain to drink the water. (The creek supplies most of Ashland's drinking water.) The creek has its origins at 7000 feet in the mountains above Ashland. We think Ashland is a lot like a small Boulder, CO or even Asheville, NC.
The other thing we learned is that Ashland is a site for a Chautauqua, started when the movement was in its heyday in the 19th century. That is when the Shakespeare Festival started here. Today the Festival continues separately (apparently), and there is still a schedule of lectures, field studies, old movies, music, etc. for Chautauqua. Nothing is running at Chautauqua while we are here in Ashland.
(If readers aren't quite sure what Chautauqua is, a Wikipedia article is available to describe it much better than I can. We spent a week a few years ago at the biggest, the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. Well worth doing!)
The theaters do have theater offerings running. Last night we saw Chekhov's "Seagull" at the New Theater, the newest of some 4-5 theaters here. It was wonderful! Excellent acoustics and sight lines in the small thrust theater, set up a lot like Minneapolis' Guthrie. We had dinner beforehand at one of the many restaurants lining the creek just a short walk from the theaters.
"Romeo and Juliet" was performed yesterday afternoon, but we decided it was far too nice a day to spend indoors. So in the afternoon we walked around the Southern Oregon University campus, formerly a Normal school to primarily educate teachers, but now a full blown university. Very pretty small campus.
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