The Friendship Force of Oregon's Mid-Willamette Valley eagerly awaits your arrival. From June 4 to June 8, 2009 you will experience Oregon and the lush growing land of our valley. We celebrate our diversity of natural resources - forests, clean rivers and streams, and unrivaled natural beauty. Oregon is a state with mountains, coastal dunes, rugged high desert, waterfalls, and beautiful towns and cities. Christmas trees, iris and grass seed are shipped world-wide. The valley is one of the best places in the world to grow berries, hazelnut trees, flowering fruit trees and broadleaf evergreens. Commercial nurseries also produce plants for domestic gardens.

Your hotel will be in Salem, the State Capital. At the height of the rose-blooming season, you will attend the world famous Grand Floral Parade in Portland, the City of Roses. The Rose Festival began in 1907 and its parade is the second largest all-floral parade in the nation. You may choose to visit and have tastings at several wineries of distinction, including the state's oldest established in 1933. In three days of selected tours you may also experience rose and iris gardens, the World Forestry Center, The Oregon Garden, a micro-brewery, an art gallery, a carousel with hand-carved horses, and the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where the massive Spruce Goose resides in a soaring gallery filled with over 80 historic aircraft and exhibits. At this location there is also an IMAX Theater and a wine tasting room. Go to: www.SpruceGoose.org and Willamette Valley wine information at www.oregonwine.org

Home hosting is available for four days after the Festival. With your hosts you may visit other areas of the great Pacific Northwest, which is noted for innovations in recycling, clean industries and "green" living. Oregon's people are known for their hospitality, their kind and generous nature.

We welcome you!

Click on "Pictures of Oregon" at the left to see some photos of our state.

Join us for Wine and Roses June 4-8, 2009.

Contact us at: Friendship Force of Oregon's Mid-Willamette Valley, PO Box 1703, Albany OR 97321 or write Rita Kirk Powell, the Asia Pacific 2009 Festival CONVENER, at powellfam4@hughes.net

For more information: www.rosefestival.org and www.traveloregon.com (this site has links in Japanese, German and Italian translations).