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Ashland, OR is just north of the California border. It’s about a six-hour drive from the SF Bay Area, and a neat place for a weekend retreat. We weren’t retreating this time, but rather passing through en route to elsewhere. But we’ve retreated here before.

The town is famous as the home for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an annual event that has been expanded to run for a solid eight months per year. I have not personally attended a Shakespeare event here; I had enough Shakespeare in high school to last me a looong time. Also, there are enough cheesy Shakespeare references in the downtown shopping area to tide me over until, basically, my next life. Examples: The Bard’s Inn, CD or Not CD, and if I had to guess, Henry IV’s Septic Pump, The Merchant of Venicecream, Seven-11 Ages of Man, Burger King Lear, etc.

The downtown area is a mecca of interesting shops and appealing restaurants. Most of the shops seem to be closed a lot of the time, despite the fact that foot traffic is relatively heavy until late in the evening. But I enjoyed the creative signage — in addition to the typical “Closed” signs, I saw several that said “Nope” and one, my favorite, that announced simply “Shut”.

Should you go to Ashland, make time for dinner at the Standing Stone Brewing Company. The food is consistently great. The beers are, too. Note the big wood-fired pizza oven in the kitchen; it turns out excellent breads and sourdough-crust pizzas. If this restaurant were local, I’d eat there every weekend.