salem it's oregon's capital city
and it's also well actually that's about
all a lot of people who live in portland
know about it but don't sleep on salem
today we're going to make a day of it
and visit 10 of the hottest spots in
oregon's second biggest city
it's a lot to see all in one go so first
things first
a hearty breakfast
we are at our first stop here in salem
dough hook donuts
now there's a lot of really good donut
shops in portland obviously but you know
what salem's got a lot of great donut
shops too
and we're gonna check out what they have
here at doe hook
[Music]
all right we got a couple of donuts they
had so many good options but i had to
settle on just
two i've got a marion berry with a lemon
drizzle and something called
grandma's hot cocoa so let's check him
out
oh look at that glaze grandma's hot
cocoa i love this this is like something
i'd see at blue star
that nice different kind of marionberry
glaze and this is like i don't look like
a classic donut to me
that's good that's what it tastes like
grandma's hot cocoa well i am fortified
and full of donuts and i
am ready to go to our second stop of the
day i'm gonna head to downtown salem and
check out riverfront city park
[Music]
riverfront park fills 26 acres along the
willamette river to the west of downtown
salem
it was built as part of an urban renewal
project reclaiming land that had once
been home to industrial sites like
mills a coal gasification plant and a
junkyard
the city of salem is still adding new
features to the park which is now home
to a carousel
an amphitheater and extensive green
space so one of the things i
love about this park is this great bike
path it runs
all the way from the start of the park
to this end here at this beautiful
bridge
i love just the design of this bridge
the modern look of it
crossing over the willamette river this
great giant globe over here which is
super cool
if i lived here personally i would be
biking here all the time once you get to
the bridge you can bike across and head
into minto brown
island park so there's more bike paths
from miles along the willamette river so
we've had a great time here at the park
and we're going to head to our third
stop here in salem
oregon state capitol
so here we are at stop number three the
oregon state capitol
and i feel like this is one of those
places that oregonians just
kind of overlook as a spot to visit but
i mean it's our state capitol
and it's also a really cool park to come
check out so we have the beautiful
building behind us which is actually our
third state capitol building
the first two burned down mysteriously
in fire so in 1938
they built this one they cast it with
the famous bronze statue of the oregon
pioneer
holding his famous axe now in the
springtime the cherry trees here are
blossoming beautifully
a lot of people like to come for that
right now we're kind of
post bloom it's still a nice beautiful
sea of green here in the park
it's still a really nice spot to come
and hang out spend some time here in the
sun
so now we're headed to our fourth spot
in salem the oregon state hospital and
you might be thinking that's kind of a
weird spot to go hang out but there's
actually a lot of
really cool stuff there to check out so
we're gonna check it out right now
[Music]
the oregon state hospital is one of the
oldest continuously operated hospitals
on the west coast
it opened in 1883 as a psychiatric
hospital and its original building is
now home to the museum of mental health
movie fans might recognize the building
behind me as one of the main shooting
locations in the 1975 movie
one flew over the cuckoo's nest it won
some academy awards
and brought some eyeballs to salem
oregon in 2005
it was discovered that for years
unclaimed ashes of patients who died
had been stored unceremoniously in a
basement eventually efforts were made to
release the remains to family members
and a memorial was constructed on the
hospital's campus the energy here is
definitely a lot heavier
and it's a much more somber attraction
but when you're looking around at the
different things to do
and see and experience in salem this
feels like an important place
that you have to see after a pause to
pay our respects
it was time to move on to something a
little bit lighter
lunch
all right i got the menus we are here at
noble wave
in downtown salem they do chicken they
do
crab they do sandwiches salads all kinds
of stuff so i think i'm gonna need to
take a minute to
sort through this and figure out what i
want beignet fried chicken sliders i've
heard of these
your burger your avocado club your hot
bird very
uh popular right now of course this is
the hot bird here
house cup fries the joint sauce and then
we got the beignet chicken sliders i
love this
little savory little sweet yeah pretty
mighty limes i'm not sure if i can eat
it all but we'll see what we can do
[Music]
oh my god i hate how much i like this
you get the sweet the beignets and you
get that nice savory
from the fried chicken it's falling
apart in my hands my gosh
it is good okay i've had my fill of
beignet sliders i think it's time to get
after this
hot bird sandwich
so much chicken
[Music]
nice piece of fried chicken some really
nice hot sauce in there
i like it
okay the food at noblewave was amazing
the fried chicken the beignets
the sweet the spicy it was so good my
stomach is full and i am
covered in powdered sugar right now so i
think it's time we walk off some of
these calories
so we're headed to our next stop here in
salem at busch's pasture park
[Music]
this is a huge 90.5 acre park and
there's so much to do here
it's walking paths playgrounds athletic
fields
but my favorite spot is right here at
the busch house a historic house a
museum
that is surrounded by these beautiful
gardens this is the third time i've been
here this spring and there's
always something different to see so
this is a great spot to walk off that
big lunch we had
there's so much to see and explore like
this rhododendron cave
i just want to like hide in here you
know build a fort
oh if you look at these you can tell how
old this is how old and gnarled
these branches are you see rhododendrons
like bushes in front of people's houses
or up on mountain hood
other places but you can really get a
sense of how
old and big these trees and i guess our
shrub can
get the park is full of a wide variety
of trees and flowers
many with identifying plaques that
include qr codes you can scan with your
phone for more information
it's also home to plenty of bees oh
there's a bee
sorry b okay well we've walked off some
calories and seen some beautiful flowers
so we're off to our next destination
number seven
deepwood museum and gardens
deepwood is practically next door but
unfortunately there's no
straightforward way to walk there from
bush's pasture park
so a quick trip in the car whisks us to
more flowers and foliage
so deepwood museum and gardens is a
historic house and
while the house is currently closed
right now due to the pandemic
the gardens all around it are a public
park which means it's open dawn to dusk
every single day and there are so many
beautiful flowers here right now and
there's oranges
and pinks and blues and reds and whites
we're just
in this sort of fantasia of color here
all around us
it's a really beautiful spot to come
hang out check out
and it's also really popular event venue
too so if you're getting married
hey come do it deeply so we are about
two-thirds done with our trip today
we've seen a lot we've been through
parks we've eaten donuts we've eaten
chicken on donuts we have seen so many
beautiful flowers and made
friends with a bunch of bees so next
we're going to head to wine country for
eighth stop at red hawk winery in the
yola amity hills
so we are here in our eighth stop in
salem we came up to the iola
amity hills region of the willamette
valley wine country
and we decided to come to red hawk
winery they do a lot of really good
wines here
i love a nice glass of pinot gris in a
day like today i decided to go with a
glass of their
vedro which is a really delicious red
wine some bright flavors
really tasty
[Music]
and that's good there's like some black
pepper
on the nose but it's so bright and juicy
at the same time
kind of like plum and kind of taste that
earthy
volcanic soil to it it's kind of nicely
balanced that way where it's really
bright but also really grounded at the
same time
and so nice to have a good glass of wine
during this beautiful day
looking over this beautiful vineyard you
can just see some mountain views here
popping over the hills
cascade peaks that you can see from this
vineyard
well we have had a nice relaxing
afternoon up here at the winery
some great views beautiful weather we're
gonna hit the road and head on to our
ninth
spot in salem minto brown island park
minto brown island park is the biggest
park in salem
with 1200 acres of forest and open
meadows beside the willamette river
it features 29 miles of trails a huge
off-leash dog park
and it connects back to riverfront park
where we made our second stop
via that beautiful bridge all right we
are at our ninth
spot here in salem minto brown island
park
this is a super great spot to come do
some kayaking do some fishing
do some swimming if you're interested in
it or just hang out and walk the trails
i know we have enjoyed this day so much
exploring all these places around salem
great gardens and parks places to eat
really good wine to drink
but it's time for us to head to our
tenth and final spot
and you know what i think after this day
of exploring we've earned ourselves a
[Music]
treat
[Music]
all right we are here at our 10th spot
today
we've come to don vigote this is a
churro and ice cream
food cart here on the side of the road
in salem it is one of the best
dessert spots in town let's go and get
something to eat
[Music]
feast your eyes on that this is a
churro kind of like a ribbon of churro
inside of vanilla ice cream a chocolate
shell and it looks like some broken up
nuts on top of that and hey fruity
pebbles mature why not
the warm churro plus the cold ice cream
here is
so good so good this is one of my
favorite dessert spots
in salem and i gotta tell you i can't
wait to
sink my teeth into this i'm just gonna
bite into it
it's just so good i love when a dessert
place goes above and beyond it doesn't
mean it's not just
good on the mouth that tastes good or
something that is visually appealing as
well
i'm just looking at this it's a feast
for the eyes
all right that's it we did it that is
our tenth and final
spot it's about 5 p.m so we've done
9 to 5 10 spots in salem
beautiful spring day i had an absolutely
great time out here today
and you know what i mean we've said it
before i feel like a lot of people
especially those of us in portland
we kind of overlook salem we think
there's not a whole lot to do here
but look we went to these 10 great spots
and that just barely scratched the
surface
there's so much to do in salem aside
from this
and we're going to have a lot more about
this if you want to see more about what
to do in salem
check out oregonlive.com travel for all
the travel tips here
you