Wilsonville

While many attractions around Oregon bill themselves as fun for the whole family, if you are going to have fun in your name, you better deliver, and the Family Fun Center and Bullwinkle’s Restaurant does.

Sitting next to Interstate 5, it’s hard to miss it, with its miniature golf castle (which my daughters point and call the ‘princess castle every time we pass’), batting cages, go-cart race track and a rock climbing wall you can see from the highway.

Personally, my favorite tourist attractions are ones where you can do a number of things at once. It just feels like a better use of time when you visit a business or park, and you get a couple of activities in, instead of just one.

That’s what Tollen Farm offers people looking for an “Oregon” experience. From unique and quirky art, to home décor, garden items, farm animals and antiques, the farm is a great way to take home something from the Willamette Valley that is one-of-a-kind.

Sitting in a grove of trees, overlooking a creek, listening to the birds, bugs and other wildlife, it’s hard to believe this place was slated to be a prison.

Thanks to local officials fighting and lobbying, now are area just west of Wilsonville is a nature area where children learn about nature, and every day hundreds of people bike, walk, stroll or simply sit and talk in a 250-acre nature park.

With three-miles of trails that cover 250 acres, the park is as much educational as it is an outdoor workout area and nature reserve.