Willamette Valley

I definitely will.
My love for Pinot Noir is why I’m going. We did Napa a few years ago and it was nice. Had lunch on the wine train. Cool experience.

We went to Oregon last summer and stayed in Willamette Valley for three days. (by the way, it's pronounced to rhyme with "Dammit"!) I love Pinot Noir, my wife loves Pinot Gris. Perfect place to go.

While the Oregon beaches are lovely, they're too far for daily trips to the majority of the wineries.

We stayed in McMinnville which is pretty centrally located in the busiest part of the valley and drove from there each day. The town itself is a bit larger than the other towns throughout the valley but also maintain the quaintness of a small town. Lots of restaurants, bars and tasting rooms for the evenings. We stayed at McMenamin's Hotel Oregon, which is a creepily renovated old hotel (many rooms use a hall bath). Really cool place with rooftop bar, two main floor bars, and a basement bar (see where my priorities lie?).
It also has one of the best aviation museums in the world (Evergreen) where Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose is housed.

Take a wine tour if you want, but we enjoy much more taking our rental car, map, and GPS and just driving around hitting the ones we want. We mainly focused on the areas around McMinnville, Amity, Dundee. Our favorites were Alloro, Domaine Serene, Sokol Blosser, (plus a couple of tiny ones whose names escape me).

Most of our roaming and tasting was done in the Dundee, Yamhill, and Chehalem Mt. AVA's. (Oregon encompasses 18 specific winegrowing regions called American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).

I have lots of other info if you want it. Have a great time!

I was hoping this was a hop farm tour......

Anything good near Hood River?

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Anything good near Hood River?

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Absolutely! We stayed there for a few days also (see my Willamette post above). Had a great Airbnb just across the Columbia River from the town of Hood River--we were on a bluff about 300 feet above the river overlooking the town, and 30 miles or so from Mt. Hood. The pic is from our outdoor deck.

In the town you see are many good restaurants and breweries (including Full Sail's main site). The river itself is a hub of watersport activities, including kite-surfing. In between the town of Hood River and Mt. Hood is its own small wine country outside of Willamette Valley.

Plus there's lots of areas for hiking, and we even saw skiiers still going in late June on Mt. Hood.

We stayed here on the way to Bend, then we hit Willamette.

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parrotdr

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Awesome response!

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My love for Pinot Noir is why I’m going

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If you love Pinot Noir, you were 1 Valley away from the beat Pinot region in America, the Russian River Valley. If you ever get the chance, go stay in Healdsburg or Windsor and tour the wineries in the area. So much good Pinot

My two cents worth, not being a wine enthusiast. If you are in the Gorge, go to Maryhill Winery. The winery itself sits on the cliff overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. Absolutely stunning views of the winery and the river below.

The wineries are not that far from Portland, if you want to stay in Portland and take day trips.

The Evergreen Aviation Museum is very cool. Glenn Odekirk, who co-designed the "Spruce Goose" was my grandfather's cousin. He was allegedly on board with Howard Hughes for the plane's only flight, and was Howard Hughes' right hand man for many years. He also co-designed the H-1 Racer.

ETA: Here is the view from Maryhill. They also host concerts there, so you might want to check the schedule. Watching the sun set in the valley while enjoying a concert would not suck.