What to do in Salem

by Michele Burke

Although I’ve lived in Salem for about 8 years now, I have small children and have done almost exclusively kid-things. But here are a couple of Salem spots that I like:

• Marco Polo Global Restaurant has great food, an excellent vegetarian menu and the prices are reasonable (down town)
• Blue Pepper Gallery and Internet Café (downtown, has café food, coffee, tea, beer and wine bar)
• Northern Lights Theater Pub ($3 movies, $1.25 popcorn, and a pub menu...what’s not to love?) (south side of down town)
• Pentacle Theater (near the Eola center)
• On Edgewater street in West Salem (not far from Eola center) there is a nice bookstore and several restaurants including Morton’s Bistro NW

Lodging

• Comfort Suites on Hawthorne will give discounts for people attending an event at Chemeketa Eola
• Best Western Mill Creek Inn
• Shilo Inn Suites
• Red Lion Hotel
• Travel Salem keeps a directory of Bed and Breakfasts and other lodging as well

More things to do

• Of course, the Salem Public Library and the Oregon State Library are great places to visit. The capital is flush with other libraries as well, such as the Oregon OSHA Resource Center.
• The Oregon Garden in Silverton is open everyday 10am-6pm ($10) - you may need all day to see it all!
• Travel Salem lists area wineries
• The McMenamins chain of pubs, breweries and etcetera has two locations in Salem, Boon's Treasury, downtown, and Thompson Brewery, south of downtown.

See also...

• Travel Salem lists general information
• Oregon Link is a guide to Salem and environs