24 Hours in Albany, Oregon

Holly and I started off our time in Albany, Oregon with a tour of the historic carousel museum. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Albany is doing a major fundraising effort to build a beautiful hand-carved carousel. When finished, the carousel will have 52 animals and will be powered by an antique carousel mechanism from 1901! Volunteers have already donated over 150,000 hours towards this amazing project. Most volunteers start with little or no carving experience and start training on small pieces of wood. It takes hours before they are allowed to work on the actual animals. We got to watch some of the carvers at work and the amount of detail is incredible!

The animals have all been “sponsored” by people who helped to choose the designs. That means there are a lot of little personal details in the animals. For example this little dog below is holding a pair of slippers because the daughter of one of the donors loves ballet. It’s fun to hunt for those little extra things and wonder about the people behind them.

The finished animals are gorgeous. Doing everything by hand means progress is slow though, after 11 years, it will be another 4 years before the carousel is ready for riders! If you’re interested in volunteering or sponsoring the project, you can find more information here.

We couldn’t resist stopping in the Albany Antiques Mall, which is absolutely enormous and chock full of all kinds of treasures. I’ve been putting together a piecemeal set of china from garage sales and flea markets and I immediately found a few more that I was planning to take home. Then I saw it – a full set of china in perfect condition with a gorgeous design! It was like the clouds parted and that piecemeal set seemed like a distant memory. I knew I had to make it mine – the price was right, but size was the issue. Do you know how large and heavy a 106 piece set of china it is (hence the sad face)?

I ended up buying a pink suitcase to use as a carry on so I could carefully lug it home. It was almost too heavy to carry, which I’m fairly certain breaks all sorts of carry on luggage rules, but I managed to fit almost all of the pieces in, carefully packed between coffee filters and newspaper. The rest I wrapped up in clothes in my actual suitcase and put under the plane. It was definitely an adventure, but 100% worth it as it was just in time for a ladies’ brunch I hosted the weekend after I got back. Looking back at the pictures it really made the day complete, and the story behind it makes it even more special.

We also browsed Boda Furniture and I tried not to buy any large pieces of furniture. I’d already over-extended myself with the china, but it definitely was tempting!

After weeks of communicating via email, I finally got to meet Jen from the Albany Visitors Center. She brought her husband along and met us at Frankie’s for brunch. The food at Frankie’s was wonderful. They have an emphasis on farm-to-table ingredients and the menu has something for everyone – healthy or indulgent, savory or sweet. The service was great and the company was excellent. It was so much fun to hear about Albany from the locals’ perspective.

Holly and I went to Oregon in search of hidden gems and our trip was an overwhelming success. More than any single place or thing, the gems of Oregon are truly the people. We were absolutely blown away by the kindness of strangers – Dale from Donovan Place, the staff at Frankie’s, Nina at Emerson Vineyards and Jen from the Albany Visitor’s Center. These were just a few of the people that our paths crossed with who made our trip truly memorable! We’re so thankful for each and every one of them.

Thanks so much for reading A Side of Sweet! For more Sweet in your life, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, or Twitter, or subscribe to receive a weekly email with new posts (see sidebar).

Outfit Deets :: Necklace – Deepa Gurnani (on sale!) // Grey Tee – J. Crew (on sale!)// Jeans – Gap (Similar) // Sandals – Similar // Purse – Kate Spade NY (similar) // Watch – Anthropologie (similar) // Bracelet – By Invite Only // Sunnies – Banana Republic // Hat – Satya Twena (similar) //

Albany, Oregon Travel Guide

To Eat:
Frankie’s
641 NW Hickory Street
Albany, OR 97321
541.248.3671
frankies-oregon.com

Sybaris
442 First Avenue West
Albany, OR 97321
541.928.8157
sybarisbistro.com

Sweet Red Bistro
208 1st Avenue West
Albany, OR 97321
541.704.0510
http://www.sweetredbistro.com/

First Burger
210 1st Avenue West
Albany Oregon 97321
541.704.1128
http://www.thefirstburger.com/

Grab a Drink:
Valut 244
244 1st Avenue SW
Albany, OR 97321
541.791.9511
http://vault244.com/

Deluxe Brewery
635 NE Water Ave
Albany, OR 97321
541.928.7699
http://sinisterdeluxe.com/

Calapooia Brewing Co.
140 Hill Street NE
Albany, OR 97321
541.928.1931
http://calapooiabrewing.com/

To Stay:
Best Western
1100 Price Road SE
Albany, OR 97322
541.928.5050
Website

To Do:

Albany Visitors Center
110 SE 3rd Ave
Albany, OR 97321
541.928.0911
www.albanyvisitors.com

Historic Carousel & Museum
503 1st Avenue West
Albany, OR 97321
541.791.3340
albanycarousel.com

Albany Antique Mall
145 2nd Ave SW
Albany, OR 97321
541.704.0109
http://albanyantiquemall.com/

Boda Furniture
104 E 1st Ave
Albany, OR 97321
541.926.4300
http://www.bodafurniture.com/

Emma Downtown
422 1st Avenue West
Albany, OR 97321
541.926.1717
http://emmadowntownalbany.blogspot.com/

Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway
Albany, Eugene, and Salem, OR
Website

E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area
29555 Camp Adair Road
Monmouth, OR 97361
541.745.5334
Website

P.S. – If you enjoyed this post, here are some more from our trip!

Donovan Place Christmas Tree Farm
24 Hours in Corvallis, Oregon
A Quick Stop in Oregon Wine Country