McMinnville is a short drive and a world away from the big city. Centrally located in the famed Willamette Valley wine region, this amiable small town is a natural starting point for tours of the area’s many wineries. About a dozen wineries are situated right downtown in an area dubbed "Wine Alley," and many vineyards dot the rolling hills nearby. Fittingly, nearby Chemeketa Community College houses a growing center for enology and viticultural training. McMinnville is also home to Linfield College, a private college founded in 1858 that hosts many community events.

Since 1990 McMinnville’s Evergreen Aviation Museum has been home to the Spruce Goose, an aircraft that Howard Hughes’ aircraft company designed and built in the 1940s. The frame of this “flying boat” was made from wood to conserve materials such as aluminum and steel that were critical to the war effort. It flew just once, in 1947, then moved from one storage or display location to another until Evergreen Aviation assumed custody of the craft in 1990 and put it on public display.

This otherwise normal-seeming town is also the landing spot for the nation’s largest UFO festival outside of Roswell. The real aliens purportedly visited in 1950, and area farmers’ stories and photos of the UFO’s getaway brought intense but short-lived national attention to the area. Today McMinnville is much better known for its friendly small-town flavor and its vital role in Oregon’s wine industry, making it a great place to visit.