A dashing good time

Wednesday morning we planned on a nice mellow day, with a walking tour of downtown and a look around the Rose Garden and Hoyt Arboretum. Lora, Tony and Adam hopped on a bus to downtown to meet up with one of Tony’s online Craigslist chat buddies, who goes by the handle PDXRain/Sun/Fog (one at a time, depending on the weather). We ate at Bijou Café in the downtown. It was fun putting a face to the handle, and PDXie took a mellow walking tour of downtown with us, filling us in on history, politics, and fun trivia of Portland. We were so wrapped up in conversation, we forgot to take photos again!

We rode the streetcar out to the northwest part of town and hit a grocery coop that Lora is a part of, before parting ways with PDXie (some people have jobs that they have to actually show up for, I learned!) Lora got ahold of one of her friends, Diana, to meet up with us for an afternoon visit. Diana was driving, so we coordinated a pickup and we then turned in the direction of Washington Park.

On the way up to the park we got to talking about lifelong dreams and our desire to own some property out in the country. Diana started waxing eloquently on a place up the Columbia gourge, hot springs and the Hood River, and how beautiful it was up there. Diana has such an bubbly, infections, positive energy, we immediately fell in love with her!

We all right then and there decided to alter course, as it was a beauuuuutiful day, and head up the gorge for a drive. The Columbia is a massive river, easily a 1/3 to ½ mile across in most places.



It is hard to imagine such a massive amount of water all flowing in one place (Are my California roots showing?) We stopped at the famed Multnomah Falls about a hour or so out of Portland. The cascades were beautiful and serene, even though they were supposedly low for the end of the summer. We all switchbacked up to the historic bridge, and enjoyed the view.



On the way back down, we saw two HUGE salmon, lazily swimming in the stream below the falls. I mean, over two feet long. And I have to admit, my mouth was seriously watering. But we left them in peace to swim and spawn the rest of their days



When we reached Hood River, we stopped in for lunch at a great little brewpub up on the hill, with a spectacular view of the river. Diana then knew just where to drive up and take a picture of Mt. Hood.

The beer menu, for Celeste & Garrick.

Mt. Hood.

We drove across the river to Washington State and explored around a little. Mt. Adams was majetic. bBut we didn’t find the hot springs until it was too late and we had to get back to Portland to pick up Loja from school. We arrived back home and collapsed from driving exhaustion.

Mt. Adams