Portland

We woke up Friday morning to rain.  I hate having to hook up the Jeep in the rain!

Before we even got to that point, while Mike was unhooking our water and sewing connections, the latch on the under storage door where all that stuff is stored, broke right off.  This meant we couldn’t close the door.  This meant we couldn’t go anywhere.  Duct tape to the rescue!  Duct tape is a little thing to be thankful for, but it was a BIG lifesaver.    We sealed the door shut and took off.  Mike kept one eye on the road and one eye on his side mirror, checking to make sure the duct tape held for our 4-hour drive to Portland.  The first part of that drive was on the Pacific Coast Highway, and the views didn’t disappoint.  We got our last glimpses of the coastline and headed east to catch I-5 to Portland.  I spent much of the trip on the phone, trying to find an RV service place that could put in a new latch.  I was trying both the Portland and Seattle areas.  The Camping World in Seattle never returned my two voicemail messages, so – you snooze, you lose.  After determining they had the part in stock, we have to be in Sandy, OR by 9 am. Monday morning.  This is an hour east and we are headed north, but will just be glad to have it fixed.

Our campground in Portland is across the street from the Columbia River.  In fact, we are across the street from the Portland Yacht Club.  We are also right next to the Portland International Airport, a fact that became obvious about 6 am Saturday morning.  The planes must have lined up all night on the runways getting ready to take off at 6.  But we are happy with the campground because we have green grass between our neighbors and us, our lot is a level concrete pad, and they allow us to wash the RV (for a small water use fee).  The Jeep was so dirty I had to use the windshield washer fluid and wipers to clean the front windshield just so I could see to move it after we unhooked it when we got here.

Saturday brought more rain in the morning, so we decided to wash on Sunday and we took off to explore the Columbia River Gorge.  The famous Pacific Northwest weather – cloudy and rainy.  Our first stop was Multnomah Falls. – a gorgeous, towering waterfall that has two parts.  The upper falls is a 542 ft. drop and the lower falls is 69 ft.  Together, Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States.  We have now seen the two highest waterfalls in the US - #1 being in Yosemite!

We walked a short trail to a bridge that spans the middle of the falls.  There are trails that go to the top, but there were signs warning not to try due to the trail being very slippery and muddy from the rain.  Usually when I ask if there is a trail to something, Mike will say, “I hope not” because he knows I will want to take it.  Nature got him off the hook this time.

Several miles down the gorge was Bonneville Lock and Dam.  This was built by the Army Corps of Engineers and opened in 1937.  As with the Hoover Dam, these structures are testaments to engineering brilliance.  The nice gentleman at the gated entrance took our word for it when we said we didn’t have any weapons in the car and let us on in.  The dam and the 2 powerhouses supply hydroelectric power for the entire Northwest.  The lock has a 60 ft. drop.  Barges take less than 30 minutes to go through the lock.

The really interesting part of all this is the fish ladders built to allow the salmon to continue their natural instinct - to be able to migrate upstream.  Now if you had told me before we left on Saturday that I would be spending time at a fish ladder, I would have been less than enthusiastic.  But after reading all the information at the Visitor’s Center and standing outside above the fish ladders, watching the salmon go against the current, I was hooked!  (pun intended!)  We also saw the fish inside through windows.  The fish ladders here were exactly like the twisty, curvy roads we have traveled to get up to a certain height.  These fish have to go up the 60-foot difference.

Also on site was a fish hatchery.  We saw multitudes of rainbow trout, but the main attraction here is Big Herman.  And just to make sure you see him, they have an outline of a fish painted on the walkway, pointing you to the pond where he lives.  Big Herman is a 70-year-old, 10 feet long, 450-pound sturgeon.  There were several others in the pond that weren’t small fries!

We followed the Gorge to Hood River.  We were told we could get a good view of Mt. Hood from Panorama Point there.  We were also told on a clear day you can see Mt. Hood from Portland, but we didn’t have any clear days to test that.

We found Panorama Point but the low-lying clouds hid the top of Mt. Hood.  Just before we left, the clouds seemed to move a little and we got a little better view.  I hope it shows up in the picture.

The Columbia River is the dividing line between Oregon and Washington.  At Hood River, there was a bridge crossing the river, so we chose to drive back to Portland on the Washington side.  This road was called the Lewis and Clark Trail Highway and followed the river.  On May 14, 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set off from Wood River, Illinois on an expedition to explore the recently acquired Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. (what mother, looks down at her newborn son and calls him Meriwether?)  Sacagawea joined their group in November.  After crossing the Rocky and Bitterroot Mountains, (can you imagine how hard that was?) they reached the Columbia River in October of 1805 and saw Mt Hood in the distance.   Following the Columbia River, in November, the Lewis and Clark party reach the Pacific Ocean.

The Louisiana Purchase was President Thomas Jefferson’s crowning achievement.  Meriwether Lewis and William Clark have been called the “Hands and feet of Jefferson’s vision.”   It is a cool thing to me to have walked where they walked.

Dinner Saturday night was at Kells Irish Pub in downtown Portland.  When traveling, no matter what city or even country you are in, Irish pubs are always a good choice.  Even better if they have live music, which Kells did.  We left with the sound of a tin whistle, fiddle, and bodhran (hand-held drum) playing in our heads.

This Irish pub gets an A+ from me – a side dish on my plate was thinly sliced cucumbers that had been marinated in vinegar and sugar.  Tasted EXACTLY like the kind my Mom made every summer with the cukes from my Dad's garden!

Sunday was overcast – perfect RV washing weather.  It was downright nippy, so I wore sweats, not perfect for getting a tan, which I consider my reward for all the hard work.  Mike has the real hard work – I only do step one (washing).  He does all three steps (squeegee and hand wipe).  

To give you an idea of how dirty the RV and Jeep were, it took us 5 hours to wash!  After a quick clean up (of ourselves) we tried to squeeze in a little more sightseeing.  Mount St. Helens is an active volcano about 65 miles northeast of Portland.  But that is as the crow flies.  And I had the wrong visitor’s center in the GPS.  We got to it at 4:45 and it closed at 5.  The one I was researching online was open until 6, but was another hour away.  The park ranger had a webcam of Mount St. Helens, and the cloud cover once again made seeing it impossible.  So even if we had been able to leave earlier and drive to the other visitor center, we would not have been able to see it.  We did a quick walk through of a very good exhibit and I could only take a picture of a before and after picture for you.

After seeing some of the displays, we remembered seeing people camped out, sitting in lawn chairs on the news, waiting for the eruption.  It happened on May 18, 1980.  When Mount St. Helens blew, it caused the largest landslide in recorded history.  Fifty-seven people were killed and over one billion dollars of damage was done to the area.  The summit was reduced by over 1,300 feet and a horseshoe crater with a dome in the center remains.

Oregon has no sales tax, so we should have taken advantage and shopped up a storm, but we didn’t.  Our shopping is limited to groceries and for postcards.

On Monday we go to Sandy, Oregon to get a new latch.  It is an hour east, so we won’t hook up the Jeep and I will drive it following Mike in the RV.  Hopefully it will be a quick (and inexpensive) fix.  Then it is a 4-hour drive to Seattle, where we will be for the next 3 nights.

Pictures today are: a lighthouse on the drive to Portland;  several at Multnomah Falls. The fifth picture is us on the bridge you see in the fourth picture;  the fish ladder;  the fish fighting upstream in the ladder;  pointing the way to Big Herman;  an inside and outside view of Big Herman; the Columbia River Gorge; Mt. Hood;  crossing the Columbia River, entering Washington;  the Bonneville Dam from the Washington side;  before and after pictures of Mount St. Helens.