Portland and Baker City, OR

Since we were back in the Portland area, I got to explore another area on the Columbia River that I just didn’t get to last time.  I got to visit the Columbia River Gorge Museum, which was very informative on how the gorge came to be through thousands of years and the various stages of settlement in the area.  I then went to Hood River, which is famous for the constant winds providing the perfect conditions for wind surfers and kite surfers.  I had lunch in the city on an outside terrace overlooking the surfers, which was very entertaining.

 

I took a scenic route from Hood River towards Mt. Hood and stopped at a perfect lookout point for the mountain.  The views were simply spectacular, showcasing the snow-capped mountain in the distance with the rolling farmlands and wild pine trees all around.  

 

 On the way back down the scenic road, I couldn’t help stopping to snap a few pictures of pear orchards with the Del Monte crates just waiting to be filled.  Now you know where some of the Del Monte pears come from.  I’m sure this is not the only area that they get the pears from, but there were huge orchards running for miles in Oregon, which I found surprising. 

 

I spent a few hours also exploring the End of the Oregon Trail museum in Oregon City, about 20 minutes away from Portland. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours and reminded me of how this great country was populated. 

 

At the RV park in Fairview, Newman had a wonderful puppy to play with just two sites over from ours.  Dolly was a one-year old Yorkiepoo who could run circles around Newman with her boundless energy.  Newman and Dolly spent several hours each day playing around.  Dolly left the day before we did and ever since I think Newman finds us quite lame as playmates.  Hopefully, we'll find another puppy in another park soon.

 

On Friday we started the first leg of our homeward journey, which we will be doing gradually with 3 or 4-day stops along the way.  Our first stop was Baker City, Oregon, a very quaint town with a thriving historic downtown area.  We had dinner in town on Friday evening at Barley Brown’s Brew Pub and sat at an outdoor table on the sidewalk watching the locals come and go. 

We spent Saturday morning playing a round of golf at Quail Ridge surrounded by mountain ranges that looked like the perfect setting for any Western movie.  The course was in great condition and just challenging enough for Gerry to enjoy it.  I’m still learning to play, so I find all courses challenging.

 

We ended our day in Baker City by visiting the Antique Car Show, which just happened to be in town and was something different for us to do and turned out to be fun.

As I write this, we are in route to Boise, Idaho, which is our next stop on our journey.  Gerry assures me I will like Boise, so I am anxious to see if he is correct.