We drove to Portland on Saturday morning – a sunny pleasant day. We spent the afternoon on tasks: buying groceries, washing the RV, and taking the truck to a carwash which we saw on the way to buy a new connector plug for our tow vehicle wiring. Our repair job with new fuses had not lasted – fuses were blown again, inactivating the turn signals and brake lights on the truck. With the new connector installed, we are hopeful it is in fact fixed, but we won’t know until our next day on the road when we drive north to Washington.
George worked on the blog some Sunday morning and we both did email, having finally reached a park where the WiFi works properly. After lunch we went to the Portland Saturday Market which is both Sat. and Sun., despite its name. It was billed as an arts and crafts event but was actually more like a big flea market. There was music and food as well as the articles for sale. But the most interesting part of it was the people. Many of them are what people of our era would call hippies – lots of tattoos, stringy braids, and a few panhandlers, the most interesting of which was a man reading a book beside his cardboard sign reading “Out of pot. Please help.” From the market we took the historical trolley which didn’t go very far before it reached its turnaround point.
We had arranged to visit Cliff and June Bagwell’s son David and his family at 4:00 so headed there next. We enjoyed seeing David and Emily and their children Blakely (almost 8) and Will (almost 4). David’s dad, Cliff, and George are lifelong friends, and George told David about some of his and Cliff’s youthful indiscretions, misadventures, and exploits.
We found the roads and traffic in Portland – especially for Sunday – to be challenging. The expressways are multilayered, and many of the surface streets are one way. And the traffic was moving! At one point, turning from a one way street, and knowing he was coming to another one way street where he would need to be in the left lane, George ended up on the wrong side of the road. At this point, we decided to use Portland’s public transportation on Monday.
Monday was not a day for visiting gardens – it drizzled on and off all day – but that was our agenda and we headed out to Washington Park to the International Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden on Portland’s light rail called MAX. We boarded the train at Gresham, the east terminus of the system and only a few miles from our RV park, and rode to the Portland Zoo where we transferred to a bus that took us to the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden, one of the oldest and largest in the U.S., was established by the American Rose Society in 1917. Covering 5 acres on a hillside and containing 7000 roses, it is a sight to behold – all colors, types, and sizes of roses. It was exhilarating to see acres and acres of roses.
Next we visited the adjacent Japanese Garden, beautiful and tranquil, and one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. There are 5 different styles of Japanese gardens covering 5 ½ acres. Wood, stone, and water are important in creating the gardens. Walking through the garden was a delight – calm and tranquil with much attention to scale so you feel a part of it.
Our last day in Portland took us to both the tallest mountain and highest waterfall in Oregon – Mt. Hood and Multnomah Falls. When we arrived at Mt. Hood, the top was hidden by clouds so we went in the lodge. As we walked in, a ranger was beginning a tour of the lodge which we joined, and it was so interesting to hear about its history. Timberline Lodge, a classic Alpine ski lodge, was constructed during the Great Depression by the WPA and overflows with craftsmanship. The grand stone fireplace goes from the bottom floor up thru the public areas, and the tall wooden columns were carved from huge Ponderosa pine trees by one man. The original rugs were woven from old CCC uniforms and blankets, and a mosaic mural near the entrance was made from discarded glass from the Blue Ox bar at the hotel – all using materials that were available. The original handmade wooden furniture is still in use (with new cushions). We had a delicious lunch in the lodge’s Cascade Dining room with views of the mountains. After lunch we hiked a short segment of the Timberline trail and were greeted with views of Mt. Hood between floating clouds. As we returned to the lodge, we heard music from the amphitheater and stopped there to enjoy the music (and rest a while) before driving to the Columbia River Gorge.
We took the Historic Columbia River Highway which opened in 1915 and was a marvel of engineering at the time. It opened the gorge to the casual visitor by making it accessible to the automobile, and, interestingly, it was the dream of a railroad man. We stopped at overlooks along the way, the most impressive being Vista House on Crown Point which was built as a rest area. Unlike today’s rest areas, it was a tall palatial building with stained glass windows and Alaskan marble floors. There were displays about the history of the highway, but the views up and down the Columbia River Gorge from Vista House were even more impressive.
Our next stop was Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet the highest falls in Oregon and Oregon’s most visited natural attraction. It was quite impressive and falls in two sections, one quite long and the other shorter. There is an arched bridge directly in front of the falls part of the way up. From here we continued on the scenic highway past Horsetail Falls and then returned to our RV park on I-84. It had been a full and enjoyable day.
Click
HERE to see more pictures.
We drove to Portland on Saturday morning – a sunny pleasant day. We spent the afternoon on tasks: buying groceries, washing the RV, and taking the truck to a carwash which we saw on the way to buy a new connector plug for our tow vehicle wiring. Our repair job with new fuses had not lasted – fuses were blown again, inactivating the turn signals and brake lights on the truck. With the new connector installed, we are hopeful it is in fact fixed, but we won’t know until our next day on the road when we drive north to Washington.
George worked on the blog some Sunday morning and we both did email, having finally reached a park where the WiFi works properly. After lunch we went to the Portland Saturday Market which is both Sat. and Sun., despite its name. It was billed as an arts and crafts event but was actually more like a big flea market. There was music and food as well as the articles for sale. But the most interesting part of it was the people. Many of them are what people of our era would call hippies – lots of tattoos, stringy braids, and a few panhandlers, the most interesting of which was a man reading a book beside his cardboard sign reading “Out of pot. Please help.” From the market we took the historical trolley which didn’t go very far before it reached its turnaround point.
We had arranged to visit Cliff and June Bagwell’s son David and his family at 4:00 so headed there next. We enjoyed seeing David and Emily and their children Blakely (almost 8) and Will (almost 4). David’s dad, Cliff, and George are lifelong friends, and George told David about some of his and Cliff’s youthful indiscretions, misadventures, and exploits.
We found the roads and traffic in Portland – especially for Sunday – to be challenging. The expressways are multilayered, and many of the surface streets are one way. And the traffic was moving! At one point, turning from a one way street, and knowing he was coming to another one way street where he would need to be in the left lane, George ended up on the wrong side of the road. At this point, we decided to use Portland’s public transportation on Monday.
Monday was not a day for visiting gardens – it drizzled on and off all day – but that was our agenda and we headed out to Washington Park to the International Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden on Portland’s light rail called MAX. We boarded the train at Gresham, the east terminus of the system and only a few miles from our RV park, and rode to the Portland Zoo where we transferred to a bus that took us to the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden, one of the oldest and largest in the U.S., was established by the American Rose Society in 1917. Covering 5 acres on a hillside and containing 7000 roses, it is a sight to behold – all colors, types, and sizes of roses. It was exhilarating to see acres and acres of roses.
Next we visited the adjacent Japanese Garden, beautiful and tranquil, and one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. There are 5 different styles of Japanese gardens covering 5 ½ acres. Wood, stone, and water are important in creating the gardens. Walking through the garden was a delight – calm and tranquil with much attention to scale so you feel a part of it.
Our last day in Portland took us to both the tallest mountain and highest waterfall in Oregon – Mt. Hood and Multnomah Falls. When we arrived at Mt. Hood, the top was hidden by clouds so we went in the lodge. As we walked in, a ranger was beginning a tour of the lodge which we joined, and it was so interesting to hear about its history. Timberline Lodge, a classic Alpine ski lodge, was constructed during the Great Depression by the WPA and overflows with craftsmanship. The grand stone fireplace goes from the bottom floor up thru the public areas, and the tall wooden columns were carved from huge Ponderosa pine trees by one man. The original rugs were woven from old CCC uniforms and blankets, and a mosaic mural near the entrance was made from discarded glass from the Blue Ox bar at the hotel – all using materials that were available. The original handmade wooden furniture is still in use (with new cushions). We had a delicious lunch in the lodge’s Cascade Dining room with views of the mountains. After lunch we hiked a short segment of the Timberline trail and were greeted with views of Mt. Hood between floating clouds. As we returned to the lodge, we heard music from the amphitheater and stopped there to enjoy the music (and rest a while) before driving to the Columbia River Gorge.
We took the Historic Columbia River Highway which opened in 1915 and was a marvel of engineering at the time. It opened the gorge to the casual visitor by making it accessible to the automobile, and, interestingly, it was the dream of a railroad man. We stopped at overlooks along the way, the most impressive being Vista House on Crown Point which was built as a rest area. Unlike today’s rest areas, it was a tall palatial building with stained glass windows and Alaskan marble floors. There were displays about the history of the highway, but the views up and down the Columbia River Gorge from Vista House were even more impressive.
Our next stop was Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet the highest falls in Oregon and Oregon’s most visited natural attraction. It was quite impressive and falls in two sections, one quite long and the other shorter. There is an arched bridge directly in front of the falls part of the way up. From here we continued on the scenic highway past Horsetail Falls and then returned to our RV park on I-84. It had been a full and enjoyable day.
Click HERE to see more pictures.
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