Falling in Oregon

In the almost three weeks we have been on the road, we have had only one really serious disappointment. That was Crater Lake National Park. We changed our itinerary so that we could do the Rogue River Cruise, delaying our arrival at Crater Lake by one day. That was just one day too many. When we arrived at the Park, it was raining. Silly us, we still had hopes that we would see the caldera and the wonderful blue water that is Crater Lake.

What we, in fact, saw was NOTHING. I honestly don't think I had ever seen fog that thick. We stopped and had a cup of coffee, thinking it might clear. The Ranger told us that they forecast was for thunder and lightening and more fog. Needless to say, we high tailed it off the mountain. However, we didn't do it hurriedly. The fog made it nearly impossible to see past our noses. My reaction: One more reason to come back to Oregon.

That brings me to today and the title of this post. We have had the most delightful day in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. It began at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery where we saw beautiful rainbow trout

This is Herman the Sturgeon, over nine feet long and weighing over 400 pounds.

We also saw salmon being weighed and evaluated for spawning. There is an overabundance of salmon needed for the spawning process in the hatchery, the less usable salmon are sold to help offset the cost of running the hatchery.

We watched a wonderfully informative video on the process of artificial spawning.

Then it was on to Historic Highway 30 and the Falls of the Gorge. I was hoping to post these wonderful pictures in the order in which we saw them, but I don't have the patience to deal with Blogger tonight. So here they are.

Latourell Falls

This is the last of the falls we saw on Highway 30.

WahKenna Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Multnomah Falls are the highest of the falls we saw on this day. I thought I'd add a couple of photos of the handsome people viewing nature.

Horse Tail Falls

The end of the day brought us to a beautiful lookout point where we could see the beauty of the Columbia River. I'd love to post the pictures from there, but Blogger is stronger than I am tonight. With that I will say good-night and....

~Hippo Hugs~

Oregon Gold

Walking on the beach this morning I found myself praising God for his beautiful creation. More than that, praising him for allowing me to enjoy all the beauty of nature here in Oregon and Washington.

Just a few minutes ago, Jim and I were sitting on the deck outside our room gazing at the ocean. The conversation was all about the wonder of being here and experiencing this grandeur. We grew up in a town of less than 800 people in the Pennsylvania hills. Our school district was the smallest in Pennsylvania.

Our working class families gave us all the benefits they could, encouraged us to look beyond the small town of our youth, to go to college and work for whatever would better our lives. They told us we could be teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, but their lives were centered in a very small sphere and they never told us about travel.

I keep wondering what my dad would have thought were he alive and I were to call him on my cell phone as I walked on the beach of the Pacific Ocean. He told me I could be anything I wanted to be, but never mentioned that I could go anywhere I wanted to go. He would be so happy for me, and he would have been proud that his daughter was able to travel all over the country.

This trip has been such a joy and blessing to us. It is so clear to me that God has been traveling along this road with us. I'm sure there those who would think that the things that have happened would have happened anyway. That's okay, but for me, I prefer to give the credit to God.

~Hippo Hugs~

PS - Pictures tomorrow.

Back in the Saddle Again

Where have I been? Where am I going? Where am I at the present time? All those are good questions.

• Where have I been....as far as my blog is concerned? I'm not sure I have a really understandable or acceptable answer to that. The summer was particularly busy with a lot of short trips. I spent time with my niece and sister-in-law, visited my mother in law, camped with some of my girlfriends, spent some time in the mountains with Bruce and Shelly. My Aunt Letty, my mother's last sibling, passed away. That was a difficult loss. I suppose all of these things are good reasons for not blogging. But, if the truth were known, I just have found it hard to blog. More and more of my good ol' bloggin' buddies are not posting anymore. I think FB has taken over priorities for them. I'm sure FB has kept me from posting as much too. I miss my regular pals in Blogland. All of these things have worked together to add to my lack of blogging enthusiasm. So, I apologize. I really do love blogging and plan to work harder at posting more often.



• Where have I been....geographically? Oh my! Since September 1, I have been in the Pacific Northwest....having a fabulous time.

September 1-4 - Seattle.

We toured the harbor, rode up in the Space Needle, explored Pioneer Square and roamed around Pike Street Market among many other things in this beautiful city on Puget Sound.


September 4-5 - The Northern Cascade Loop. We started in Seattle and ended up in Bellingham, WA. What a beautiful drive.







Yesterday we arrived here in Port Angeles, WA. It was a cold and rainy day so we read and relaxed in the afternoon.




The nice part about not having a really tight agenda is the ability to change plans. Because of a lot of fog today, we decided to skip Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park and check out some other sights. We took two delightful hikes to see some beautiful falls.



Tomorrow marks the first full week of our vacation. It is hard to fathom all the beautiful things we have seen. Every day I say to Jim, "How can anyone believe that all this just happened? " This is, without a doubt, proof of a Creator.
We are changing our plans a little, causing me quite a bit of disappointment. We have decided to opt for exploring Hurricane Ridge rather than ferrying to Victoria Island. We have a couple of days at the end of the trip without any plans. I hope we can still get to Victoria. Keep your fingers crossed for me, will you?

Until later....

Hippo Hugs