Monday, May 21, 2007
Catching Up
After a busy few months--and my technology is still not cooperating. I'll try and do some catching up on trips.
February was an interesting month, to say the least. After having a winter with no snow and very little cold weather, we got hit hard. We had three weeks of below zero temperatures—and several -35-40 degree nights. But we traveled anyway…
The first trip was to Helena, MT to charter a new chapter at the College of Technology, UM. I talked with the advisor before we were headed out there and she said, “It’s supposed to be very cold this weekend, so make sure you bring warm clothes!” I laughed and said “you’re thinking I’m from Jackson, MS, aren’t you? I’m actually from Int’l Falls, MN!” We both agreed that I would have no problem with the cold weather. (And it was warmer than at home!)
The neat and interesting thing we learned about Helena is that the town was built by gold—it was part of the gold rush of the late 1800’s. In fact, one source said that by 1888, Helena was home to 50 millionaires—per capita, more than any other city on earth. Many of those millionaires build beautiful mansions. Even though a lot of them are no longer there, tucked in the foothills is the city’s Mansion District—with lots of examples of 19th century architecture. We drove back and forth on streets just looking at the beautiful homes.
One afternoon, we decided to travel over McDonald’s pass—the pass through the Rocky Mountains, west of Helena.
I love the mountains, so looking at all the beautiful vistas is wonderful. When we got to the top—the wind was blowing something fierce and swirling all around. It was really neat!
We hardly got unpacked from the Montana trip, when we headed out again—this time for Wichita, KS. This was a pretty short trip, without much free time. We were able to have a nice Kansas Steak Dinner—yummy. They have the best beef!
Right after we returned from Wichita, we headed out for Portland, OR. Mom was supposed to go with us to visit my cousin, but she ended up in the hospital, so wasn’t able to go. (Bless Kara and Paul—they were able to come home and be with her right after she got out of the hospital!)
We got in to Portland and found our motel—which was wonderful—Oxford Suites. The motel is right next to the Willamette River, which was rushing down a rapids—and I do mean rushing! They were having some flooding in the area—so the water was pretty high.
Since we had some time before the retreat started on Friday, we went along the Columbia River Scenic Road and visited some waterfalls. That is one of our favorite roads—it twists and turns with waterfalls all along the way. We stopped at the Vista House, which has a spectacular panoramic view of the entire Columbia River Basin.
Then we stopped and hiked to the Latouralle Falls and along the stream. It was interesting hiking, because all we had were our winter jackets—it was in the 50’s, but a steady drizzle. With the jacket on—it was too hot, but with it off—it was too wet. One of those times when you’re going to get wet—either from the rain or sweating.
Next we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. I don’t think we’ve ever been there before, because usually we come from the east and we’ve already stopped at several waterfalls and it gets to be “One more?!?” But Bridal Veil is beautiful and aptly named. It’s very wide and since they had lots of rain—it was very big and the water was a brilliant white.
It was past lunch time, when we got to Multnomah Falls—so we ate in their glass room that has a wonderful view of the falls. They also had some interesting food. I had a smoked salmon, cheese, and fruit entree—it was delicious. We took our time eating, because it had started raining pretty hard and we were hoping it would let up, so we could hike up to the Falls, but it just kept on raining, so we headed back to Portland.
As part of the retreat, we went to see the play “Where’s Charley?” It was a fun evening and a nice light-hearted play.
The retreat ended on Sunday and since Monday was President’s day, we took a couple days to visit Astoria. This was Bob’s trip that he had to plan because he lost the super bowl bet.
We ended up staying at a Holiday Inn that was right under the bridge that crosses the Columbia River (it’s motto was sleep under the bridge tonight). So we were right at the mouth of the Columbia where it flows into the Pacific. The advisors from Oregon gave me a cutting board and knife with lots of smoked salmon, cheese, cookies, crackers, dried fruit, etc. So on the drive over to Astoria, we had a little picnic in the car.
Even though it kept on raining the entire time we were there, we had a great time—Sunday night we drove into Washington State along the ocean. There weren’t too many towns, but some nice parks. On Monday, we drove south along the Pacific on the Oregon side. Although we never did get out and walk along the beach, because of the rain, we found a neat little fish restaurant that had a great view of the ocean.
Pretty good, two pages and I’m only through February!
February was an interesting month, to say the least. After having a winter with no snow and very little cold weather, we got hit hard. We had three weeks of below zero temperatures—and several -35-40 degree nights. But we traveled anyway…
The first trip was to Helena, MT to charter a new chapter at the College of Technology, UM. I talked with the advisor before we were headed out there and she said, “It’s supposed to be very cold this weekend, so make sure you bring warm clothes!” I laughed and said “you’re thinking I’m from Jackson, MS, aren’t you? I’m actually from Int’l Falls, MN!” We both agreed that I would have no problem with the cold weather. (And it was warmer than at home!)
The neat and interesting thing we learned about Helena is that the town was built by gold—it was part of the gold rush of the late 1800’s. In fact, one source said that by 1888, Helena was home to 50 millionaires—per capita, more than any other city on earth. Many of those millionaires build beautiful mansions. Even though a lot of them are no longer there, tucked in the foothills is the city’s Mansion District—with lots of examples of 19th century architecture. We drove back and forth on streets just looking at the beautiful homes.One afternoon, we decided to travel over McDonald’s pass—the pass through the Rocky Mountains, west of Helena.
I love the mountains, so looking at all the beautiful vistas is wonderful. When we got to the top—the wind was blowing something fierce and swirling all around. It was really neat!We hardly got unpacked from the Montana trip, when we headed out again—this time for Wichita, KS. This was a pretty short trip, without much free time. We were able to have a nice Kansas Steak Dinner—yummy. They have the best beef!
Right after we returned from Wichita, we headed out for Portland, OR. Mom was supposed to go with us to visit my cousin, but she ended up in the hospital, so wasn’t able to go. (Bless Kara and Paul—they were able to come home and be with her right after she got out of the hospital!)
We got in to Portland and found our motel—which was wonderful—Oxford Suites. The motel is right next to the Willamette River, which was rushing down a rapids—and I do mean rushing! They were having some flooding in the area—so the water was pretty high.
Since we had some time before the retreat started on Friday, we went along the Columbia River Scenic Road and visited some waterfalls. That is one of our favorite roads—it twists and turns with waterfalls all along the way. We stopped at the Vista House, which has a spectacular panoramic view of the entire Columbia River Basin. Then we stopped and hiked to the Latouralle Falls and along the stream. It was interesting hiking, because all we had were our winter jackets—it was in the 50’s, but a steady drizzle. With the jacket on—it was too hot, but with it off—it was too wet. One of those times when you’re going to get wet—either from the rain or sweating.
Next we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. I don’t think we’ve ever been there before, because usually we come from the east and we’ve already stopped at several waterfalls and it gets to be “One more?!?” But Bridal Veil is beautiful and aptly named. It’s very wide and since they had lots of rain—it was very big and the water was a brilliant white.
It was past lunch time, when we got to Multnomah Falls—so we ate in their glass room that has a wonderful view of the falls. They also had some interesting food. I had a smoked salmon, cheese, and fruit entree—it was delicious. We took our time eating, because it had started raining pretty hard and we were hoping it would let up, so we could hike up to the Falls, but it just kept on raining, so we headed back to Portland.As part of the retreat, we went to see the play “Where’s Charley?” It was a fun evening and a nice light-hearted play.
The retreat ended on Sunday and since Monday was President’s day, we took a couple days to visit Astoria. This was Bob’s trip that he had to plan because he lost the super bowl bet.
We ended up staying at a Holiday Inn that was right under the bridge that crosses the Columbia River (it’s motto was sleep under the bridge tonight). So we were right at the mouth of the Columbia where it flows into the Pacific. The advisors from Oregon gave me a cutting board and knife with lots of smoked salmon, cheese, cookies, crackers, dried fruit, etc. So on the drive over to Astoria, we had a little picnic in the car.Even though it kept on raining the entire time we were there, we had a great time—Sunday night we drove into Washington State along the ocean. There weren’t too many towns, but some nice parks. On Monday, we drove south along the Pacific on the Oregon side. Although we never did get out and walk along the beach, because of the rain, we found a neat little fish restaurant that had a great view of the ocean.
Pretty good, two pages and I’m only through February!
# posted by bjm @ 6:56 PM 
