I Wonder as I Wander…

We were experiencing the coldest weather we had had all winter, when it was time to leave for Oregon—so it felt pretty good to get going--especially when we had several days of absolutely gorgeous sunshiny days. The last time we were in Oregon—it rained every day.

We left on Thursday on the 6 am flight—which means we have to get up around 3 am. Then, since we were flying west (that equates to 1 am their time). We worked for a while and then dozed off. Around 4 pm—we decided to go driving and headed out to the Columbia Gorge—which is one of our favorite places. The waterfalls and river are always so beautiful. We drove on the scenic highway—which winds up and down some cliffs and goes very close to several major waterfalls. The largest waterfall is Multnomah and it is spectacular! It drops 620 feet and then has a smaller drop. There is a little bridge that goes over the falls between the two waterfalls which is .2 miles from the bottom—then a mile long path goes to the top of the falls. We had climbed it 20 some years ago when the kids were small and decided it was time to climb it again.

Bob and I took off for the top—it was a pretty good workout—we had to stop and catch our breaths several times. We hiked for about 45 minutes and it started to get dark. I’m always nervous about coming down—that’s actually harder on the knees and back than going up. So we decided to turn around (we were probably 3/4 of the way to the top) and head back down. It took us about 15 minutes to get back down. The lodge at the base of the falls was having a Valentine Day’s Special—they had candles and rose petals all along the stairs going up into the restaurant.

We had to pick up Phyl at the airport at 7 pm—so we drove to the airport and waited in the cell call lot. While we were sitting there—suddenly the car started shaking and there was a loud roar. We decided there must have been some high powered jets taking off right near us. Since Phyl hadn’t gotten anything to eat since she had left early in the morning, we went to a Burgerville. They have great burgers and some interesting salads—I had one called Rouge River Smokey Blue —it had spring mix greens, blue cheese, cranberries, grape tomatoes, and apples—it was really good. They also had a special chocolate hazelnut milk shake—yummy!

The next day, we worked for a while and then Bob and I drove to Multnomah Falls for another good workout and lunch. This time we made it all the way to the top—stopping a few times. The view from the top is spectacular—you can see the lodge, the river, the waterfalls, and lots of cliffs. We felt good that we were able to make it to the top—in about 50 minutes—we went a little faster than we had the day before.

After we got back down, we ate a late lunch at the lodge—I remember from last year having a wonderful salmon, fruit, cheese, and multi grain bread. They still had it on the menu—so I got it again this year. It was wonderful! Bob ordered a steak sandwich (well done). When it came and he cut into it—it was really rare. So he ended up sending it back. They brought out a whole new one.

The retreat started at 7 pm Friday evening with a reception—around 10 pm (midnight our time), we fizzled out and headed for bed. The retreat went all day on Saturday and then we went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant for supper—there were about 17 people that went together—we had a huge long table. Bob and I rode with one of the advisors and her mother. The rest of the group rode in the coordinator’s RV. After supper, we went to a theatre and saw a fun play called “The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It”. It was about a theatre company who were putting on ‘As You Like It”, but they only had seven actors and they all had to play several parts—and supposedly several of them were ‘crazy’ and schizophrenic from playing all the parts. The only problem is that I was so tired and felt my eyes close for ‘just a second or two’. The next thing I knew—the actors had different costumes on and the stage had different props.

Sunday had the retreat going until noon. Then we all went back to the Columbia Gorge—since Phyl had never seen the waterfalls. We walked up to the little bridge at Multnomah and then ate at the lodge—this time I had the red pepper humus and pita bread and goat cheese. It was really good too! We drove to Bridal Veil Falls and hiked down to it and then stopped at the Vista House—which had a wonderful view. It was so windy that we could hardly walk—as we were going up the steps—the wind blew us into the railing. After we came out of the house—the wind took the sun glasses right off Phyl’s head and blew them across the road.

Since we figured we still had some time before dark, we decided we might as well drive to see the ocean—it was about 70 miles from Portland, but we didn’t think about it being over winding roads—so it took us a little longer than we thought it would—we got to the beach about ½ hour before sun set—but we did get to see the sun set over the ocean—absolutely beautiful. We walked along the beach for a ways until it got pretty dark and then headed back to Portland.

We left early Monday morning—and had smooth flying all the way home.