WA to OR and Back Again

We started out lazy today. I woke up at 7:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, but I didn’t wake the guys (how thoughtful of me). I plugged in my headphones and watched some videos on the computer and caught up on my emails. Interesting one from the job I applied for at work. Evidently, they want me to call for an interview. I left an “out of office” message on my work email so they know I’m on vacation, but I might have to break down and call in about this job. Still thinking about it.

Dear got up at 11 and got ready for the day’s activities. He checked out the guest laundry room – all one washer and one dryer of it – and decided that he had time to do at least one load of laundry while we were waiting for #3 to reach coherency. Is that a word? #3 rolled out of bed at noon and did his routine to get socially presentable. The laundry wasn’t finished yet, so we started watching a movie. The laundry finally did get finished, but then we wanted to see how the movie ended. Consequently, we didn’t leave the hotel until after 2:30.

The agenda for the day was to see Multnomah Falls and Mt. Hood. Well, it’s impossible NOT to see Mt. Hood if you’re outside and looking east, but we thought we’d get a little closer to it. Multnomah Falls is one of the highest in the world and Mt. Hood is the second most climbed mountain behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.

Side note: We figured out that the reason our camera wasn’t charging was because the charger that we bought the other day at Radio Shack isn’t what the little bugger needed to keep going and going and going. You get the picture (no pun intended). According to the instruction book (which I handily brought along on the trip), our little Kodak shutter pet (KSP) just needed new batteries – not a charger. Come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve changed the batteries since we bought the camera several years ago. I’d say we got our money’s worth out of that set of cells.

We had a little difficulty in navigating to Multnomah Falls, but finally arrived about 4:00. No parking spaces. So Dear drove down the road a little further to find a turnaround spot and did a second pass of the parking lots. A spot opened up, so he scooted into it in true Texas u-turn fashion. We made the short walk to the base of the falls and I took a couple of photos before KSP completely died. (Gentle reminder that I've posted all the photos at www.myspace.com/alemapyak.)

As is the case with all national/state/local attractions, there was a gift shop! Fancy that. And they had the required lithium batteries to feed our little Kodak pet. She was revitalized and ready to take another thousand pictures or so. I didn’t take nearly that many at the falls, but got enough to document our visit.

We headed back west to Portland and across the Columbia River bridge to Washington to find a place for an early dinner. We’d seen several restaurants along the riverbank earlier and decided to stop at a place called Beaches. Didn’t see Bette Midler or hear the song, but the food was good, the atmosphere was fun and the view was of the river and all the boaters, jet skiers, sailors, etc.

We ordered seared ahi and onion rings as an appetizer and then the guys had seafood fettuccini and I had a grilled mahi mahi filet with strawberry salsa. Interesting blend of flavors, but very good. A light dessert (frozen strawberries, chocolate cake and key lime pie) and we were full to the gills.

Back to the hotel for an early evening, another load of laundry, blogging, crocheting and maybe a movie. I love relaxing with the fam. Sigh.

ttfn