May 5 2010 portland and Colunbia Gorge

We drove along the Columbia River Gorge which is so beautiful. The river is very wide at times. We saw several waterfalls and some big horned sheep which surprised me. We were able to get a tour of The Bonneville dam. There are actually 7 dams in the Columbia River. Each one has a lock and a fish ladder. They are very environmentally (fish) conscious whenever they have had to put in a dam to harness the water power for energy.

As has happened with a lot of our trip we have been snowed out of Mount Hood. They have received another couple of feet of snow. The few times it has been visible through the clouds we can see have far down the snow has come. The last storm dropped snow down to the 1500 foot elevation. So a change in plans again. We opted to get a campground for the night at the Sandy Riverfront RV resort campground for a night. Sandy was a delightful village. It had a wonderful bike trail into town from the RV park. This has to be one of the nicest parks we have ever been in. We had a spot right on the Sandy River tucked away in a corner. We were parked on a small CONCRETE pad with grass, flowers and birdfeeders all around us. It was so nice to not have mud everywhere. It was a Good Sam designated park. Unfortunately Garry doesn’t have a fishing license for Oregon so he wasn’t able to fish, but the winds and rain continued so it wouldn’t have been very good fishing anyway.

While we were in Sandy we called our friends in Gresham, Jeff and Marni Nelson, and asked if we could show up at their house 4 days early. Being such good friends they graciously invited us to come on over. We have had a great time catching up with them. Marni is still teaching and while Jeff has semi-retired he had several things to get done so we have been on our own during the day. On Thursday, May 6, Garry took me into downtown Portland to see their famous Rose Gardens and the Japanese gardens. Unfortunately the roses are just starting to bloom but the rhododendrons and the azaleas are gorgeous. We joined a tour guide through the Japanese gardens and thoroughly enjoyed them. The guide that we had was particularly interested in the different styles of gardens. The whole place was so restful and peaceful. The water features in the gardens were so pretty. I wonder if I can add a water feature at home????

Jeff is also an exterminator and one of his contracts is at the Portland Zoo. On Friday morning he had to go up to the zoo to deal with some ants in one of the zoo animal kitchens so invited us to go along. Not only did we get to see the zoo but he also gave us a tour of the “behind the scenes” of the zoo. He introduced us to a delightful man from Uganda who is in charge of the primate area. As we were talking to him he told us about an organization in Uganda that he has founded with the mission of creating wildlife awareness in the local school children and their communities. He is trying to educate the children on the importance of wildlife preservation in the hopes of stopping the endless cycle of poaching that most of the country practices. He has started to have some major successes. He goes into the schools and tells the children about the different animals. They frequently don’t even know their names. He has developed a series of “Trading Cards” depicting the many different types of wildlife in Uganda and hands them out to the kids as an educational tool. He can get 1000 cards printed for $ 15.00 so I just had to contribute to the Kasese Wildlife Conservation Awareness Organization.

On Saturday the weather was sunny and warm so we all headed up to their lake house at Wauna Lake, WA. The area is comprised of several interconnected lakes and their house is the only one on their particular lake. Just beautiful there. No telephone, television or cell phone signals. We need to take a boat to get across the lake to their house bringing all of our food and supplies with us. We had a very good time. On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Garry and I took the boat back to the lake parking lot and used Jeff’s car to go back into Portland to meet with Garry’s cousins for lunch. We had a wonderful visit with them and a great lunch too. Then it was back to the Lake and back in the boat to the house where some friends of Jeff and Marni had come to visit bringing all the fixings for a wonderful steak dinner with them. That’s the kind of friends we need!! Marni had to work today so she left the lake house last night when their friends did while Jeff, Garry and I spent one more night up there. We woke up to rain this morning bur fortunately it had ended by the time we headed back across the lake. We are having dinner tonight with Marni’s brother and sister-in-law who Garry has also known for a long time. We are having the oil changed, etc. on the camper on Wednesday and plan to get on the road again on Thursday heading to Olympia and visiting with a good friend of ours there.