This morning we ate a nice breakfast at Elmer's in Walla Walla.
After breakfast, Mary decided she is feeling well enough today
that we can visit her father, who lives near Portland.
We headed down toward the Columbia River scenic area. We
stopped at the Bonneville Dam, but since we had got a late start
and the speed limits in Oregon are painfully slow, we got to the
dam just after they closed up the last tours. The fish hatchery
was also closed, but there are some ponds outside we could still
see, including lots of trout and a few large sturgeon.
Somehow we managed to buy lots of stuff at the Bonneville Dam
gift shop, even though everything else was closed. How do we
always manage to do that?
Getting closer to Portland, we turned onto the side road that goes
down to several waterfalls including Multnomah Falls. Mary had
never seen these before, and I had not been there since I was a child.
Mary took lots of photos. We also took photos of others, and they in
turn took photos of us, so we have some neat photos with the two of
us and huge waterfalls in the background.
To finish off the day, we visited Mary's dad and his wife in
Vancouver, Washington, just across the river from Portland. It was
a beautiful night as we sat in the swing on their porch, visiting
with them for a couple of hours. The kids next door were setting
off fireworks, but this was no match for the lightning storm taking
place simultaneously over the Columbia River. We got to watch
man's fireworks and God's fireworks at the same time. We all agreed
that God's fireworks won out.
OK, I lied, we're not finished yet. After leaving Vancouver, we
went through Portland to find a road to the coast. We ended up very
late, around 1:00 am, in the little town of Tillamook on the Oregon
coast.
