Hello Washington!

Hi again!

Before I even start this post, I wanted to give a little “advertisement” for the color of the Tamolitch blue pool that we hiked to  – my brother asked me why the water was that shade of brilliant blue.  First, the water is deep and it’s super clear!  An ancient lava flow buried a three-mile stretch of the McKenzie River (which was the river in all the photos along the trail) and it forced the water to flow underground through volcanic rock tubes.  This volcanic rock acts as a natural filter, removing dirt and debris!  And…the water entering the pool is 37 degrees! (BRRRRRR) Because of this, it’s too cold for algae, fish or microorganisms to survive, which keeps the water completely free of cloudiness! And one last thing! Because the pool is so deep and free of impurities, the blue light reflects back brightly to the eyes when you look at it!  And THAT is the reason for the blue water!

After two amazing days seeing blue pools and waterfalls, we headed to a town called Welches, Oregon – it is a few minutes from two things we wanted to do – another “hike” around a lake and a visit to the Timberline Lodge, which is a mountain resort that sits at an elevation of 6,000 on the south slope of Mount Hood!

After a VERY rainy day of rest, we woke up to sunshine – just in time for a hike around Trillium Lake, a scenic 63-acre reservoir in the Mount Hood National Forest – one of the things it’s famous for is the reflections of Mount Hood! And we were blessed to witness that because the sun was shining!

We walked the 1.9 loop all around the lake, through woods with giant trees, flowers, ferns (everywhere), wooden walkways, and beautiful views of the lake!!!

At one point, I had asked the question, “what kind of animals are there around here?” because there were people camping along the lake (in tents mostly) and I wondered about animals at night! Not five minutes after I asked that question, we came upon this!!!!!!!!!

How fun it was walking around this beautiful lake, and just being outside in the fresh air!

 

Next stop – Timberline Lodge! This lodge was dedicated in September, 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt.  They have a room in the lobby with his chair displayed!

We walked around the hotel, looking at the rustic architecture and artwork by local artists, and then had lunch – it was delicious! The hotel is beautiful!

One more thing this lodge is “famous” for – it served as the exterior of fictional Overlook Hotel in the horror film THE SHINING!  It brought back a memory for me of babysitting when I was 16, and after the kids had gone to bed, I sat up reading the book and realizing that I should be terrified!  I also saw the movie, so it was cool to be in the hotel and see the outside and remember it in the movie – one of the scenes in the movie shows Jack Nicholson hacking  through a door with a big axe, which was SO scary!  The lodge has a replica of the axe that was used, and all you have to do is ask at the front desk to borrow it for a photo op – of COURSE I had to do it!

On our way back to the truck, we saw a group who had ridden motorcycles up to the lodge and we noticed them immediately because of how they were dressed to ride!  Of course, I had to go over and say hello and ask them if I could have a picture of their “get up” because it was so fun! They were so kind and the one man posed several times! Haha –

And THEN…he took off his helmet and posed again!!!!

LOOK AT HIS HAIR!!!  It’s so fun to talk to people – you find out the most amazing things and mostly everyone (haha) is so nice!

It was a fun day, seeing more of God’s creation!

Next stop…White Salmon, Washington – a new state!!!!

Going from the Mt. Hood area to White Salmon Washington was such a beautiful drive!  I wish I had great pictures, but I couldn’t stop staring out the windows long enough to take pictures, plus…taking pictures through the windshield just doesn’t do it justice!  So, you’ll have to trust me that it was a gorgeous drive!

Our next campground was Gorge Base Camp, and it was near the Columbia River and right next to train tracks – some people hate that, but Leonard and I LOVE hearing the train go by!  It’s a good thing because it goes by about every 30 minutes to an hour!

When we arrived, we got everything set up and headed out for a scenic drive along THE HOOD RIVER FRUIT LOOP!  What a great name!  You can imagine what it along this scenic drive?!!!  Lots of orchards, fruit stands, wineries, vineyards, more orchards, more fruit stands…It is a 35-mile scenic driving route through Oregon’s Hood River Valley – it features over 30 farm stands, orchards, wineries and cideries!

We had a few hours, so we stopped at about four places – you would need lots more time to drive and see everything!  It was amazing – the fruit trees were everywhere along the drive!

Our favorite place was Packers Orchards and Bakery!  What a neat store and orchard!

 

Another awesome place was The Gorge White House, a historic farm offering local fruit, hard cider and wine!  You could also pick your own fruit!  When we were there, you could pick pears, apples and blueberries!  Bob and Bobbi grabbed a bucket and went to town!  We walked alongside them and just gazed at all the fruit trees!  Look at some of the fruit that was there!

Another FUN stop was Hope Ranch Lavender Farm – wow!!!!!  There were fields of lavender everywhere!  As we approached the stand/store on the property, we were greeted by the owner who said:  “Welcome!  Today is one of the last days of our season, so you may go pick as much lavender as you would like for FREE!!!!!”  woohoo!  She provided scissors and a rubber band and off we went!

What a fun experience it was – and now my trailer smells amazing with two big bunches of fresh lavender!

It was a great day, filled with such fun and surrounded by the beauty of Oregon!  This really is such a beautiful state!

The next day brought another fun experience!  On our last two summer trips, we have ridden e-bikes to some beautiful landmarks, and areas…the first year was the Grand canyon, the second year was Acadia National Park, and this year we rode in the valleys of Moab, Utah!  Well, we had one more ride planned – to see some waterfalls here in Oregon!  So we headed off to grab our bikes and hop on for an adventure!

It was a nice day and we enjoyed the ride – here are the waterfalls we saw!

 

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After the bike ride, we headed into Hood River for lunch and to explore the town a bit.  Another YouTube video had talked about a pizza place called Solstice, so that’s what we chose!  It was right on the river and we were able to see lots of wind surfers while we ate!  Hood River is known as the wind surfing capital of the world!  It was Labor Day and the weather was beautiful, so there were lots of people out enjoying the day!

After lunch we were going to head to get a cup of coffee at a place called STOKED COFFEE, but couldn’t get a parking space because it was Labor Day and everyone was downtown!  Oh well…there are lots more times for good coffee on this trip!

It was another great day out here, and we slept well again – our next place to see is Mt. Rainier!!!!

BUT WAIT!… we woke up the next day and Leonard and I snuck off to go back to Stoked Coffee to grab something yummy before we left! There were parking spaces available all over the place that morning!  It was delicious, and worth the second attempt!

One more thing I want to share is what happened at our campground that evening…some people asked us where in Florida we were from (our license plate is a Florida license plate) – the wife is trying to talk her husband into retiring to Florida even though the live in this beautiful state of Oregon!  As we talked to them, they told us they had been out salmon fishing all weekend.  Over the two days of fishing, they had caught FOURTEEN big salmon!  We asked them all about it and we chatted for a while and then said our goodbyes.  A few minutes later, they approached Leonard and asked if we would like some of the fresh salmon they had just caught!!!!  We were SO excited!  Leonard had the Blackstone cooktop out already, so he and Bob made a couple glazes and cooked the salmon!  Not everyone in our group likes salmon, but those of us who do had a nice little sample of the freshest fish!!  What a nice thing those people did, and we enjoyed it so much!

Once again, we tried our best to see all that we could in a couple days at a new place!  We are now going to explore Washington – looking so forward to what we have planned there!  Oregon has been one of the best places we have ever been!  What a beautiful state, with SO much to do, SO much to do, and some great people we met along the way!

The morning we left was clear and sunny, and we had the perfect view of Mt. Hood as we drove away!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…