Good-Bye Oregon

Well, at least for this trip. And as Willow mentioned in a comment on one of my previous posts, no trip to Oregon is complete, at least for us, without a stop in "the Gorge" to enjoy the falls. That's the Columbia River Gorge in the area east of Portland where there are rocky cliffs on each side of the river which cause some very strong winds to blow down through. The Oregon side of these steep cliffs is graced with a series of spectacular falls, the largest and most well-known of which is Multnomah Falls. We stopped on our way east, homeward-bound back to Illinois.

Oregon...Part II

Since the real purpose of our recent trip to Portland, Oregon was to attend the wedding of our nephew, David, and his new wife, Julie, and to spend time with family members, we really didn't do a lot of sight seeing...and my pictures reflect our priorities! First, here's one of the happy couple. (Actually, this one was taken by Emily but I like it better than any of mine.)
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But here's one that does give you an overview of the city of Portland. The river that the bridge in this picture crosses, the one separating the east side of Portland from the west, is the Willamette. (Just so you are in the know, "Willamette" is pronounced with the accent on the middle syllable rather than the last.) The Willamette runs north into the Columbia River near north Portland which is where my sister, Mary, lives. This picture was taken about a block away from her house.


Remember I told you in a recent post about the climate of western Oregon and how it enables things to grow like you wouldn't believe? Well, one of the many flowers that grow prolifically there is the rose. In fact, Portland is called the City of Roses and there is a lovely rose garden there in Washington Park. We didn't make it to the Rose Garden this time but still, June is the peak of rose season and roses are in almost everyone's garden...roses of every color.


Before we leave Portland, I want to tell you, friends, about a wonderful little breakfast/lunch cafe in north Portland that we discovered with my sister, Mary, and her husband, Jim. Andy and I (Emily was staying with her cousins at their homes) along with Mary and Jim were so busy just relaxing and refreshing ourselves from the hectic pace of the wedding festivities that I forgot to even take a picture! Take my word for it, it was fun! The food was great, the tea and coffee were truly outstanding, and it was incredibly entertaining for us conservative mid-westerners! And they have a blog!

Introduction to Oregon

Today I am taking you to Oregon, my friends. Oregon is a state of contrasts. Eastern Oregon is dry, sagebrush kind of country where the wind blows and its hot in the summer but snow accumulates in the winter. Western Oregon is lush, wet, green country where anything and everything grows (except sagebrush and dryland plants). The climate is mild and accumulating snow in the winter is not the norm. Eight months of rain, mostly misty, light rain, is the normal winter weather pattern there. The reason the rain doesn't make it over to Eastern Oregon is the Cascade Mountains of which Mt. Hood is the most famous member. The mountains stop the clouds and cause them to drop their moisture on the western part of the state.

Here is the Columbia River which marks the border between Washington and Oregon as we arrive in Eastern Oregon. Note the predominance of brown in the landscape.
This is the Columbia River in the Portland area. We were actually on the Washington side, in Camas, for this shot but you can see Mt. Hood in this one even though its top is obscured by those clouds. And there's the green in the landscape.

Here we are in Astoria, Oregon, almost at the mouth of the Columbia River as it flows into the Pacific Ocean. Lots of green here too.

One last bit of info for today on the Columbia River. There is lots of major shipping on it up to Portland and it all has to pass over the very hazardous bar at the mouth of the river. There is a very interesting museum in Astoria that chronicles the maritime history of the area. It incorporates the light ship that used to mark the entrance to the mouth of the Columbia in the not too distant past. (Andy remembers it from his growing up years.) I highly recommend the museum should you visit Astoria. Here's a picture of the light ship.