Washington to Hope

We left Salem, OR on Wednesday morning and the skies were merely overcast…without snow or rain. We’re trying to save money at the motels along the way, so we’re staying in some very interesting places. The Travelers’ Inn in Salem is in an industrial area where the business next door had a sign out: “Free Drums.” Now, Michael H. and Alfred…don’t get your hopes up for a new set, because these were used oil drums.

We loaded up the car and had our breakfast: half a Cara Cara orange and half a tangerine each. Perfection! And we were still at the motel, so we were able to clean up after all that citrus peel. A quick stop for gas and coffee and we were on the road. AM/PM has coffee cards: buy 3 and get your fourth coffee for free! Woohooo! Life is good! And this was a day when our activities were “by referral only.”

Our first stop was in Portland. We had attended a geocaching meet and greet event in Surprise a few weeks ago. It seems a lot of snowbirds are from the northwest and they had even more cachers from up here in town that weekend…thus, the reason for the meet and greet. One man said that if you only had time for one cache in Oregon, that it should be one in Portland called Dr. Who. We do have to say that the cleverness of this cache makes it our top choice for an urban cache. Bravo for this suggestion. To explain more of what this cache looks like would give away all the mystery to our caching friends.

When Mike was on the tiger cruise a couple of weeks ago, he met a man from the Portland area. This man was Joe’s friend Box’s father-in-law. Box is short for Lunchbox. I’m sure I was told at one time why this young man is named Lunchbox, but it has slipped from memory. Suffice to say, he goes by Box. Box’s FIL, Mitch, said that if you saw anything while in Portland, it would be Multnomah Falls along the Columbia Gorge Parkway.

You really don’t know what you don’t know. And you can look online for “things to do” in any place that you travel. Chances are you will get a complete list of attractions with attendant fees. And chances are that none will compare with something like driving this historic highway. The highway was built in 1916 to actually give automobile travel a glimpse at gorgeous scenery.

The Columbia Gorge is home to over 70 free falling waterfalls…the longest in depth of falling feet is Multnomah. Multnomah is the second highest free falling waterfall in the U.S. Along the way there are viewpoints over the Columbia with interpretive displays about the history, geology, and wildlife of the area. We did a wee hike to Bridal Veil falls. Next stop was a longer hike to Waukeena Falls where we continued along the trail for about another half mile beyond the falls. Had we known about the hiking trail loops, we might have planned better and spent the day doing a five mile loop. Although it was cloudy, it was splendid and the mists from the falls made the air so much more chilly.

People along your travels are wonderful. There’s often far more gratitude from people who are so happy you took them in a photo with the rest of their group than one gets at a planned occasion receiving an unwanted tie or box of bath products. And what a variety of people you meet!

Visiting each waterfall was a glimpse into another world…again the enchanted forest. The green here is of an intensity never seen in Arizona. And the trees aren’t even in full leaf yet! Waukeena falls has its own ecosystem with a couple of species specific to the area and two insect species specific to the Waukeena falls itself.

Speaking of leaves…visiting this area in springtime has been heaven: tulips, fading cherry blossoms, white and pink dogwood blossoms, fuschia and pink azaleas in bloom and….LILACS!!!!!!!!!! If there are a dozen things that smell better than fresh lilacs, I’d be hard pressed to name them all.

It was tough leaving the gorge, but on we drove and found we were pretty tired. So, we stopped in Tacoma where we spent the night at the Rethorm Inn. It didn’t seem that a motel could be seedier than the previous night’s stay….but it succeeded with flying colors. The curtains were unhemmed and screwed into the wall. We won’t discuss the cleanliness. And when you stepped into the tub there was a squeal of bending metal. Showers were taken very quickly and out we dashed. Dinner in Tacoma had been at nearby Neo Pizza which was quite tasty and relaxing.

You have to love Washington and the abundance of drive-up coffee kiosks. We did baffle them somewhat when we asked that the coffee be put in our travel mugs. They must have muttered for an hour about the strange people in the gray pick-up.

Our original plans called for a trip to the top of the Space Needle, Pike Place Market and the Underground Tour of Seattle. Yes, we planned to actually pay money for tourist attractions. However, it was cloudy, so why spend $30 to go to the top of the Space Needle and see….clouds? We stopped first in the market. We parked the car on level 5 and got in what we thought was the line for the elevator. We asked a couple of people in line if there were stairs because this line was quite long. The two young men answered, but seemed impaired. One was actually drooling. Hmmm. Mike went in search of the stairs while I held our place in line. Turns out it was not the line for the elevator, but for the Food Bank. How grateful I am that we do not have to stand on food bank lines. And how sad for all the people to have to wait in this dingy parking garage for their food.

But we took the elevator up to the market level. How fun was this place!!!! We saw them throw the fish at the fish market. We tasted basil oil, truffle oil, exotic pears, oranges and chocolate pasta. Those were the freebies. This would have been worth the time if all we had seen were the flowers. What a splendid flower market with the most inventive arrangements of flowers…and many included…yup….lilacs. And tulips. Solid colored tulips, variegated tulips, tulips with fringe, red, orange, yellow, purple, etc., etc., etc. Narcissus and daffodils of so many varieties. One woman left carrying a bouquet of pale fringed daffodils with light pale creamy petals with a slightly richer creamy center.

There were kiosks of handcrafts, artwork, clothing and a used book store. Very not in my nature, I actually haggled for books. For some reason, I had never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I know. I know. Sacrilege. Recently I’d heard an interview on NPR with Tolkien’s grandson, Simon. It got me thinking that now might be the time. And there on the bookshelf was this set of used books at $6/book. So I offered the very charismatic and entertaining bookseller $15 for the three. He gave them out at $16/set with much histrionics of never having enough money to think about having children. It was delightful!

There was the giant shoe museum. That’s “giant shoe” museum. Not giant “shoe museum.” We declined to pay the 25 cents or 50 cents into the little machines to turn on the lights to see big shoes. There were tie-dyed clothing and beeswax candles in all kinds of forms. There were scarves and jewelry. And food. Thai, Chinese, Russian, French, Mexican, Spanish. We had piroshky’s at the Russian place. There was a bakery with scrumptious looking giant cookies for $3.50 a cookie…but they also had a bag of cookies (equal to about 6 cookies) of broken pieces for $2.00. SOLD! And though it wasn’t a planned stop, I did have to have a Caffe Americano at the very First Starbucks Store where there are no chairs at all to sit down…let alone comfy chairs.

We sat in the park and watched the birds, admired the totem poles, people-watched and watched a juggler. We yelled at the pigeons who wanted our cookies. We smiled as the juggler played with a small child as he fell over when this little boy gave him a high five. We almost gave money to a homeless man because his sign said: “Father went over to the dark side. Need money for a new x-wing to reach the death star.” But, we were already in our car going the other way.

By this time it was about 1 p.m. and we were ready to move on. All that excitement and we decided to pass on the Underground Tour. After all, we’d just had all that fun for “free” (except for parking and what we’d purchased). On we went towards the border. We stopped in a small town a few miles south of Blaine for gas, another drive-up coffee, bread and chicken salad. The sign said only a 5 minute wait at the border and it was now a beautiful day with lots of blue sky.

At the border. Stopped. About 10 minutes to get to the checkpoint. And 45 minutes of being questioned and having everything we owned searched. Why? Who knows? We had no contraband, no firearms, no drugs, no pets, no business items, no nothing except lots of carefully packed boxes, suitcases and backpacks. My stomach was in a knot despite knowing there was no need for a knot. Old hippie attitudes make me squirm when questioned by the authorities. But we got through and 45 minutes later my headache was gone and we were traveling through Canada.

And here we are at Hope Valley campground in a small cabin that has electricity and heat. We’ve got our sleeping bags and pillows. It is far cleaner than either of the two places we’ve stayed the last couple of nights. We’re surrounded by pine trees. It’s 42 degrees out at 7 p.m. There are pine covered mountains up to 8,000 feet surrounding us…more waterfalls cascading from impossible heights. The distant mountains have jagged granite tops and are covered with snow. And on tops of the closer mountains at slightly lower elevations, the pine trees have a frosting of new snow as if you’d sprayed them with that fake snow at Christmas time.

A couple of beers and dinner were from our cooler and we’ve played tag with the elusive wi-fi available. We’ll post this when there is more reliable wi-fi.