Saturday Excursion down the Gorge

Dr. Parts had itchy feet, which meant that we needed a day trip.

We took the new spiffy red car and drove to the Dalles. We ate at Cousin's Restaurant, sort of a brunch meal. We were driving to the Maryhill Museum, which I thought I had researched thoroughly at this site. I've lived in the northwest for many, many years and never visited it yet.

We thought we'd stop at the Stonehenge replica first. It was built as a memorial to the war dead of WW1, and they've continued with memorials for those who gave their lives in other wars. Here's the photo I got:

We walked down to Sam Hill's gravesite. Yes, we believe our Sam Hill, is the Sam Hill memorialized in the saying "what in the sam hill is going on?" and its variants.

We drove up to the museum and realized the critical piece of information that I had failed to glean from their website. They are closed until March 15. Curses.

We decided to travel the 10 miles north to Goldendale, since Dr. Parts and I had never been there. Along the way, we stopped at this scenic viewpoint:

Okay, I found it very amusing. The photo is of good solid Washington winter fog. (I was born in Washington state. I believe I can say this.) Nothing was visible beyond the trees there. As we drove on I-84, Dr. Parts spotted the herd of wild bighorn sheep which can sometimes be seen in the Gorge. He pulled over and got photos. We also spotted four or five bald eagles sitting in the trees along the water. (Four or five, because we think #5 was one that we had probably seen earlier in the day.)

We drove back to the Dalles, stopped at Celilo Falls, which for centuries was a traditional gathering spot for native peoples. They fished for salmon at the falls there and it was the center of a trading network. It's not the same since the dams.

We ate dinner/late lunch at Baldwin's Saloon in the Dalles. That was fabulous. I'm definitely going back there. Great fresh food. Quiet and beautiful atmosphere. Terrific servers. Yum, yum. We did not even look at the dessert menu. Good for us.

We stopped at the Gorge Discovery center at about 5:20 pm. The worker, noting that we only had about 40 minutes left, let us in without the standard admission fee, encouraging us to come back when we had more time. We did a walk-through. They've got a great museum. I loved the wild flower displays. Dr. Parts always goes for the geology. This museum also does a great job at having plenty of hands-on stuff for the kids to try and read and play with. It draws them in and helps them believe that museums are fun places. How cool.

We came home and slept. It was a good day. My feet were not terrible, although I was dismayed at how sore I was from the little amount of walking that I did.