I took the motorcycle out for a ride today, as temperature was in the 80s. Nice local ride, except for one aspect. I forgot both my wallet and phone. Doh!

I needed some control practice, so I found a parking lot with some room and practiced circles at low speed. Lots of left and right turns. This bike rides beautifully, even in the gusty wind we have today.

There’s a corridor of waterfalls west of us where creeks fall off Larch Mountain. The most famous is Multnomah Falls, 650 ft high. We got our “timed entry waterfall corridor permit” at recreation.gov and went there this Monday. We arrived at the corridor at 10am and stopped first at Horsetail Falls.

After that, we drove to Multnomah Falls. We had to circle the parking lot several times before a spot opened up — the permit does not guarantee parking! Once parked we walked up to the falls amid hundreds of tour bus tourists. There’s a bridge in front of the falls … Benson Bridge … where everyone tries to take selfies. Deb hiked up to the bridge and I shot a photo from down below. Then I walked up and waded across the bridge/ tourists to get to Debbi.

We then tried to hike to the overlook a mile up a skinny trail. Halfway up we heard someone had fallen on the trail and was injured, so we reversed course. When we got to the bottom we saw the rescue squad trundling up the path with an evacuation stretcher on a gas-powered, tracked base. Imagine a small tank with a stretcher instead of a turret.

Having spent a couple of hours at Multnomah, we cut the day short by deciding our last waterfall would be Bridal Veil. It’s back a short hike and quite beautiful.

With our calves and thighs aching from the hiking, we drove back to The Dalles for lunch at Clock Tower Ales. Deb had brisket sliders and I had their chicken sandwich. Deb lubricated her dry throat with Beak Breaker IPA, quite a taste of grapefruit. I washed down the sandwich with Tricerahops Double IPA.

So far my favorite beer is the Sunriver Vicious Mosquito IPA. Oregon truly is the home of craft beer. Just look at the number of taps!

We did a loop today, from The Dalles OR to Lyle WA, then over the plateau to Goldendale WA then back to Maryhill and home. Along the way, we drove along the Klikitat river, quite beautiful. Lunch at the Maryhill winery. Bought fruit at the Gunkels orchard farm stand, which has the best apricots we’ve tasted since Toulon in 2013. We were outside only briefly, as the temp hit 106 degrees F (41C). One more hot day, then next week will be cooler.

Woke, ate breakfast (same food, same penurious hoarding) and drove home.  I forgot to turn on the Garmin InReach tracker, so it looks like we’re still at Seaside.  Since the temps in The Dalles reached 104 degrees on Monday afternoon, I almost wish we were!

We ate breakfast at the Gilbert Inn.  Scrambled eggs and sausage.  Had to ask for a spoon for yogurt.  Had to ask for salt and pepper.  Had to ask for refills on coffee.  Had to ask for a second pat of butter for the bagel.  Seems they were afraid to put too much out. Food was tasty, however plain.

We drove south toward Cannon Beach.  We stopped at Ecola State Park, which had a beautiful view down to Crescent Beach.  Mist and clouds were rolling up from the breakers and small hummock like offshore islands made it look a little like Scotland.  Temps were just in the 60s.  The head/ point on which we stood must be the one we see south of Seaside.  As we were driving out, we saw an elk in the veg quite near the road.

We then drove into Cannon Beach.  We found a town park, parked and walked toward the ocean.  There’s a river flowing out and we walked its banks as it cut through the sand.  We walked all the way to the Pacific ocean, wetting the soles of our shoes.  Looking north, we saw gorgeous rocks and small islands. 

After walking back, we drove to the Center Diamond quilt shop near Haystack Island.  Terribly hard to find a parking spot, as the whole area was crowded, but one was open in the quilt shop parking lot.  I enjoyed the sun on the outside bench while Deb bought stuff. 

We drove back into the town of Cannon Beach and miraculously found a street-side parking spot .  we at lunch at the Driftwood Restaurant and Lounge.  Clam chowder and salad for me, Deb had salad and fried Willapa Bay oysters.  Mine was “good of kind;”  Deb’s oysters were fine.  Then we walked up and down the Cannon Beach streets, looking in the shops and dodging all the dogs the Oregonians take everywhere.  We finally saw enough so left to drive further south to Tillamook.

The road south passed around the midpoint of Neahkahnie mountain and was originally an elk path.  An overlook provided stunning views of Manzanita beach. 

Coming off the mountain we saw a sign for Manzanita Beach and we turned in.  We parked a few streets back from the main road and walked to the Manzanita Winery.  Deb had a glass of chardonnay (not to her taste), we shared a few Castelvetrano olives and I drank a soda.  I bought a bottle of the Tempranillo, which I later found was not worth its $54 price.  We walked to the beach and watched kite surfers.  Very breezy! 

Drove back to Seaside.  Safeway for supplies.  Maggie’s on the Prom for dinner – excellent!  Very good calamari, halibut and salmon.  Drank a fine bottle of Adelsheim chardonnay to wash down the fish.  This was a fine way to celebrate the 40^th!  The sky was very overcast, preventing the “watching of the sunset.”

We decided to spend the 40^th anniversary of our First Date at the Pacific.  We selected the Gilbert Inn in Seaside OR, and drove there on Saturday, 7/23.  It was very windy through the gorge, but things calmed down as we reached Troutdale.  We had lunch there, then proceeded through Portland on I-84.  The terrain became more forest-like with tall firs.  Portland is a big city, with messy traffic forced higgledy-piggledy by the Willamette River (no ‘i’).  West of Portland are flatlands with lots of farming.  We were on US-26 (the Sunset Highway), headed northwest from Portland.  One passes through the state forest and then into the coastal mountain range, topping out at 1300 ft elevation.  US-26 ends at US-101 and we took that into seaside.

Seaside is somewhat commercialized for beach goers, but nowhere near as bad as Myrtle Beach.  The beach is wide and sandy, reminiscent of France, particularly Étretat.  Mr. Gilbert (of the Gilbert Inn and the founder of Seaside) was originally from France and thought the similarity close.  An interesting thing about Oregon is that there is free access to every beach, enshrined in law.  No one can prevent access and no one can own the beach.

We ate an acceptable dinner at Norma’s;  oysters on half-shell, calamari and chowder.  Deb bought yarn at the local shop.  We walked the Prom (the Promenade).  The town feels a bit like New England, with cedar shakes on the building roofs and sides.  Our room in the Gilbert was upstairs on the Pacific side, spacious and certainly fine for a century-old building.  There’s no AC in the building, because the weather is most always cool and misty.  Of course, we had sun two out of three days, so we opened the windows to keep the room cool.  We didn’t bring shorts with us, thinking that temps in the 60s would favor long pants, and the weather was certainly warm enough for shorts!

After dinner, we walked around town.  At Phillips Candies, Deb bought raspberry gelato and I saltwater taffy.  After collecting supplies from the local safeway, I took a nap while Deb knitted.  About 2030 we walked back to the Prom to watch the sunset.  There were lots of groups building fires on the beach.  Very chilly, windy and beautiful.  After the sun set in a low bank of clouds (no green flash), we went back to the warm Inn.

This has been the first long-distance travel with the Gosling, the enclosed trailer in which I brought my motorcycle to Oregon. I had things in boxes, bins and loose, restrained by bungee cords, ratchet straps and nylon. Of course, we’re adding to the things that will return home with us, and I need better organization in the Gosling to fit it all in.

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I’ve decided to create shelving in the vee-nose of the trailer. Compartments for the golf clubs, smoker grill, and all sorts of stuff. Two-by-four structure with plywood shelves. Of course, all my tools are at home, so I’m selectively buying ones I don’t own with which I can build the shelves.

Today, I cut the first of the 2×4 to length and created a rabbet to fit over the baseboard. Lots of hand work with a saw. I’ll be re-building muscles I lost a long time ago. Good thing I can take my time! I have six weeks …

No, not us! The road south from Hood River to Parkdale and back on the Dee Highway is called the Fruit Loop. It passes through numerous wineries and orchards, the latter growing apples, peaches and cherries. We did the loop on July 16th.

First stop was the Stone and Stave winery, which also has a lavender farm. Didn’t taste the wine, as wineries don’t open their tasting rooms until 11am or noon, and we were earlier. The lavender was just as beautiful as Provence, showing why the wines do well, too.

This was on the southward leg. We then had a wonderful lunch at the Apple Valley BBQ, and headed north on the Dee Highway. We crossed back over to the eastern leg to get to the Hood Crest winery (fantastic Tempranillo and Sangiovese!) and the Mt. Hood winery. Then, back home with the loot!

After we left the Crooked River Canyon, we struck northwest across the Warm Springs Indian reservation. The road drives straight toward Mt Hood through a combination of plains, alpine forest and temperate rain forest. Deb drove and I took lots of pictures of Mt. Hood.

We also had a look at Mt Jefferson, one of the many peaks in the area. Look at the tip to see the identifying difference from Mt Hood.

North of Bend OR is the Peter Skene Ogden State Park, where US-97 crosses the Crooked River. The river has cut a 300 foot gash in the plains, and it’s pretty impressive. Canyon is crossed by three bridges close to each other: railroad, US-97 and old US-97. Pictures are from the old road bridge.

When we drove south over the canyon, there was a company offering bungee jumping from the old road/ pedestrian bridge. No, we didn’t avail ourselves.