More hurricane photos

The barn and workshop and house restored after 5 days!

Is it safe to come out yet?

Lots of low lying land means that flood waters get land locked and so many people are surrounded by water still after 8 days.  The relief workers have been tireless, the electric company crews from all over the state and even the whole southwest. 

Blessed relief!

So much sorting to do and we have a lot more posts to do

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful comments, it is a thrill to us to share our adventure and our joy in this voyage!  We have additional posts in the works from Rich, Pat and Dan.  Everyone is busy trying to juggle work, exercise and chores now that we are all back home but we will be posting more because there is a lot more to show you yet! 

I am off to Texas tomorrow to visit our son and daughter in law and three grandbabies in San Benito.  They survived a harrowing storm, Hurricane Dolly, that pummeled them for more than 12 hours, uprooted most of the trees around their oasis of a home and luckily did them no bodily damage although it did smash Chris’s work truck.  Hope that the flight is not cancelled as it was today and that everyone in the Rio Grande Valley gets their electricity back soon- you can imagine the heat there at this time of year!  Will post again soon!  Terri

More Waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge

Well we missed a few photos, one of our favorites was Multnomah Falls, a double falls with a viewing bridge right in the middle, pretty spectacular!  Enjoy

Full view of Multnomah Falls

A little bit more of the area

Upper falls above the bridge

Columbia River Gorge

Waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge

Moss covered trees

We took a few awesome shots of some of the waterfalls along old route 30 and the scenery surrounding them. Rich’s friend and collegue at REA, Doug, who grew up in this area, highly recommended that we see them. We were glad that he encouraged us to see them, Jenny and Jack also agreed so we went. Following are a few of the shots we took, enjoy!

Horsetail Falls

And the last falls...

Wakeenah from Rich's viewpoint

Bonneville Dam

 

 

One of the points of interest here in the Columbia River Gorge has to be the Bonneville Dam and the fish ladders that help the salmon swim past the dam. We went inside to see the view through windows that let you watch the fish moving upstream. We saw salmon of all sizes and some lampreys that clung to the glass with their suction cup mouths. The guys ditched the dam tour when they realized that it was geared to children….too bad as they were grunting like Tim the Tool Man at the possibility of seeing all that power! Jennie and I watched a movie about Lewis and Clark and marveled at the tenacity they showed in journeying to the Pacific. Quite interesting history, especially when you travel the route they journeyed. We traveled the route with a serious upgrade in camping equipment and did not have to port our boats and gear even once!

I'm stuck........lampreys lament!

 

Let's go this way....then take a left at the turbine...

and you end up here in the Columbia River Gorge!

Well the guys missed the dam tour...

but a guy can still dream about...MORE POWER

 

 

Bonneville Fish Hatchery

Salmon sculpture Bonneville Fish Hatchery

Should be called the Bonneville Fish Factory, holy shamoley do they have a bunch of fish here! Everything from fresh hatched to fingerlings to ready for release, wow do they have fish! We saw gorgeous rainbow trout and sturgeons (yes just like in the Weird Al Yankovich song, “Like a Sturgeon”…….) in crystal clear water. The sturgeon’s leader was named Herman, a 60 yr. old 11 ft. continuation of prehistoric fish. He was curious too, came by the window a few times looking at the weirdos who had come to gawk at him. I don’t know who was more entertained, us or him.    We watched an informative movie about the process of raising salmon from start to finish. Amazingly enough the mature salmon return to this spot since it is where they were born and raised. The fingerlings were jumping in the cascading water, that seems to be an innate urge for a salmon! Mature fish are released to the Columbia River to continue their growing as they head for the Pacific. Fun to watch, check out the photos!Tons of fingerlings protected from prowlers…

Rainbows in their pond

Salmon in the ladders after release

Herman-the-sturgeon part 1.... Herman was too big to fit into one shot! So here you see the three parts of Herman! Rainbow trout feeding time

…finally the tail!

A Fishing story

Currently we are in a big fishing region of Oregon along the Columbia River Gorge.  The salmon run heavy around here and the native people have lots of fishing sites set out along the banks as their ancestors have for centuries. Although we have fishing poles, the easier catch is to buy it from the natives and stimulate their economy…..so we found these very entertaining fishermen in town with some great chinook salmon! So here are a few shots of our fishing excursion………….

Let's make a deal!

Fresh catch of the day!

Rich and Jack with the biggest fillet

Rich with one of the fillets

 Wonderful fresh salmon fillets in our freezers!  What a catch…………..

Funny License

We have seen some amusing license plates, most of them committed to memory since they flew past us in route.  This one was stationary so I got it!

An accurate description for the towing process.....

Inland again, Oregon Gardens

Two sisters....

Twin roses equal in beauty

Fields of flowers greeted us on our way to the gardens

Giant trees referred to as Dr. Suess trees, can you see why?

Another beauty! These day lilies were in full bloom.

This mimosa tree was a very unique color and extremely good looking next to the yellow green plantings next door!

Beautiful love seat-great shadows!

Rose in the sky!

Great planning in placing these two side by side.

The sky was as pretty as a picture!

Can this be the artichoke we buy in the store?

Gorgeous hydrangeas!

Cannas with leaves as beautiful as the flower

These were a brilliant red color and called a cardinal plant.

The delicate China rose, antique variety

What variety!

Rain wall, delightful sounds

Delicate poppy

Round pergola

This botanical oasis located near Silverton is a beautiful example the types of flora that abound in the Willamette Valley. People rave about the growing conditions here and the fields and fruit orchards show evidence of the fruitful (no pun intended) nature of the climate here! Take a look at some of the wonderful things we found here!

Beautiful colorDr Seuss trees”]

Mt Rainier Cherries, mmmmmm – delicious.

As you can see there was an amazing variety of flowers, shrubs and then there was the sculpture and garden rooms……………oh well, wait until you see some of Rich’s shots, he did a lot of macro work in the gardens! Enjoy!! And if you are ever in this area, do go see the gardens.

Attraction in historic Silverton, featuring water features, garden art, wetlands, a rediscovery forest, a kids’ garden, and a house designed by Frank Lloyd …
www.oregongarden.org/ – 22k – Cached – Similar pages

Oregon Beaches ROCK!

Look familiar………same cooling pattern in the stone

The amazing thing about these beaches are the variety of rocks. These photos show a few of the more interesting specimens I found during my excursions. There was a lot of evidence of volcanic flow, amazing parallels to the volcanic rocks we saw in 1987 when we walked on fresh lava rock in Hawaii! Check it out. Gotta love that variety!

It may look soft but it is NOT

Look familiar………same cooling pattern in the stone