Sign In
Blogs from Oregon, United States, North America - page 108
Advertisement
May 21st 2006
Some called it history in the making, to others it was mere spectacle. But whatever your view, I must admit there is some magnetic pull toward witnessing demolition. I had mixed sentiments about the implosion of the Trojan cooling tower, which I wrote about earlier in . But in the end, I had to witness it for myself. I knew the best viewing position would most likely be from the Washington side of the Columbia River. So I drove north to Woodland the evening before the event, and then woke up at 5:30 am on Sunday morning to jockey for a position at the Kalama Marina. The press was well established along the riverfront footpath, already queuing up people with stories and perspectives to tell. I wondered what the crowd reaction would be. Would there be ... read more
May 21st 2006
Staying at Katie's mom and step dad's house in Vancouver Washington. Nice place, funny dog, good food, great family. Havent been doing much activities in portland which is a nice break. Figured this is the one place we will probably come back to in the future. Went to Best Buy and got another XM radio which accomplishes the one goal I had for this trip. Went downtown to check out the sights. There are alot of bridges in Portland. Something Edmonton could learn from!!... read more
May 10th 2006
Tillamook, which lies about 25 miles south of Nehalem Bay, is best known for its cheese factory and its air museum. We took the obligatory tour of the plant and sampled quite a few varieties of very good cheese. Just before we left we found the real attraction. They also make ice cream--some of the best we have ever had. We were eating ice cream cones at 10:00 AM. Not too good for the diet. The air museum is housed in an old blimp hangar which, in itself, is quite a wonder. It covers over seven acres, is about 200 feet tall and was designed to hold 8 blimps. It is the largest wooden building in the world. It is one of two built here in 1943 to house blimps used to escort shipping and patrol ... read more
Astoria, Ecola and Fort Stevens
Published: May 14th 2006North America » United States » Oregon » Astoria
May 10th 2006
Fort Stevens is strategically located at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon side. The Fort was commissioned in 1863 to defend against the possible attack from Canada should England enter the Civil War on the Confederate side and was active until decommissioned in 1947. On June 6, 1941 a Japanese submarine fired several 5.5” rounds at the fort, causing no damage, but making Fort Stevens the only military installation on US soil to come under enemy attack since the War of 1812. Today it is a State Park, Oregon’s largest, and you can tour the vast network of gun emplacements, underground batteries, and a museum covering the fort’s long history. An interesting sidelight is the “Gratitude Train”. In 1949, France presented the US with 49 narrow gauge railroad boxcars loaded with artworks and ... read more
May 2nd 2006
The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before. - G.K. Chesterton I saw this quote on BootsnAll and it was so appropriate, just switch out the train for plane.... I missed my flight to Singapore! I was even at the airport 3 hours ahead of time, having lunch. Lunching a little too long with the ladies I'd say. Must have been that tequila oyster shooter....Oh well, back tomorrow, I have time..... lots of it :)) It was a bit odd and comical to be stranded at the PDX airport, my home town with no phone, no phone numbers, no home to go to - Kathryn left for Denver today, no keys to get into the house, no car.....Is this a movie???? Luckily I have dear friends who picked ... read more
Advertisement
April 30th 2006
Crooked River Ranch is a development 8 or 10 miles up the Crooked River Canyon from the Cove Palisades Park. It has some beautiful homes overlooking the canyon, but the main attraction for us was the golf course. The course was just average except for the magnificant views. Many of the holes ran along the canyon rim and on one hole you could reach the green from the tee by cutting across an arm of the canyon. Of course if you pulled it a little, you could double the distance of your drive (the last 200 yards being straight down into the river). One of the locals we played with told us that several golfers had been killed trying to retrieve golf balls over the edge of the canyon. Must have been really special balls. This ... read more
April 30th 2006
Around 5700 BC Mt. Mazama, one of the tallest mountains in what is now the Northwestern US, underwent a cataclysmic eruption. The result was a hollow mountain with its top missing. Over time it has filled with rain and snow forming a crystal-clear lake almost 2,000 ft deep, the deepest in the US and 7th deepest in the world. The lake lies in one of the heaviest snowfall areas in Oregon, averaging over 500 inches per year. A 30 mile road circles the rim of the lake accessed by paved roads from the north and the south. In winter, the north access road and the rim road are under several feet of snow and are closed, usually until June. Our first attempt to go up the south road, on March 30, had to be aborted because ... read more
From the Cove to the Pacific
Published: May 11th 2006North America » United States » Oregon » Portland
April 30th 2006
From the Cove we headed north on US 197 through mostly rolling farm country. We crossed the Deschutes River in the tiny town of Maupin, where we got caught up in a crosscountry bicycle race. We spent the next 10 miles trying to pass cyclists struggling up the curvy road out of the Deschutes River canyon. We reached the Columbia River at The Dalles. This is where Lewis and Clark made camp in 1806, and is the terminus of the historic Oregon Trail. Here the pioneers loaded their wagons on rafts and floated down the Columbia to what is now Portland, then south up the Willamette River to Oregon City. The 100 mile trip from The Dalles to Portland takes you through the Columbia River Gorge, on either Interstate 84 or US 30 (the "old road"), ... read more
April 30th 2006
The Cove is a large park located at the convergence of three rivers, the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolius. Each river has formed its own 600 foot deep canyon with sheer rock walls. There are 2 large campgrounds in the park. The Crooked River Campground (our home) is on the eastern rim of the Crooked River canyon. The Deschutes Campground is in a lower area between the Crooked and Deschutes rivers. It's a 5 mile drive between the two that takes you down into the Crooked River Canyon, upriver about a mile, across a suspension bridge and back up out of the canyon. From our campground, we can look down into the canyon and see the road winding down and through the canyon. It is a truly breathtaking scene. All this is situated in a high desert ... read more
April 28th 2006
Although spring was officially ushered in over a month ago, the weather hasn’t wholeheartedly corresponded with the season until this past week. With spring just beginning to bud, the landscape of central Oregon is not yet parched, cracked, and baked to a crisp. Descending from the plateau into the Crooked River Valley made me reminisce about other high desert locales I’ve called home: southeastern New Mexico, Salt Lake City, and the valley south of El Paso, Texas. The desert grows on you after a while. This was only my second visit to Prineville, which is home to the Les Schwab Tires empire. For now, it still retains its small-town feel where its appeal continues to draw native sons and daughters home to raise their own families within its intimate atmosphere. There’s no doubt that the natural ... read more
