Monday, July 4, 2022
We went to a party in Salem yesterday and ran into one of Becca’s college friends. She and E had met briefly when Becca died, but they hadn’t seen each other since then and neither of them recognized the other. Becca’s friend is 47 now and has a sixteen year old daughter. When Becca died E invited her friends to take what they might want from among the things in her apartment. Michelle still has the moon and stars blanket that she took that day.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
It’s time for the Oddball Plant Quiz! Can you identify these two? They don’t have much in common. One of them is mostly of interest to humans; the other is of interest to butterflies.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
We have raspberry freezer jam! It hasn’t been easy. First there was the great pectin shortage of 2021 and now we find that 2022 has not been a good year for our local raspberries. They’re hard to find and expensive. But E was not to be denied.
Friday, July 8, 2022
We got in the Porsche today and headed for the Washington Square Mall up in Portland. Our main purpose was to get a sample bonbon from See’s Candy. Other than that, M wanted to order some prescription sunglasses at Warby Parker and E had three stops in mind–Soma, Macy’s and Lulu Lemon. Success all around. Nice mall…and pretty busy on this Friday in July. On the way home we stopped in McMinnville for dinner. They had blocked off part of the historic district and we were able to stroll down 3rd Street and check out the scene. We went to McMenamin’s and ate outside.
Saturday, July 9, 2022
B and B came over for dinner. E made onion pie. One of the B’s friends took him fishing for sturgeon in the lower reaches of the Columbia. He caught (and released) three. In Oregon and Washington there are just a few ‘keeper’ days per year for sturgeon, and his day wasn’t one of them. Even on keeper days, the limit is one fish and there is a “slot” regulation that states that only fish of a certain size (44 to 50 inches) can be kept. All other days and all other sizes are catch and release. Barbless hooks are required.
The sturgeon species is said to be about 200 million years old, which means that sturgeon roamed the seas when dinosaurs roamed the earth. There have been a number of reports of very large sturgeon that have been caught in the Columbia River. The largest are reported to be over eleven feet long, are estimated to weigh over 500 pounds, and are thought to be over 100 years old. It is legal to catch these fish in both the US and Canada, but they cannot be removed from the water and thus can never be officially weighed and measured.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
M took the truck up into the mountains above Green Peter Reservoir. He was interested in a backpacking trail we had taken some twenty years ago to get into the Middle Santiam Wilderness. Did it still exist? It was missing from the newest edition of our favorite trail guide. Taking along his trusty 1990 paper map, he went looking for it. Did he find it? Of course not. But he saw some pretty sights and had a chance to go up some pretty sketchy roads. He found the road where the trail used to be, but found no sign of the trail itself. Instead he continued upward on Road 1142, which was pretty much abandoned. Tree branches were growing in from the sides and in places there was just enough room to get through without scratching the paint–hopefully. Then came the place that looked like it definitely would scratch the paint. M paused, then got out and spent some time clearing away the offending branches. Then he set off again up the hill. But alas, just twenty yards further on there were a couple of washing machine sized boulders blocking the road. Oops. He won’t be clearing those away. The new problem was how to turn around. The nearest good place was a long way back, maybe quarter of a mile? Too far to go in reverse. M had to make do with a not so good place. Good thing M’s truck is smallish.
Defeated by Road 1142, M took a little tour of Road 1152, where he found a place to have lunch near a small stream.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Today is the first day of our trip Leavenworth, Washington. We got up early and were on the road by 7:30. By 8:45 we were nearing Portland and traffic on I-5 slowed to a crawl. Sigh. By the time we got into the city, things were better; but then we took a wrong turn trying to get out of town. A tough morning so far. We did get onto I-84 eventually and drove up into the Columbia Gorge. At Cascade Locks we crossed over the Bridge of the Gods and continued up the river on the Washington side where it’s quieter.
We had a windy picnic at a small rest area about 40 miles up river.
In the early afternoon we left the gorge and turned north on U.S. 97. This took us past Goldendale and later through the Yakima Nation and on to Ellensburg. From there the route was dry and empty but quite spectacular.
We arrived at Leavenworth around 4:00 in the afternoon. It’s a tourist town nestled in a pretty mountain valley on the east side of the Cascades. The central part of town has exclusively Bavarian (or possibly faux Bavarian) architecture and lots of Bavarian food. For dinner on Wednesday we had käsespatzel, red cabbage, and Bavarian goulash at a cellar restaurant called Andreas Keller. Also big glasses of German beer. A little heavy? Uh…yeah. Good though, especially that cabbage.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Here’s where we stayed in Leavenworth:
Oh wait. Sorry, wrong Leavenworth. This accommodation is in Leavenworth, Kansas, which was named for Henry Leavenworth, a 19th century army officer. Leavenworth, Washington was named after Charles Leavenworth, a 19th century land speculator. We have heard, though, that Charles Leavenworth and Henry Leavenworth were brothers! Or was it cousins? Second cousins? Second cousins once removed? Something like that. Maybe. Frankly, it’s a little unclear. Our research has confirmed, however, that the two men did indeed have the same last name.
Anyway, here’s are some pictures from Charlie’s town as it is today:
Our biggest challenge for the day was to take an e-bike tour of the area. We hadn’t been on bicycles of any kind for quite a few years and on an e-bike never. Turns out they are pretty fun. Coco, our very efficient tour leader, helped everybody get familiar with the bikes before we started. The tour route covered sixteen miles and included two longish uphill stretches. We ended up saddle sore, but happy to have dared do something new without ending up in the ditch.
After our longish bike ride we retired to the comfort of the big Jacuzzi tub in our room. We were staying in a room called Dream Suite 4 booked through the Obertal Inn. It was very large and very comfortably furnished, with an almost complete kitchen and a dining table in a bay window overlooking the main street of Bavarialand. Workout followed by shower followed by Jacuzzi. Very good. For dinner we got take-out bratwurst from München Haus–one meat and one veg–plus carrots and celery brought from Oregon. Also wine. Enough with the beer already.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Today we hiked on the Tumwater Pipeline Trail, getting up early so as to avoid the hot part of the day. The Tumwater Pipeline was a penstock, taking water from the Wenatchee River and carrying it two miles down the river to a generating plant. The story of the pipeline begins in 1893, when the Great Northern Railroad built a line across the Cascades, finally completing their direct link between Seattle and St. Paul, Minnesota. The line crossed the mountains at a place called Stevens Pass at an altitude of 4,055 feet. It was an impressive feat of engineering, but because of the steepness of the terrain, it was a slow and complicated process to get a train across it, especially in the winter. To make things easier, the railroad decided it needed a tunnel. Accordingly, a 2.7 mile tunnel was completed in 1900. But the tunnel was unventilated and the smoke from the steam locomotives sometimes built up to toxic levels. To address this new problem, the railroad wanted to use electric locomotives to move trains through the tunnel. But that required building a power plant of some kind.
The railroad decided to build a hydropower station on the Wenatchee River near the town of Leavenworth. Four miles up river from the town, a diversion dam fed water into a large pipeline. The water flowed down the pipeline to a generator station, where it drove three turbines to produce electricity. When it was completed in 1909, it was the second largest hydropower station in the U.S., the largest being the Westinghouse Niagara Power Station. In 1927 the railroad changed the route of the line, bypassing Leavenworth. At that time the power station was sold to a local utility company.
While the power station continued to produce electricity well into the 1960’s, the town of Leavenworth nearly disappeared after the railroad line moved. It remained moribund from 1927 until the late 1960’s/early 1970’s when it reinvented itself as–yes, you guessed it–a Bavarian themed tourist town.
The hike starts at the bridge and then follows the path of the pipeline up the far side of the river. Very little of the actual pipeline remains. Records show that it was eight feet in diameter and was made of wood lathes bound with a steel wire mesh. It must have been quite a sight.
After the hike we moved on to our next major goal: a visit to the Bavarian Bäkerei. The Leavenworth BB is one of those bakeries that really isn’t open all that much, especially not when you want it to be. But we had studied the matter and we were pretty sure that now, mid morning on a Friday, we would almost surely find success. And so it was. First we found our primary targets: two generous pieces of apple strudel. (How could apple strudel not happen if you put a Bavarian town into the largest apple growing region in the world?) Then M got himself an éclair, which he ate almost immediately. We saved the strudel for later.
By then it was time to leave Bavaria and head back to Oregon, where we planned to stay the night in The Dalles. Before leaving Bavaria, we couldn’t help but take one last look around…
Later in the day, as we were driving south through the middle of Washington, we found ourselves low on gas just as we were crossed into the Yakima Nation. Oh serendipitous day! Turns out that gas on the rez is forty cents a gallon cheaper than it is anywhere else. E says that we should always come here when we need gas.
We got to The Dalles at around 4:00 and checked into a Shiloh Inn. We’d booked a room with one queen bed and that’s what we got. The only odd thing was that there was a large empty space where another queen bed had once been. The padded headboard was still attached to the wall. Did management move the bed or did a previous guest walk off with it? In any case, the Shiloh was okay, partly because there was a great outdoor pool with plenty of clean towels. E was very happy.
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Breakfast at the Shiloh was a study in contrasts: terrible coffee and good strudel. Then we zipped down to Portland, paid a visit to the Bridgeport mall, and got back to Corvallis at a reasonable hour. It’s amazing what you can do with proper nutrition.
I like the new name. I can only imagine that it took some time to come up with a suitable one … much better than the previous name (not that that name wasn’t apt, just this is a much more pleasant title for a more pleasant time)…
i had to look up what an e bike is. I was hoping it had training wheels, seeing as that old statement that “its like riding a bike” doesnt pertain to me.
Was interested in the freezer jam…i’ve made lots of raspberry, but never used pectin or put it in the freezer, always just processed it in a water bath. Love making jam of any kind!!
Your adventures always look like such fun!