It was only 110 miles to the Columbia River RV Park in Portland. It's an in-town park (near the airport) so the sites are not large or secluded, but nice. The owners are a bit rigid---not honoring the advertised Good Sam Club discounts and requiring that dogs not relieve themselves inside the park. Good luck with that last one. Travel days are somehow hard, even when short, so we took it easy Monday night.
On Tuesday, we ventured into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Just lovely. We started at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center in Stevenson, Washington. It's a fine museum, chronicling the area's physical and human history. I'm normally not a museum person, but this one was very interesting.
We followed with a wonderful lunch (I had pork tenderloin) at the Skamania Lodge, across the street from the museum---with a view of the river. It's a magnificent lodge (with 245 rooms) and conference center, with an adjacent golf course. It was very busy.
On the way back we took the scenic drive along the river, stopping at the stunning Horsetail Falls and the Multnomah Falls, two of the many waterfalls in the area. (The gorge has the largest collection of waterfalls in the country.)
And on Larch Mountain we stopped at Vista House, a beautiful rest stop built in 1916, with a 30-mile view of the gorge.
Wednesday was Becky's day to have lunch with Sandy Mico, a fellow banker she used to work with, who now is the president of West Coast Trust in Portland. Sandy gave her some tips on what to see and where to eat in town, which we followed on Thursday.
After touring (including crossing a few of the 9 bridges in Portland that span the Willamette River), we had lunch at Nostrana, a beautiful Italian restaurant with a unique menu and wonderful food. That ended our Portland adventure.
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