Living Our Dream

Mount Hood

One of the first things we saw as we exited the interstate when we arrived in the Portland area was Mount Hood off in the distance. Mount Hood is located about 45 miles east of Portland and only about 30 or 35 miles east of where we were staying in Barton Park. We saw Mount Hood from the Japanese Garden and caught glimpses of it just about every time we headed back to the campground.

At a height of 11,249 feet, Mount Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth highest mountain in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is a dormant volcano, and the last eruption was in 1907.

We decided to take a closer look at Mount Hood, so we drove to Trillium Lake located a few miles south of Mount Hood. The photo below is looking across Trillium Lake toward Mount Hood.



Trillium Lake is a man-made lake that is popular for fishing. In winter, the area is used for Nordic skiing.

The area of the lake used to be part of the Barlow Road, which was part of the Oregon Trail in later days. Barlow Road was a log toll road across the marshes that were in this area.

On the road to Trillium Lake, we saw numerous tall, white flowers that looked like snowballs called bear grass. The leaves look like clumps of grass, but bear grass is actually in the lily family. The photo below shows bear grass in bloom.



From Trillium Lake, we drove up the south face of Mount Hood to Timberline Lodge, which is one of only a few year-round skiing locations in the United States. On the way up to the ski area, we got great views of the peak.



The next photo is a little closer shot taken from the entrance to the parking area. The ski area and ski lift are to the left side of the mountain.



The lodge itself sits at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. The lodge was built from 1936 to 1938 as a WPA project during the Depression. The lodge sits just below Palmer Glacier, which is one of Mount Hood's twelve named glaciers.

The parking area was filled with skiers. Some, like the one in the photo below, were clomping across the parking lot in their ski boots.



Others were carrying the skis and wearing flip-flops.



We sat and watched the skiers come down the hill for a while...



...then we headed back down the mountain. On the way down, we had good views of Mount Jefferson about 45 miles to the south. Mount Jefferson is 10,497 feet high and is yet another volcano in the Cascade Range. We pulled off for a photo.



From the same pull-off, we could also see Trillium Lake where we stopped earlier.

 

From Mount Hood, we headed back to the motor home and chilled out the rest of the afternoon. Stay tuned for our next adventure.

Oregon Trail

Oregon City is about 10 miles west of where we were staying in Barton Park and about 15 miles south of Portland. Although there were numerous cut-offs and branches to the Oregon Trail, Oregon City is the officially designated end of the trail. It is also the location of the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

The center is located on land once owned by George Abernethy who arrived in Oregon by ship in 1840 as a Methodist missionary. He was in charge of the mission's mercantile business and later got involved in Oregon politics by becoming provisional governor of the territory.

When he arrived in Oregon, Abernethy claimed 640 acres that included a neck of land that extended to the Willamette River a little below Willamette Falls. The neck of land was called Abernethy Green and was the arrival site for many overland emigrants. Since the emigrants arrived in late fall or early winter, many of them wintered over at Abernethy Green. They headed out in the spring to search out land in places like the fertile Willamette Valley to the south.

Clackamas Heritage Partners operates the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, and admission to the heritage center also includes admission to the Museum of the Oregon Territory and the Stevens-Crawford House, which are also operated by Clackamas Heritage Partners.

The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is designed to suggest the appearance of covered wagons.

The Oregon Trail was one of the major migration routes across the North American Continent in the mid 1800s. The route started in Independence, MO and followed portions of routes established by Lewis and Clark during their 1804 to 1806 expedition as well as the routes of other explorers, trappers, missionaries, and traders. The eastern portion of the trail was also followed by other trails such as the California Trail and the Mormon Trail.

One of the first groups of emigrants to follow what was to become the Oregon Trail was the Bidwell-Bartleston Party of about 100 farmers and their families who started out in 1841 for California. Some of the group changed their minds en route and instead opted for Oregon.

The numbers of emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail fluctuated somewhat, but was up to several thousand a year by the mid 1840s. However, when gold was discovered in California in 1848, the number of emigrants skyrocketed to 30,000 in 1949. In 1850, there were 55,000 on the Oregon Trail.

The huge numbers of travelers dropped after the gold started to run out, but emigrants continued to use the trail until the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. The total number of emigrants to use the Oregon Trail is estimated at about 400,000.

It took four to six months to travel the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon. Wagon trains would start out as early in spring as possible, but they had to wait until the grass started to grow so their animals would have enough to eat. If they started too late, they would be trapped by winter weather crossing the mountains.

Inside the interpretive center there are displays depicting early pioneer life. The photo below shows the type of clothing that may have been worn by hunters and trappers.



The next photo shows a simulated trapper's lean-to.

Most of the wagons that traveled the Oregon Trail were covered farm-type wagons with a flat bed 10 to 12 feet long capable of carrying about 2,500 pounds. The larger Conestoga wagons used in the east for the freight trade were too big for the Rockies. Horses and mules were not strong enough or durable enough, so most of the wagons were pulled by oxen. However, the horse-drawn buggy in the photo below did make it across the Oregon Trail in the late 1800s.

 

Speaking of wagons, they had an interesting hands-on display with a wagon bed and a stack of typical items that the emigrants might have carried with them. Visitors were invited to try to pack all the items into the wagon. All the items in the photo below, plus some that are hidden from view, were supposed to fit into the wagon. Paul started to give it a shot, but gave up when he saw all the canned goods on the shelf on the left.

 

There is also an excellent movie which includes excerpts from diaries and journals of people who actually traveled the Oregon Trail. We were struck by the hardships the pioneers faced when they left their homes back east and went searching for a new future in the west. Even though we took the tourist photo below with us looking like pioneers, we have trouble imagining we could have made the arduous trip across the country back then.

After the interpretive center, we headed north toward Portland to Otto's Sausage Kitchen, which was another restaurant we saw recently on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Otto Eichentopf started the business in 1929, and it is currently run by Otto's grandson. They make 50 varieties of smoked and fresh sausages and wursts. They sell the sausages and other deli items in the store. There is also a lunch counter, which is the reason we went.

Outside on the street corner, they are grilling wieners, smoked pork sausage, and chicken sausage. There was a steady line at the charcoal grill and most of the picnic tables were filled.

We started with a wiener and a pork sausage, which we shared so we could both have a taste of each. In the next photo, Paul is about to take his first bite.

 

The smoked sausage was terrific - a nice smoky flavor with a hint of garlic. The wieners were excellent - a nice crispy skin from the charcoal fire, juicy inside, and not over-spiced. We bought some wieners to take back home with us. :-)

Inside, we perused the sandwich menu. The lunch counter is shown in the photo below.

We decided to split a Dakota Boy, which is a pastrami on rye with sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, horse radish, and mustard. It was yummy.

After our late lunch, we stopped by the Fabric Depot. Margery had picked up a brochure somewhere and since it was fairly close to Otto's, Margery wanted to check it out. The Fabric Depot store covers 1½ acres and has over 11,000 bolts of fabric. They also have special materials like upholstery fabric, shade cloth, embroidered overlays and appliques for wedding dresses, speaker cloth, billiard cloth, awning material, and more. The photo below shows just part of the inside of the store. There was also a large section outside where they had close-outs.

 

The next photo shows Margery looking at some of her favorite Thimbleberry quilt fabric.

 

Margery didn't have a quilt project in mind, so we made it out of the store with only buying a pair of knitting needles. From the Fabric Depot it was back to the motor home to get ready for our next adventure.

Portland, OR Part II: Gardens

Oregon has a reputation of being a haven for gardeners because of its relatively mild winters, plenty of moisture, and surprisingly warm and sunny summers. One of the best testimonies to that is the fact they use roses as landscape plantings at some of the interstate exchanges around the area. Therefore, it is fitting that Portland should also be the home of the International Rose Test Gardens.

Although Paul was an avid gardener before we became full-time RVers, he was never too fond of roses. It wasn't that he didn't think the flowers were pretty, it was because roses are sometimes a hassle to grow. They need to be pruned, sprayed for insects, sprayed for fungus and diseases, and protected in winter (at least in our old hometown of Pittsburgh).

Portland must be much more conducive to growing roses than many other locations because they had 20 miles of rose-lined streets in the early 1900s when Portland earned itself the name "City of Roses." In 1917, the Portland Rose Society, with the help of the American Rose Society, convinced Portland city fathers to establish a rose test garden. The garden, which is located in Portland's Washington Park, is the oldest, continuously-operating rose test garden in the world. Washington Park is located on the western side of Portland, and there is ample free parking in the vicinity of the rose gardens. The rose gardens are also free, but donations are accepted.

The International Rose Test Gardens, which cover about 45 acres, are built on several terraces above the Willamette River. The photo below shows one of the walkways leading down the terraces.

There are over 7,000 rose plants in the gardens. The next several photos give you an idea of the number and the variety of the roses.

 

 

In addition to shrub roses that are most familiar, there were also miniature roses and climbing roses like the one on the lamp post in the next photo.

There were so many beautiful roses we didn't know where to look next. Below is a composite of just a few of the varieties.

Adjacent to the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park is the Portland Japanese Garden. We were able to hit both gardens from the same parking spot. The is a walk up the hill to the Japanese Garden isn't too strenuous, but there is a shuttle available if you would rather save your energy. We chose to walk. The next photo shows Margery at the Antique Gate at the bottom of the hill.

 

In 1962, the city created a commission to establish a Japanese garden in Washington Park at the former site of the Portland Zoo, which was moved to a new location in the park in 1959. The Portland Japanese Garden, which has been recognized as being one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside Japan, was opened to the public in 1967.

Japanese gardens are full of symbolism and are highly stylized. They usually have three elements - stone representing mountains and the earth, water (either real or represented symbolically by pebbles or raked sand or gravel in dry stream beds and dry ponds) signifying purity, and plants to provide color and texture and to denote growth.

There are lots of intertwining walkways in the garden, so we followed the numbered map so we wouldn't miss anything. The first feature we came to was the Flat Garden. The rake marks in the sand symbolize ripples on a pond or sea.

After passing the Wisteria Arbor (the wisteria wasn't in bloom), we came to the Strolling Pond Garden. Here at the upper pond, sculptures of cranes were silhouetted before reflections of different textures and colors of foliage.

 

Adjacent to the upper pond is an authentic Japanese tea house. The garden surrounding the tea house is very subdued. Features of the garden, like the water feature in the photo below, are intended to add to the calming aspect of the ritual of the tea ceremony.

 

Past the tea house is the Zig Zag Bridge leading through the iris beds at the edge of the lower pond. The purpose of all the turns of the Zig Zag Bridge is to give the visitor reason to pause and take in the new view at each turn.

 

We were fortunate to be at the garden in late June, which is when the Japanese iris bloom.

At the end of the lower pond is Heavenly Falls, visible between the rock and the lantern.

 

At the far end of the garden is the Natural Garden. Stone paths wind down a hillside and provide constantly-changing views of trees, shrubs, ferns, moss, and a shallow stream.

 

As we exited the Japanese Garden, there was a view of part of downtown Portland with Mount Hood in the distance.

 

When we left the gardens, we were hungry, so we headed downtown to look for the Blueplate Lunch Counter and Soda Fountain. We had recently seen the Blueplate on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is just a little place with seating for only about 25 people.

 

The next photo shows Margery at the Blueplate.

 

From our seats at the counter, we could watch all the action. Believe it or not, all the cooking is done on portable electric griddles and hot plates. Since they couldn't install a vent hood, they couldn't install professional cooking equipment and they have to rely only on the portable cooking units. Even though there is a limited menu, there is a lot of hustling going on behind the counter. The owner does all the cooking, and two gals serve food, make sodas and milk shakes, rinse dishes, load and unload the dishwasher, and do whatever else needs to be done. The photo below shows the owner plating up some food.

 

We ordered two lunches to share - cheeseburger sliders smothered in Tillamook cheddar cheese with pesto mayo and a pulled-pork barbecue sandwich on Texas toast (the special of the day). Both had sides of mashed potatoes (they were out of mac and cheese already) and both were delish.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. Stay tuned for our next adventure in the Portland area.

Portland, OR Part I: Columbia River Gorge

When we left our site at Winchester Bay RV Resort near Reedsport, OR, it was 51 degrees at the marina at about 9:30 AM. By the time we had driven just a mile or two into town, it was 68 degrees. That gives you an idea of how much lower the temperature was right at the coast.

We had a little another four-hour drive that was again lengthened a bit by construction. It seems Oregon is getting more than its share of stimulus money because there are road projects going on everywhere. We finally made it to Barton Park, which is a Clackamas County park about 20 miles southeast of Portland, OR.

Barton Park has about 90 RV sites as well as a day-use area for picnicking. About 30 of the sites are paved with grass between and the rest are all grass. The sites have 50 amp electric and water hookups. The site width isn't too bad, but it's a little less than you expect to see in a state or county park. There were only a few people there when we arrived earlier in the week. They were only about half filled for the Fourth of July weekend, and we're not sure why. It's a nice enough campground, the price is reasonable ($16 a night), it's close to a major city, and there's plenty to do (hiking as well as rafting and tubing in the nearby Clackamas River). It's the emptiest campground we've ever seen on a holiday weekend, anywhere...but we weren't complaining. The photo below shows our site at Barton Park.

The nearby city of Portland is located along the Columbia River about 100 miles upstream where the river meets the Pacific. The Columbia River flows from British Columbia, Canada, down through eastern Washington State, and forms much of the boundary between Oregon and Washington.

The Columbia River Gorge is about 80 miles long and lies to the east of Portland. The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area follows Oregon side of the gorge. Camping, fishing, windsurfing, and sightseeing are popular activities along the gorge.

Long ago, the river began slowly eroding the gorge through the mountains as the Cascade Range was being uplifted; but the most drastic changes took place at the end of the last Ice Age as flood waters from the rapidly-melting glaciers finished cutting the gorge through layers of volcanic rock.

We had heard and read about the beautiful scenery and the waterfalls along the gorge, so we went for a drive to take a look. The Historic Columbia River Highway winds along most of the Columbia River Gorge. The highway was built between 1913 and 1922 and was the first planned, scenic highway. Parts of the scenic highway are steep, winding, and narrow.

We started the drive at the western end of the scenic highway in Troutdale, OR. About 11 miles east of Troutdale is Vista House. Vista House was built in 1916-1918 at a basalt promontory known as Crown Point as a place where visitors could stop to rest and to observe the Columbia River in both directions. Today, Vista House serves as a museum, a gift shop, a coffee shop, and a rest stop. The photo below shows Vista House.

The next photo is looking west from Vista House toward Portland...

...and the photo below is looking east.

As we continued driving east from Vista House, we came to Bridal Veil Falls. It was about a 2/3 mile round-trip walk along a somewhat steep path to the falls overlook. Bridal Veil Falls, which is shown in the photo below, is about 140 feet high.

There are a series of waterfalls along the scenic highway, but the tallest and most popular is Multnomah Falls. There is a 543 foot plunge for the upper falls, an 8 foot cascade between the falls, and a 69 foot drop for the lower falls. At a total height of 620 feet, Multnomah Falls claims to be the second-highest, year-round waterfall in the United States. Like Burney Falls we saw in California, the water for Multnomah Falls comes from underground springs. The photo below shows Multnomah falls.

 

The trail crosses Benson Footbridge right at the crest of the lower falls. The next photo shows the view looking back down toward the gorge from the bridge.

 

After the trail crosses the bridge, it climbs all the way to the top of the falls if you have the stamina to follow it. We settled for going just beyond the bridge so we could get the next photo from the base of the upper falls.

 

The next photo shows Benson Bridge from the trail on the upper side.

 

When we got back to the car, we drove a little farther to the east where we found a nice, shady pull-off to have our lunch. After that, we turned around and headed back to the motor home. We took I-84 on our return trip. While the Historic Columbia River Highway follows a more winding path higher up the side of the gorge, I-84 travels closer to the river. We stopped at a pull-off and got the photo below of the Columbia River looking east. It is a little different view of the same stretch of river we got earlier from Vista House. Vista House is at the top of the promontory to the right of the photo below.

There's lots more to see around the Portland area. We look forward to sharing what we found.

Medford, OR

We left Redding, CA and headed north up I-5 toward Medford, OR. About 50 miles north of Redding, we passed majestic Mount Shasta. We could sometimes see Mount Shasta from certain areas around Redding, but the view was usually hidden by the local hills or distant clouds. The photo below shows Mount Shasta from I-5.

 

Mount Shasta means "white mountain." At a height of 14,179 feet above sea level, Mount Shasta is the second highest mountain in the Cascade Range. Mount Rainier is the highest at 14,411 feet. Mount Shasta is one of many volcanoes in the Cascades, and the last significant eruption of Mount Shasta took place in 1786. Geological studies show it has been erupting about every 600 years, so area residents should be safe for the foreseeable future.

We had a drive of about 3 1/2 hours from Redding to Joseph Stewart State Recreation Area, which is about 30 miles north of Medford on Lost Creek Lake. Joseph Stewart State Recreation Area has a boat launch and day-use area as well as a campground with almost 200 sites. The internal roads and the pads in the campground are paved, and the sites are mostly grass. After staying at fairgrounds and private campgrounds, it was nice to get back to the spacious sites you typically find at state parks. However, like most state parks, Joseph Stewart campground has 30 amp electric and water hookups, but no sewer. Also, some of the sites, like ours, were not very level front to back. We had to use blocks under the rear jacks to get the rear high enough to be level.

The campground was nice and quiet - no highway noise and no trains. It was fairly empty when we first arrived early in the week; but it was filling up by the time we left on Friday. We suspect it gets fairly crowded (and possibly noisier) on the weekends. The photo below shows our site at Joseph Stewart State Recreation Area.

 

Medford, OR is the home of Harry and David, the company that sells mail-order gourmet foods and gifts. Harry and David has tours of their facilities, so we drove into Medford to have a look. Their busiest time of year is November and December - over half their 2.8 million orders are delivered during those months. They have about 1,300 year-round employees with about 6,000 to 8,000 extra people for the peak of the holiday season.

Harry and David is busy leading up to Mother's Day, then things slow down until after July 4th. After July 4th, they already begin to ramp up for the holidays. Unfortunately, when we were there at the end of June, the factory was completely shut down for maintenance to prepare for the increase in production that begins in July. They still have tours, but we had to rely on the tour guide's descriptions (which were excellent) and the videos they show along the way (which were also excellent) to get an idea of what goes on. The bus for the tour boards at the Harry and David store, which is shown in the photo below.

Harry and David were brothers. Their father moved to the Medford, OR area from Seattle, WA in 1910, and he bought 240 prime acres planted with pear trees. Harry and David took over the business when their father died in 1914 and they decided to specialize in Comice pears, a variety that only grows in a few areas in the world. Harry and David named their pears Royal Riviera to differentiate them from Comice pears grown elsewhere. They did well during the 1920s exporting the pears to the grand hotels of Europe until the stock market crash of 1929. In 1934, they decided to try selling their pears by mail. They initially visited captains of industry and pitched their pears as business gifts. Soon, orders started pouring in, and the Harry and David direct marketing company was born.

Harry and David both died in the 1950s - one from a heart attack and one in an accident. The company is currently owned by an investment company.

The first stop on the tour was the candy-making facility and bakery. One of Harry and David's more popular items is Moose Munch, which is a mix of caramel-coated popcorn and nuts. It is available plain or chocolate coated. In the photo below, the worker on the far right was performing maintenance of the machine that makes Moose Munch.

 

The same building also has a bakery area where things like cookies and cheese cake are made, and it has candy-making lines where they make truffles and other chocolate treats. At the end of the tour of the bakery, we were given sample boxes with raspberry-filled cookies and a chocolate mint truffle. The next photo shows our tour guide handing out samples.

From the candy-making facility/bakery we went to the fruit-packing building. Here, gift baskets and boxes of fruit are packed by hand for shipment. There was no packing going on, but we got a good idea of the hustle and bustle that normally takes place from the video.

The packers are paid a base salary plus a bonus for the number of baskets packed. Although the sizes and contents of the baskets vary, there are two long-time employees who are sisters who can each pack a basket in an average of about 45 seconds. The photo below shows the area where the gift baskets are packed.

The specialty of Harry and David remains the Royal Riviera pears. In the next photo, the machine to the right, which is called "Big Red," has a series of buckets that weigh the pears and dump them onto the appropriate conveyor so each box of pears ends up with the correct total weight.

Upstairs of the packing floor, dozens of workers make bows by hand for the gift baskets. They tried machine-made bows, but customers complained so they went back to hand-made bows. A lot of work at Harry and David is done by hand, and it seems customers expect that and are willing to pay for it.

Outside the fruit packing building were stacks and stacks of metal racks (in the foreground) used for cold storage of fruit and wooden boxes (in the distance) used for picking fruit. The picking boxes were also being repaired during this maintenance time. Harry and David still grows most of their own fruit in orchards in the nearby area.

Harry and David has very high standards for fruit that is sold through their catalog and shipped in gift boxes and baskets. Fruit that doesn't quite measure up is sometimes sold at their store at a discount. Fruit that isn't quite good enough to sell at the store is sold to a nearby company that manufactures baby food. Seconds from the bakery are made available in the employees' break room. Items are also donated to food banks and senior centers. Very little goes to waste.

From the packing building, the mini-bus took us back to the store where we had a chance to look around. The next photo shows some of items available in the Harry and David store.

We have received gifts from Harry and David in the past, and everything is excellent quality; and they have a no-questions-asked guarantee. They will refund your money or send out a replacement product if you're dissatisfied for any reason. Harry and David products make excellent gifts, but unfortunately, most things cost more than we were willing to spend on ourselves. We only bought a few items of produce (which were more reasonably priced than the gift items) before heading back to the motor home.

On the way back to the motor home we stopped to gas up the car. That was our first encounter with the Oregon law that prohibits the consumer from pumping their own gas. We couldn't remember that last time someone pumped the gas for us. Oregon and New Jersey are the only states that prohibit self-service gas pumps.

There's more to see in the Medford area, so look for our next post.