November 11, 2001
The Gouge
Location: Portland, OR
Good day today. Woke up late then drove over to Washington Park to go to the Japenese Gardens. The dumb desk clerk at the hotel said we could take the lightrail, then walk over to the Gardens--15 minutes, she said. Whatever. We drove, but there is no way that the walk from the lightrail to the Gardens would take 15 minutes.
Anyway, "dumb desk clerk" isn't a very Japenese Garden thought.
On the way over to the Gardens, we saw (or Mena saw) 2 Westies walking in the park. Westies in Pacific Northwest: 2!
The J.G. were great, very relaxing. Though perhaps too many people, particularly some annoying women. Too bad the pretty pink trees were not in blossom. And the ceremonial tea room was closed. And it was too overcast to see Mt Hood. But really, we liked the J.G.! There was a nice little waterfall, and some sweet little fish.
After the Gardens we stopped by the Rose Gardens, but it was kind of sad because of the winter thing etc. So the roses were kind of not alive. There was a fat little yellow bird, who seemed embarassed at the state of the rose gardens.
Then Mena said "Let's go to the gouge" (Columbia River Gorge) so we did, after looking for the Westies again in the park (we couldn't find them).
So we drove along the Historic Columbia River Highway and it was very windy. We saw 2 dogs walking out of a farm, then one dog lifted up his leg and started urinating. Then in the farm there was this sweet lab-looking dog looking agitated re: the 2 dogs wandering out into the street--then these 3 horses started running towards the 2 dogs looking upset. They had purpose--they reminded me of Mena or Augie, getting all upset and police-like about someone doing something wrong.
Anyway, on the highway, a bit worried at first because we didn't see any damn waterfalls, but then eventually we got to the Vista Point and knew that the waterfalls were coming soon after that. We saw some gorgeous waterfalls: Latourell, Bridal Veil, Wahkeena, Multnomah, and Horsetail. Mena liked Horsetail cause we could get really close to it. We got hot chocolate at Multnomah (very crowded).
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There is a bridge at the Multnomah falls, at the bottom of the top portion of the falls, and above the bottom portion. It's pretty high up. Anyway, a family of Middle Eastern descent were up there, and this little girl with a doll was putting her head through the side of the bridge, and her dad (or someone) saw her and yelled "No Kathy No!" (Kathy?) (imagine this being said with a heavy accent). Then about 5 minutes later we saw the father with just the doll. No Kathy.
After the falls we drove back to Portland, stopping in windy, stormy Troutland at the outlets to get a hat, some shirts, etc. Then back to Portland, where we stopped by the hotel, then went to Harborside Restaurant for dinner. (Got lost driving there) (bad maps). For dinner Mena had fried coconut shrimp with mango BBQ sauce; I had fish and chips. She also had a bowl of clam chowder, and we shared some Vietnamese-like spring rolls. And had some vanilla ice cream.
Now back at the hotel watching an "I Love Lucy" retrospective.
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