Jim and Cindy's Adventure in

The Pacific Northwest!

May 2007

We arrived in Portland, Oregon in the late morning of an overcast Saturday, rented a car, found a motel room and called my cousin Tom Siergey and his wife, Marge who live in nearby Vancouver, WA.  They drove over, picked us up and after a quick bite at a German deli, we headed off for the Columbia River Gorge.      
The Columbia Gorge runs along the Oregon/Washington border.  It is 80 miles long, 5 miles wide, 4000 feet deep and is filled with waterfalls and hiking trails.

                                                                                                                     
The four of us filled that afternoon with views of the Gorge along the historic scenic drive, eyeballed many waterfalls and took a long hike into the greenery.  Just as we finished our hike, exiting the forest, a light rain began to fall.  Tom & Marge dropped us off at our motel for a quick respite and then returned to whisk us away to the Red Lion in Vancouver for a lovely dinner (the bestest trout we ever had) at a window overlooking the Columbia River, which winds its way all over the place in the Pacific Northwest.  We also sampled our first Pinot Noir, which is the wine of the region.  We returned to our motel room at around 11 pm (1 am Chicago time) and since we had risen at 4 am Chicago time, we were ready for sawing that Portland timber.

The next day was Sunday, "Mother's Day", and it was a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest.  The rain had subsided, the sun had come out and the temperatures were creeping into the 60s.  Another one of my cousins named Tom, Tom Ladouceur, came and picked us up.  Tom lives in Kalama, Washington.  His mother, my aunt and godmother, Adela (Aunt Dela), moved out to Corvallis, Oregon a year or so ago.  We headed on down to Corvallis, where we spent a lovely afternoon getting reacquainted with Tom, visiting with my aunt at her apartment, lunching at Michael's Landing, an old train station transformed into a restaurant, and a bit of the old wine-tasting at The Wine Vault. 
 

Monday morning, Cindy and I left Portland and headed back out to the Gorge, checking it out this time from the Washington side.  We climbed Beacon Rock, so named by Lewis and Clark beacuse of it's landmark position.  It is 953 feet high, switchback trails the entire way up.  It was an extremely windy day and it was an extremely exhilarating experience. Later we drove up to Rowena Crest, stopped at Bonneville Dam, lunched at Skamania Lodge and visited the very interesting and picturesque Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. 
 

We spent the night at the Riverside Hotel in Hood River, Oregon and dined at The Pale Horse Brewery and Restaurant where I enjoyed a pint of a fine Scotch Ale.

Tuesday morning, we breakfasted at Egg Harbor (mighty fine coffee served in mighty big mugs) and enjoyed a view of Mt. Adams outside our window as we ate.  Then we drove up to Mt. Hood (11, 200 ft. elev.) where everything was still covered with snow.  Skiers and snowboarders galore.  We rode the ski lift up to 7, 200 ft to have a look around.  This is also where the Timberline Lodge is.  It's exteriors were used in the movie "The Shining".  The Timberline Lodge is jaw-droppingly marvelous.  It was hand-crafted by artisans  as part of a WPA project.  There is elegant detail everywhere you look, from the newel posts ,each one carved in the shape of a different animal, to the hexagonal three story fireplace and the WPA paintings adorning the walls.  We spent a lot of time wandering around inside the Timberline Lodge and outside on Mt. Hood.
 

As we finally tore ourselves away from Mt. Hood and all its wonderment, we headed back up northeast across Washington toward our next destination, Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.  But first, we needed to stop at Mt. Hood Winery and Cathedral Ridge Winery to sample and purchase their wares. It was about a six hour drive or so to Coeur D'Alene and we were starting off later than we had originally planned.  As it neared 10 p.m. and with our energy levels  hovering near empty, we decided to look for overnight lodging.  We pulled into a town called Sprague but from the looks of it, a better name for it would be Bates Motelville.  We beat it out of there and ended up staying, to our dismay, in a town called (gasp) Cheney!  Cheney, home of Eastern Washington University.  We slept fitfully as visions of quails and wounded lawyers danced in our heads.  We woke in the morning, ready to invade Iraq, I mean, Coeur D'Alene.

Coeur D'Alene is where Cindy's newly-discovered sister (half-sister for the genetically correct), Julie and her husband Joe live.  Originally from the Chicago area, Julie and Joe have lived in the Wyoming/Montana/Idaho area since 1961.  We arrived around 9:30 that morning and soon headed out to the Coeur D'Alene resort on Lake Coeur D'Alene.  We went on a lengthy hike on Tubbs Hill, lunched at the Iron Horse downtown and later in the afternoon went on a boat cruise on Lake Coeur D'Alene before heading back to Julie and Joe's home where we supped on home-made lasagna and then slept like the proverbial logs.

Thursday, we took a long drive up the northern part of Idaho's panhandle to Priest Lake.  The panhandle is filled with scenic beauty.  All around are towering mountains covered with pointy pines, rolling verdant hills and more sky than an urbanite can imagine exists.  Priest Lake was a breath-taking spot where we relaxed on the beachfront, strolled along the pier and took a hike thru the woods. 

Friday, we toured  the eastern and northeastern part of Idaho's panhandle.  We drove out to Old Mission State Park which houses the oldest building in Idaho.  This mission, built in the mid 1800s  has a fascinating history. It is also situated in a beautiful setting, atop a hill overlooking a beautiful valley of wildflowers with pine tree-covered mountains standing majestically in the distance. Soon after we arrived, two school buses pulled up that contained the most well-behaved children we have ever seen on a field trip.  They listened attentively as a park ranger recreated the history and the building of the mission.  We were relieved to see them later, acting like "normal" kids, running and climbing and clamoring along the rolling hills outside the mission.   After we left the mission, we stopped for lunch at The Snake Pit, a colorful restaurant adorned with amusing bric-a-brac and assorted memorabilia, including a gator head. I had me two (!) glasses of a fine root beer--Henry Weinbart was the brand, I believe.  Then we hit Murray, Idaho, an old gold-mining town.  Much of Murray still looks like an 1890s gold-mining town, except that people still live there.  We visited the Murray Museum, which one enters thru a back door in one of the local saloons.  It was rooms and rooms full of....stuff.  You name it, it was in there.  Bottles, pistols, mining tools, cigarettes, more than one can imagine. After that trip into the past, we went on a long drive thru more of eastern Idaho, even venturing into Montana for awhile.  We spent most of the time gazing at the scenery, too awe-struck to even take photos.  I did discover a regional candy bar, "Idaho Spud" which boasts that it's "The Candy Bar That Makes Idaho Famous".
 

Saturday, we went to Spokane, Washington.  It was there we were to meet the family.  Julie's daughter, Kathy and her husband, Mark were hosting a barbeque party at their home.  Julie's son, John, along with his wife, Gretchen and their daughters, Ashley and Matty, who also reside in Spokane would be attending as well.  It would be an introductory family reunion.  Before party time, however, we stopped at Spokane's Manito Park, which reminded me, in a way, of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  It consists of acres of landscaping and various flower gardens.  We strolled thru the Lilac Garden, the Wildflower Garden and the Japanese Garden before heading off to Kathy and Mark's domicile.  They have a lovely house with a beautifully landscaped garden and, as we expected, everyone we met were wonderful and real people.  We look forward to commingling again some day.

 

Sunday was departure day.  We had to drive all the way across the state of Washington into Portland so we could catch an early flight the next morning.  We had a great stay in Coeur D'Alene, visiting with Julie and Joe and their offspring and their mates and their offspring.  We saw quite a bit of Idaho's panhandle and it is some pretty country, yesirree bob and you can dot the i on that. 
On the way back, we stopped at the Maryhill Winery which sits on a breathtaking view of the Columbia River.  We did a tasting and then lunched on the veranda.  We shared some time with a white Great Pyrenees that we dubbed Leopold, for some reason.  We hit some pretty heavy rain when we got an hour or so from Portland.  But what would be a trip to the Pacific Northwest without a little rain?  As we slogged into Portland, we stopped at McMenamins Edgefield, a one-time County Poor Farm that has been transformed into a 38 acre resort and recreation area. It is set amid lavish gardens with antiques and artwork at every turn as well as hotel rooms and restaurants.  It was raining when we arrived so we didn't get to see very much of it at all.  We hope there will be a next time so we'll be able to explore more of it.  We did dine at the Black Rabbit Restaurant where we had our first dining experience with sturgeon. It is quite a meaty fish.  It's taste smacks of wild game, which explains why it was served in pith helmets.  As we exited the eatery, the rain had stopped but it was getting late and we were tired plus we still had to return the rental car and book a room so our exploring of the Pacific Northwest came to an end.  But it was a wonderful, verdant adventure.  Pacific Northwest, to thee we doff our chapeaus!