PERHAPS A SECRET BEST KEPT

July, 2021

Far more than once Barbara and Brian, on their journey started so long ago, have found or perhaps stumbled upon a place that is just simply a jewel; someplace that takes the breath away; someplace that impresses viscerally; someplace one wishes, amongst all the other places in our world, we could come back to again and again to further discover every nuance and be bedazzled over and over. Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, Canon Beach and Hug Point, Mt Hood, amd Portland itself hit every note for us.

But unfortunately, the Oregon wildfires during the summer of 2021 affected our time in Eugene and stops further south negatively, and even made a visit to Crater Lake different than the usual and customary spectacular OMG experience.

Leaving Sequim we had a repeat white-knuckle journey south on Highway 101 along the eastern Olympic Peninsula connecting with Interstate 5 for a little more than 100 miles before entering Oregon and turning east on Interstate 84. We eagerly anticipated our time staying in Troutdale at the Sandy River RV Park – the Park all of 10 miles east of downtown Portland.

Jack and Chris McGibbon are friends we made at VDO 2 seasons ago, and we had stayed in touch since going our separate ways in January 2020. We had been planning on reconnecting in Troutdale last summer, but our cancelled trip pushed the time together to this year. They had lived in the Portland area for quite a number of years, and while now full-time RVers a good part of their summer has been spent at this park the last 4 summers since they have family nearby. We truly had quite a reunion, and we felt very fortunate that the “McGibbon Tour Guide Company” gave so much of themselves in order to make our stay so very special. Oh, the wonders we experienced during our 3-week stay! We are so eternally grateful to our dear friends.

Let’s get started…

The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River. Glacial floods thousands of years ago carved this 1,200-mile-long river, which is the only sea-level passage to cross the Cascade Mountains. With cliffs rising as high as 4,000 feet, the Gorge acts as a funnel for North America’s fourth largest river, whose tributaries include the mighty Snake River. The canyon itself stretches for over eighty miles as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south.

Vista House is a museum at Crown Point in Multnomah County, Oregon that serves as a memorial to Oregon pioneers and as a comfort station for travelers on the Historic Columbia River Highway.  The site, situated on a rocky promontory, is 733 feet above the Columbia River on the south side of the Columbia River Gorge.

There are about a dozen waterfalls accessible from the Historic Columbia River Highway, and the 620-foot cascading Multnomah Falls is the first to greet visitors traveling from the west.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife built a first-class, fish-friendly sturgeon holding facility at Bonneville Hatchery next to the Columbia River near Cascade Locks that is now known as the Sturgeon Viewing and Interpretive Center. The Sturgeon Center is situated under a forest canopy and has a continuous flow of cool, fresh water. A paved path partway around the pond provides easy access to a viewing platform where people can get a bird’s eye view of this prehistoric creature that is believed to be unchanged from its development during the Jurassic Period 100-200 million years ago.

Jack and Chris made sure we visited Hood River, a small town along “The Gorge”, 60 miles or so east of Portland where we found out that in this neck-of-the-woods, surfers looked to ideal wind conditions, not the height of the ocean’s waves to be able to “hang ten.” Not sure “hang ten” is a term applied to wind surfers but watching these athletes skim across the water standing on their board while holding onto what looked like a big kite was indeed thrilling. And yeah, the wind was strong and incessant.

We crossed over the Columbia River at Cascade Locks using the Bridge of the Gods, a cantilever bridge. Cantilevers are structures with horizontal spans that are supported at one end with a vertical structure. The bridge’s name comes from a Native American legend: “millennia ago ‘the gods’ caused a boulder to fall into the river creating a natural bridge that permitted people to cross over the waters.”

Guess we must have worked up an appetite for donuts chasing along the Historic Columbia River Highway. No visit to Portland is complete without a trip to experience Voodoo Doughnut, at least to Brian. As Barbara was putting together the list of “must do’s,” and there is a lot yet to come, Brian kept insisting a visit to this iconic donut shop was essential. So, here we are.

Featured on the Food Network for its unusual donut creations, couples can purchase a wedding package at any of their 11 locations. The wedding package which starts at $300 includes a ceremony, doughnuts, and coffee. The bride and groom can have doughnuts decorated to order, and a shower of sprinkles rather than confetti to congratulate the newlyweds once they’re officially married. There is even a giant heart-shaped doughnut, engraved to order with frosting, which is pretty much a must for any ceremony.

The maple bacon bars and pastry cream filled voodoo doll donut are truly wonderful, and don’t you dare count calories!

This may get repeated several times across several blogs about our time in the Portland area, but one of the advantages of hanging out with “locals” is that they know more unusual places than have been reported by Atlas Obscura. The “McGibbon Tour Guide Company” never fails. We give you Hippo Hardware…

Hippo Hardware was officially established in 1976 after the founders Steven Miller and Stephen Oppenheim “decided to turn a life of swashbuckling adventures into a second life of swashbuckling adventures.” Fortunately, Steven Miller was at the store during our walk about. He is a fast-talking, quick-witted, conservative supporter of social organizations, gun carrying Viet Nam vet who told us that the store was named in honor of a female friend from high school who was the only person at the airport to greet Steven on his return from ‘Nam. She may have been a larger woman, but that simple act of love and friendship (when Vets returning from service during that era were shunned, insulted and ridiculed) earned her a forever place in Portland’s history.

Hippo Hardware has three glorious floors and 30,000 sq feet of building salvage to explore. It is an eclectic place specializing in hardware, lighting, architecture and plumbing from 1860-1960.  They offer “assorted collectibles, trinkets, whatnots, and whoziwhatsits depending on what is brought in.” If you’re looking for the straightforward and/or esoteric in hardware and building supplies, there’s a good chance Hippo Hardware can fill your order. For example: “if you want to replace your doorbell with a Victorian model that works with a crank, or stop your sink with a 100-year-old industrial drain basket, or light your room with iron sconces pulled from a Pullman sleeping car” it’s no problem – the question is how many you’d like!

Hippo Hardware provides employment for the homeless. Hippo Hardware provides food for the homeless, who are also welcome to use its bathrooms. And 10 to 15 people sleep each night on a covered area of sidewalk outside the store.

Quite impressive overall…

Powell’s Bookstore claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world and occupies a full city block in downtown Portland – over 68,000 square feet – and about 1.6 acres of retail floor space. CNN rates it one of the “coolest” bookstores in the world.

Nice start, no? So, sit back and enjoy the next several blogs, presented in chronological order, all about our time in and around the parts of Oregon we fell in love with – a part of the country unique in its diversity, generosity of spirit, wonderous in its sights from mountains to rivers and oceans, and (when not raining) perhaps should be kept a bit of a secret since we wouldn’t want to have such a good thing spoiled!

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau