Washington and Oregon

WASHINGTON

Driving east across Washington State is a surprise to most folks – it’s mostly dry and windy.  






















Crossing the Cascade Mountains, things get wetter – still some snow on the ground and lots more green.

Seattle sits along the shore of Puget Sound, with Lake Washington behind and the snowy peak of Mount Ranier floating (somewhere) in the distance.  Salty’s on Alki Beach is billed as one of the ‘World’s Great View Restaurants,’ with sweeping views of Elliott Bay and the Seattle city skyline.  In spite of the overcast skies, we enjoyed the view from the deck of the restaurant.  Even better was the food.  We expected world-class salmon in Seattle, and we weren’t disappointed.  Delicious.

 

The Hiram Chittenden Locks are a complex of locks on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which connects Lakes Washington and Union with Puget Sound.  The locks maintain the lakes’ water level, prevent the mixing of sea water and fresh water, and move boats from the level of the lakes to sea level (and vice versa).  A fish ladder is integrated into the locks to facilitate the annual salmon migration.

The Space Needle is probably the best-known symbol of Seattle.  It was built for the 1962 World’s Fair – when it was completed, it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.  We took the 43-second ride to the top for the 360° view of the city, Puget Sound, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains – alas, no Mt. Rainier today.  Two views are shown here – one from our hotel room and one from the ground below the tower.

Lake Union (viewed here from the Space Needle) was formed by glacier action, over 12,000 years ago.  Today it is lined with shipyards, wharves, and floating houses – including the one featured in ‘Sleepless in Seattle.’

Magnolia Bluff is a lovely area overlooking Puget Sound and the city of Seattle.  Homes in this area have multi-million dollar price tags – but what a view. 

Dale Chihuly is a Seattle native who happens to be a world-renowned artist and creator of fine art, sculpture and chandeliers from colorful glass.  The new Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum has just opened in the shadow of the Space Needle.  For those in our neighborhood, check out the Chihuly chandelier at the Columbia Museum of Art. 

Pioneer Square is the oldest section of the city of Seattle.  There’s old red brick and black wrought iron – and lots of history.  Today the area is home to art galleries, internet companies, cafes, nightclubs and bookstores.

It’s also the home of part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (the other part is in Skagway, Alaska).  The park commemorates the gold rush of the late 1890s – merchants here made fortunes selling groceries, clothing and even ships to gold seekers as Seattle became known as the gateway to Yukon gold.

Pike Place Market is one of the nation’s oldest continually operated farmers’ markets in the U.S.  Built on a steep hill on the waterfront, it has multiple levels in multiple buildings – and something for everybody.  Here you can find produce, seafood, cut flowers, cheese, baked goods, handicrafts, restaurants, and all manner of street performers, usually with CDs for sale.

Our favorite spot in the market is Pike Place Fish, where the fishmongers keep up a lively conversation while casually tossing a whole salmon or two.  It’s a great show and a fine place to wrap up our visit to Seattle. 

OREGON

The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon stretching over 80 miles as the Columbia River winds westward through the Cascade Mountains.  The Gorge contains a high concentration of waterfalls, including the 620 foot high Multomah Falls.  The falls are fed by underground springs on Larch Mountain, supplemented by seasonal rainfall and snowmelt.  This is the second-highest year-round waterfall in the U.S.

The Bonneville Dam, about 45 miles upstream from Portland, was the first of the chain of WPS dams which made the Columbia River the biggest producer of hydro-electric power in the world.  The Bonneville Dam project not only put people back to work and generated electricity; it also improved navigation by creating locks to bypass dangerous rapids here.

The powerhouses (there are two) contain 10 generators each and produce enough electricity for nearly one million homes.

While the spillway allows water to bypass the powerhouse turbine (passing instead under the dam), the fish ladder allows migrating fish – mostly salmon - to bypass the dam and its turbulent flow.

Inside the fish ladder, there are windows to allow staff and visitors to observe migrating fish.  In front of one of those windows sits the official Bonneville fish counter, who keeps a running tally of numbers and types of fish moving through the ladder.  Take a look at the fish cam to see what’s happening today:  http://137.161.203.100/locations/fishcam_hs_or.asp

Portland, which was incorporated in 1851, is Oregon’s largest city.  It’s known as the City of Roses, but it’s much more than that.  The city has 37,000 acres of parks, 50 galleries and museums, 25 theater companies, an historic old town, and a grand riverfront park.  It’s a comfortable size city, with an excellent public transit system.  It’s been named America’s cleanest city, greenest city, best cycling city, and among the ten most walkable cities in the nation. 

Pioneer Courthouse Square is the modern centerpiece of downtown – it used to be a parking lot, but today is known as Portland’s Living Room.  Behind the Square, the Pioneer Courthouse was the first major Federal building in the Pacific Northwest.

Old Town, near the river, was where Portland was founded.  By the early 1850s, wealthy Portlanders were edging the street with grand building, some of which have been preserved and restored to house bistros and boutiques.  One of Portland’s founding fathers, Simon Benson, built water fountains all over town so that workers would have easy access to clean drinking water – cut down on disease as well as beer consumption!  Today, over 130 of the ‘Benson Bubblers’ are still doing their job.

Nearby, another entire city block is occupied by Powell’s Bookstore.  Three stories tall, with 1.5 million books in stock, Powell’s claims to be the largest bookstore in America – maps are issued so customers can find their way around.

Washington Park is the crown jewel of Portland’s extensive park system.  It encompasses 130 acres of hills and dales and includes an arboretum, international rose test garden, a zoo, children’s museum, Japanese garden, and the forestry discovery center.  In late May, the hills were covered with rhododendron blooming in every color imaginable. 

Gearing up for the annual Rose Festival, many of the 10,000 rose bushes (610 varieties) planted here were just coming into full bloom.  This is one of the oldest rose gardens in the U.S.

And of course, no visit to Portland is complete without a stop at Voodoo Doughnuts, home of totally outrageous delicacies ranging from the Voodoo Doll doughnut to the Mango Tango doughnut.  There’s even a coffin full of doughnuts if you’re really hungry.  And – people come here to get married – by an ordained minister under the holy doughnut and a black velvet painting of Isacc Hays.

The Oregon Coast is as beautiful as any stretch of America’s seaboard – dramatic headlands, mountainous sand dunes, and long sandy beaches.  There are plenty of rocky shorelines with crashing waves – a photo opportunity at every turn.

 

 Sea Lion Caves is a huge cavern that houses a raucous (and smelly) colony of Steller sea lions, though some of them prefer the sunny ledge outside.  We also saw pigeon guillemots and Brandt’s cormorants here.

 

Florence, Oregon is a charming little seacoast town, where we stopped to have lunch on the waterfront – and to get our bearings.

The Oregon Sand Dunes National Recreation Area encompasses 31,500 acres stretching along 40 miles of coastline.  There are plenty of dunes, but many of them are covered by forest.  Dunes may form to nearly 500 feet, the all but vanish as an entire forest can emerge in 50 years.  Conversely, some of the dunes are busy covering the forest with sand.

 

The Oregon dunes are not a sea of pure sand, but a blend of open dunes, tree islands, wetlands, forests and lakes.  The tree islands provide homes for bear, deer and coyote.

Trails are tough to maintain here – the sand is always on the move and it’s easy to get hopelessly lost.  Riding in a dune buggy allowed us deep access into the preserve, as well as a sense of the size and power of this place. 

Our Tour Leader, Ingrid Long, and driver, Don Myrick, helped with photographic evidence of our visit. Yes, it was a bit cold and a whole lot windy.

 


Also photographic evidence of surprising plant life on and around the dunes – blooming rhododendron and scotch broom (which we saw all over Washington and Oregon).

 

We spent the night in Gold Beach, right on the ocean near the mouth of the Rogue River.  Nice spot to enjoy the beach, admire the plant life, and dine on fresh-caught salmon.