Our flight to Seattle kept being delayed. Finally 3 hours later we took off. We did get exit row seats. Otherwise things were quite spartan as they had to bring this plane out of retirement at the last second..no entertainment consoles. That didn't matter as I spent most of the time crocheting but I was so hungry. Just as it was finally our turn, the pilot said it was too dangerous to have food carts in the aisle. Bump, drop for the next 90 minutes. My plan was to have a drink to help me sleep but by the time I got it, we were landing.
Off to get our rental cars. In the past, we could just walk there but now they built some expensive new facility quite some distance away that I guess the absurdly high rental rates must now subsidize so we had to wait a while for a bus. By this time, it was 1 am EDT. I was tired and crabby made more so by this initially fake smiling rental agent who at every turn wanted to up- sell.
How about a Cadillac?
How about the car I paid for already.
How about this, how about that
How about the car I paid for?
Fake smile fading.
Well I see you are a value minded person (Read: cheap) How about our pre-paid fuel option?
Yeah I did that once. Ended up paying twice the going rate for the gas. Nein Danke.
We thought at least so late at night, we wouldn't have traffic. Wrong! Accident after accident. All stop and go.Close to 3 am Michigan time by the time we got to sleep. But in the morning, a pretty, sunny day. We had a great breakfast (artichoke sun dried tomato omelet) while we waited for rush hour to clear. Then on to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. I might have been there once as a kid because the Bonneville Dam with its fish ladder seemed familiar. We stopped for almost every scenic vista. Once I am home, I will post pictures. I posted some iPhone things on Facebook but with my good camera, I got some much nicer ones. Everything was so lush. Wonderful waterfalls! My favorite was Latourell Falls, this 300 ft ribbon of water falling on a jet black cliff with bright chartreuse algae on it. We saw their showcase Muthutmah Falls. At 600 feet, it is the 2nd highest in the US, third in the world but it was so crowded, we couldn't enjoy it much. And I loved the fish ladder..chinook salmon are huge though most of the fish were brown trout. We did the turn off for Mt Hood, which one could see for miles past lavender fields and cherry farms. Very scenic. We underestimated how large Oregon is. It seemed we were just going to cover a tiny corner of it but as it turned out, this tiny corner is huge. We had no time to stop for lunch. We were supposed to check in at the B&B at 6 but that wasn't going to happen. It was well after 8 when we finally got there. The owner checked to see which places still served dinner so late. We ended up at a nice Italian restaurant. after a good glass of wine, things were good.
Off to get our rental cars. In the past, we could just walk there but now they built some expensive new facility quite some distance away that I guess the absurdly high rental rates must now subsidize so we had to wait a while for a bus. By this time, it was 1 am EDT. I was tired and crabby made more so by this initially fake smiling rental agent who at every turn wanted to up- sell.
How about a Cadillac?
How about the car I paid for already.
How about this, how about that
How about the car I paid for?
Fake smile fading.
Well I see you are a value minded person (Read: cheap) How about our pre-paid fuel option?
Yeah I did that once. Ended up paying twice the going rate for the gas. Nein Danke.
We thought at least so late at night, we wouldn't have traffic. Wrong! Accident after accident. All stop and go.Close to 3 am Michigan time by the time we got to sleep. But in the morning, a pretty, sunny day. We had a great breakfast (artichoke sun dried tomato omelet) while we waited for rush hour to clear. Then on to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. I might have been there once as a kid because the Bonneville Dam with its fish ladder seemed familiar. We stopped for almost every scenic vista. Once I am home, I will post pictures. I posted some iPhone things on Facebook but with my good camera, I got some much nicer ones. Everything was so lush. Wonderful waterfalls! My favorite was Latourell Falls, this 300 ft ribbon of water falling on a jet black cliff with bright chartreuse algae on it. We saw their showcase Muthutmah Falls. At 600 feet, it is the 2nd highest in the US, third in the world but it was so crowded, we couldn't enjoy it much. And I loved the fish ladder..chinook salmon are huge though most of the fish were brown trout. We did the turn off for Mt Hood, which one could see for miles past lavender fields and cherry farms. Very scenic. We underestimated how large Oregon is. It seemed we were just going to cover a tiny corner of it but as it turned out, this tiny corner is huge. We had no time to stop for lunch. We were supposed to check in at the B&B at 6 but that wasn't going to happen. It was well after 8 when we finally got there. The owner checked to see which places still served dinner so late. We ended up at a nice Italian restaurant. after a good glass of wine, things were good.
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