7/16/2017 - Visiting Joy, Rich and Rachael

Sunday - Another full day.  They did get the water back on in the park, the manager said they basically put a bandaid on it, but we both filled our water tanks in case it busts again.  With that done, we set out for the day.  Our first stop was the Cascade Locks Marine Park Dock, where the sternwheeler docks.  This was back over the river, crossing at the Bridge of the Gods toll bridge.  As we drove around the marina, we saw another boat, thinking it was the sternwheeler, but it was a cruise ship on a 7-day cruise up the Columbia and the Snake Rivers, with a base price deal of around $3,600.  We didn't think that was in our budget, so we found our way to the sternwheeler dock and got our information.  We will probably do that tomorrow.  We walked out on the deck here to look at the river.

There was a little activity across the river, a wind surfer and a boat.

We left there and drove down I-84 to wind our way over to Joy and Rich's house.  It took lots of turns but, amazingly, we ended up in their driveway.  We had a nice lunch with them on the patio, a good visit, then followed them over to a farmer's market to buy some more fresh fruit.  We decided to check out a campground that Joy said was "just down the road," on our way back, as a possibility when we come back through here in a few weeks.  Barton Park, on the Clackamas River, looks like it will work as our headquarters for our days in Portland when Dixie and Jim get here.  We saw a few geese here, that was the only wildlife for the day.  People were floating down this lazy river and we watched a couple of guys delicately carry a canoe through the rocks to launch.

We got back to Joy's and I checked out their garden.  Looking good.

Rachel had worked this morning but called when she got off and decided to drive up from Salem to visit.  What should have been about an hour's drive for her turned into a 3-hour drive because of a wreck on the freeway.  We visited briefly with her, and picked Rich and Joy's brains about things to see in Washington.  Then we all left for dinner at Claim Jumper.

With their guidance, we found our way out of the parking lot and onto Hwy 205 across the river to our exit on Hwy 14.  I'm pretty sure they wondered how we ever got out of Arizona.  We got back to the campground about 8:30, another long day.  But it was great getting to visit with family and we will look forward to seeing them next month when we come back down the coast from Washington.  It was a cool day here, in the 70s (I had to put my jacket on a couple of times) and it was just 60 degrees when I got up this morning.  Nice, nice weather.  It's been a long time since we have seen any rain, and we thought it rained all the time in Oregon!