Monday - We are slowly getting the points of interest around here checked off. Today we started with a tour of the powerhouse of the Bonneville Dam that is on the Washington side of the river. There were fish ladders and generators. This dam has more generators than the Hoover Dam (21 compared to 19) but not as many as Grand Coulee (33). Joe, of course, is very interested in this stuff, and so is Collins. I liked looking at the fish!
We watched a short movie about the dam which included information about the effects of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, which closed the river for some time. Fish going through this fish ladder are steelhead (July and August - we saw at least one), chinook salmon (Apr. through Sept.), and Sockeye (July). Also going through is an ugly eel-looking fish called the Pacific lamprey. We saw tons of these things.
Collins received a phone call about his car in the shop while we were here, about 10:30, so we finished up this tour and headed out. We were going to drive straight in to The Dalles. But then he got another phone call that said it should be done around 3:00 (the first phone call was just getting his approval to proceed). So we went back to our original plans and got on the 11:00 river cruise (barely made it, but they were waiting for a busload which didn't show up until the next tour).
There was a lot of activity on the river -- a boat towing another boat (which I sent to Mazie and told her that looked like them towing us on Roosevelt Lake, an event that has happened more than once).
kayakers
an outrigger boat -- she was trying to catch our wake
wind surfing
more kayakers
and a barge hauling sawdust heading east.
We had some time to relax and just watch the world go by.
Joe's selfie of us
Most of the channel markers here on the river had osprey nests on them. We could see the birds in some of them.
We passed under the toll bridge, "Bridge of the Gods," and came within sight of the locks and the dam but we turned around there.
Dip netting stands of the Native Americans are along the bank.
The resident sea lion was out sunning himself. That's the only one we saw.
We met another barge on this return trip, it was a grain barge and it was heading west. But we didn't get to see the locks in action.
And the jet boat that does the 7-hour ride also sped by.
We got back to the dock and deboarded about 1:20. There were some beautiful blue flowers by the office -- snowballs, maybe???
So we got the boat ride checked off our list, and headed to town to get Collins' car. Joe arranged to have the oil changed in ours so we picked theirs up and dropped ours off. The Brundiges treated us to lunch, then back to the dealership to pick up our car. The service manager gave us all tickets for a free car wash (after I mentioned that he didn't wash our car), so I went shopping while Joe got the car washed. Collins was right in front of him at the car wash. Then we made a stop at the grocery store, before heading back across the river and toward the campground. Along the way, we could see a lot of river activity -- the kite boarders were out in full force. We finally pulled over and watched them for a while.
This guy was practically airborne for a while, until he crashed. But he popped right back up and took off again. He finally came in to shore so I got a better look.
Below the next bridge, there were a few kite boarders, but the wind surfers ruled here.
Of course, Joe had to check out a couple of other roads but we finally got home about 7:00, and hooked up with the Brundiges for cards. Our air conditioner is definitely developing problems, so we are going to have to deal with that sometime. We saw a Camping World store yesterday over by Portland so we might have to go over there and see about a new fan motor. We hoped to limp it along until we got home but it doesn't sound like it is going to last that long. We have a second air conditioner in the bedroom, and it isn't that hot up here, so what to do, what to do.
I hope to do the waterfall drive tomorrow. And we have the other part of the dam and the locks to finish up. Busy, busy.
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