::alio!::

Day 4

Day 4

I’m trying to type this quietly while Lisa sleeps on the bunk below me. It’s actually 1:00 AM on Day 5, but I don’t like to sweat the small stuff.

I will tell you that today has probably been one of the most ridiculous days of my life.

After leaving Portland relatively early this morning, we headed off the highway and enjoyed some ridiculously pretty scenery.

We were nearly blown over by a ridiculously high wind while visiting Vista House, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.

Then, for some reason, we decided to climb a ridiculously steep mountain at Multnomah Falls in order to see the state’s second tallest year round waterfall. It was hard on the knees and the lungs, but it was worth it.

We took a break in Hood River for lunch and some dallying. I sent off a free postcard to my parents. Lunch was had at one of the town’s breweries, atop a hill and beside a ridiculously long staircase. I had a ridiculously good salad. Greens, honey roasted walnuts, gorgonzola, and a dressing with some kick.

Finally we hit the higher latitudes on our way to Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge. It is, predictably, on the timberline to this very impressive mountain. It took a while to get decent photos, because haze set in and we could only see an outline of our destination. After a long time of driving through some treacherous mountain roads and watching the snow banks on the side climb to an alarmingly high level, I at last got a decent picture of our imminent host. I hope to get a good one as well tomorrow when we leave.

Timberline Lodge was built in the days of President Franklin and hasn’t been updated since. It’s AWESOME. The exterior of the lodge was actually used in the film The Shining – which is on loan at the front desk. The first two floors of this three-story lodge are actually covered in snow – there’s been a lot of snow recently. Our room is on the first floor, and from the top bunk of my lavish 8 x 10, $100 a night room, I can get a spectacular view of a wall of snow. Which actually turned out to be very convenient for us. The ghetto rooms on the first floor (next floor up add an extra hundred bucks) don’t get ice buckets. No problem – we followed in the footsteps of those who came before and inserted our “three-buck Chuck” into the snow bank to cool down.

After reflectively consuming the first bottle, we headed to the hot tub to experience warm water outside on the side of a mountain. It is certainly an odd experience to be swimming in an outdoor pool in March, surrounded by snow banks. Once dried and changed, we headed upstairs to the four star restaurant, and had an excellent meal. For me, it’s now all about the beef tenderloin. And my vegetables tasted like gravy, and we both agreed that’s the best tasting vegetable there is. No room for dessert, we were polishing off our lovely wine (actually good stuff this time) when the guy who runs the restaurant came over to talk to us. He had found out from the waiter that we were Canadian, and he had grown up in the Muskokas. As we were leaving the restaurant, he beckoned us down to the wine cellar, where we spent the next 20 minutes or so learning about wine in Oregon. As we left, he handed us four bottles of half-full wines for our enjoyment. One of them was the same Lisa had been enjoying at dinner, which was $15 a glass. I’d hate to imagine what the rest of them cost. In any case, we’re pretty much set for the evenings now.

We head out for one more dip in the pool and hot tub, and sneak in a glass of the expensive red for garnish, then head up to the third floor bar (where you can get wi-fi, as the rest of the place us under snow) for a quick bite of dessert. We later curled up on my bunk and played Finding Neverland on this here Mac, then turned in. Of course, I couldn’t sleep with the ridiculousness of today, so here I am.

I’m not sure when I’ll get this posted. I’ll bring it to breakfast, perhaps, and see what happens. The photos may be title-less for a day or so, but they’ll be up, too.

Tomorrow: Bend. I will see you there. Good night!

****Edit: I posted this from the bar at 7:00 in the morning. Lisa is still asleep in the bunk below.****

Posted by Ally at March 7, 2007 10:22 AM