{"id":44,"date":"2017-08-28T00:52:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T00:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/?p=44"},"modified":"2017-08-28T00:53:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T00:53:03","slug":"the-columbia-river-gorge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/2017\/08\/28\/the-columbia-river-gorge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Columbia River Gorge"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday<\/strong>, August 22, we peeked at some Boise sights before leaving. \u00a0We went to the Micron Semiconductor headquarters, and snapped a photo from the road of\u00a0the world\u2019s largest nitrous oxide tank. \u00a0As a result of bad Google Maps guessing, we ended up at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, and why not have a\u00a0look? \u00a0The museum has the world\u2019s most cheerful ticket taker, and an impressive prison tattoo and prison weapon exhibit. \u00a0The ticket man said we\u00a0should go to the Roosevelt Grocery and have quiche. \u00a0It’s a pleasant change to take marching orders from happy people. \u00a0We had lunch in a\u00a0neighborhood featuring many fine old houses from the late 19th century. \u00a0The lunch place is called Roosevelt Grocery and is notable for being across\u00a0from an elementary school and they don’t forbid students from entering more than six at a time. \u00a0Lack of prejudice is worth seeking out. \u00a0The green\u00a0chili quiche is good too.<\/em>

Then we headed up I-84 towards the Columbia River.

We stopped at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside of Baker City for a little stretch. \u00a0They tell you not to walk on the ruts. \u00a0This is not to the\u00a0point. \u00a0Tens of thousands of people walked on those ruts already, and it doesn’t give the right impression to show faint tracks under grown sagebrush.\u00a0\u00a0Here is a proposal for another Oregon Trail interpretive center: \u00a0Take few dozen acres of the trail and build a few dozen prairie schooners and all\u00a0summer long, run them (bearing tourists of course) many times a day over a one or two hundred meter wide stripe of land, rain or shine, leaving ruts\u00a0and wagon parts and footprints and hoof marks and the ground would then look like the Oregon Trail actually did.

Of course you all have noticed that the eclipse followed the Oregon Trail quite accurately. \u00a0The staff had all viewed. \u00a0One very young looking clerk said\u00a0it was her last eclipse. \u00a0She has had breast cancer and her future is uncertain. \u00a0She did not tolerate chemotherapy well. \u00a0Currently she is in the “they\u00a0think they got it all,” phase of life, and all of you reading this, wish her well according to your various contradictory faiths, and pray that her husband\u00a0keeps his insurance-bearing job because she doesn’t get enough hours in the gift shop to qualify for insurance for her surgeries and drugs.

I sent our friend Sam a post card that said “You have died of dysentery,” referring to the Oregon Trail game craze he was swept up in as a teenager.\u00a0\u00a0We had previously sent him a t-shirt with that slogan, after seeing one some years back, in Portland.

That day ended in Hermiston, where we visited briefly with a very old friend who has had a career with Oregon Fish and Wildlife, assisting with the\u00a0reintroduction of salmon into \u00a0previously dammed-off tributaries of the Columbia. \u00a0Now he can have Atlantic salmon, too! \u00a0In between administrative\u00a0hostility at the highest level and Jurassic Park irresponsibility on the economic front — you knew we were doomed, I don’t have to keep dwelling on it.

<\/i>Wednesday<\/strong> we drove down the Columbia River Gorge. \u00a0First we saw the Maryhill Museum\u2019s Stonehenge replica, and then the museum itself. \u00a0The\u00a0first room you enter was all about Marie, Queen of Roumania and friend of Sam Hill the founder (no, not What The Sam Hill). \u00a0A Rodin room had an\u00a0interesting exhibit showing the stages of the lost-wax method of making bronze sculptures, and a Native American room had many cute artifacts. \u00a0We\u00a0briefly watched windsurfers and kitesurfers at Hood River, and then saw waterfalls. \u00a0We went on a short walk to Elowah Falls, then took pictures of a\u00a0woman\u2019s water polo team getting their pictures taken at Horsetail Falls, and glanced at Multnomah Falls. \u00a0We drove up to Vista House, but it was\u00a0closed so we didn\u2019t go inside. \u00a0The view up there is pretty great. \u00a0We drove on to Portland for dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, August 22, we peeked at some Boise sights before leaving. \u00a0We went to the Micron Semiconductor headquarters, and snapped a photo from the road of\u00a0the world\u2019s largest nitrous oxide tank. \u00a0As a result of bad Google Maps guessing, we ended up at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, and why not have a\u00a0look? \u00a0The museum … Continue reading The Columbia River Gorge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apresmidi.net\/eee2017\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}