After breakfast we departed Oregon Garden Resort and drove south and east to near Troutdale, Oregon. Dale Larson, our host’s brother, lives there and is one of the world’s best, if not the best, wood turning artist. He was kind enough to give us a tour of his amazing shop, including the shop’s collection of wood turning art.
He graciously extended a wood turning lesson to Kay—making a wooden sphere. The resulting Madrone wood sphere was beautiful, and will be exhibited in the house with Kay’s other pieces of wood turning art.
After the “turning” experience, we viewed his collection of pieces from the other of world’s best turners, and the massive collection of his finest pieces.
Lunch was at the restaurant in the entertainment and lodging complex under the name McMenamins Edgefield. What was so unique about this complex was that it once was the Multnomah County Poor Farm. Established in 1911, the building and its surrounding grounds operated as a poor farm housing the ill and indigent populations in the Portland metropolitan area at the beginning of the twentieth century, before becoming abandoned in the 1980s. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
From the poor house, Ralph drove us to the Vista House, near the downstream terminus of the Columbia River Gorge. Vista House was built in 1917 on one of the most beautiful scenic points on the historic Columbia River Highway. It was constructed to provide travelers a place to rest and refresh themselves as they made their way down the magnificent Columbia River Gorge.
Our afternoon drive took us eastward on the historic Columbia River Gorge Parkway. The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to 4,000 feet deep, the canyon stretches for over eighty miles as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south.
The next stop was at the iconic Multnomah Falls. Multnomah Falls is a 611-foot-tall roaring, awe-inspiring cascade of icy water, where the falls appears to be bisected by an arched pedestrian bridge. This was on my photography bucket list.
We overnighted at Hood River, Oregon.
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