The Surprising Evergreen Aviation Museum

At Pheasant Ridge RV Resort, Wilsonville, Oregon...

I know I may be pushing the limits of readers' tolerance for airplane-themed posts, but this part of the country is ground zero for certain events long ago that were highly contributory to my career as a pilot. So, you'll just have to grant me a little leeway, hopefully, as I get this out of my system.

We drove out to McMinnville, Oregon to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, located near the McMinnville Airport and across the street from the office building that housed Evergreen International Airlines, for which I flew as a pilot some 35 years ago. The airline, now out of business, was owned by Delford Smith, a successful aviation entrepreneur who, along with his late son, Richard King Smith, envisioned and built the museum. The star attraction, of course, is the "Spruce Goose," giant wooden airplane designed and built by Howard Hughes at the end of World War II.

I won't go into the long and dramatic story of the historic fabled airplane and its eventual move to Oregon from San Diego, but it is a fascinating one that is easily Googled.

I wasn't quite prepared for the very elaborate and modern campus that houses the winged flight museum, the space museum, an Imax theater and an airplane-themed water park. Here's a look at the buildings:

The Evergreen Aviation Museum (Where the Spruce Goose is Housed)

The Space Museum

The Imax Theater shows aviation and science-related films. They even serve popcorn!



The Indoor Water Park (Note the water slides exiting from the rear fuselage of the 747.)



The Spruce Goose is so large that it won't fit into the camera's field of view.

A replica of the Spirit of St. Louis offers a stunning comparison.



Bow line and anchor of the Spruce Goose

Here are the specs of the Spruce Goose (Its wingspan is greater than the length of a football field.)

Here are the specs for the eight Wright R-4360 Wasp engines.

Unfortunately, not on hand was the aircraft I flew for Evergreen, a DC-8-73 freighter, the first large jet transport aircraft I was trained to fly. It was a favorite of mine, and I really wish one had been on display. Here is a photo from the Internet:

I am including some more photos of airplanes below, but you can ignore them, as I am posting them for my grandsons. These are some of the airplanes that I have flown during my flying career, and Mason is already becoming very interested in airplanes and what his granddad's flying career was like. I have a feeling that Pryce will, too, when he gets older.



I know I've posted this before, but this is an Aeronca 7AC, the kind of airplane in which I took my first solo flight at the age of 16.



A Piper J-3 Cub. I flew one like this a good bit when I was a student pilot.

A Beechcraft Bonanza - A Cadillac of an airplane, in which I flew some charter flights.

A Beech 18, like one in which I flew a nightly mail run for five years. (Posted previously)



A Cessna 310 B - The very model in which I took my multiengine flight test (before I graduated from high school).

A Learjet like one I flew part-time for a timber company in Texas.

 

Douglas DC-3. I only flew this once, but it was enough to say that I flew it. I wish I had gotten a type rating in it.
 

Lockheed Super Constellation that I flew part time. I posted this before, but I wanted to get it in this collection. (Another interesting, but disturbing, note: The airplane I flew eventually crashed years later, having been mistakenly fueled with jet fuel instead of aviation gasoline.)

 

At a later time, I'll add photos of a number of other airplanes I flew, including the DC-9 and Boeing 727, the last two airliners in which I served as captain before retiring. I'll have to dig around in my records to find them, I'm afraid.

 

I was amazed how many of the types of airplanes I have flown were encountered on this trip. The visit to Evergreen was especially interesting to Sandy, as she had to remain home in Texas during my training in Oregon and had not seen this area that was such a significant part of my career.

 

Another positive note: The Evergreen museum was not crowded at all, which added much to the enjoyment of the experience. It seems to be a hidden gem of a place and, in my view, it is well worth the drive to visit.

 

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough every day.

 



Goodbye Seattle, Hello Portland (Again)

At Pheasant Ridge RV Resort, Wilsonville, Oregon...

A few final thoughts about Seattle: First, we've found that it is impossible to see even a respectable portion of a place like this in less than 30 days, so the short time we were here doesn't give much heft to my remarks. However, that doesn't stop me from giving you a few impressions.

Seattle is certainly located in a beautiful setting between mountain and ocean, and it is home to economic and technology powerhouses that cause it to be a very desirable place to live and work. This is obviously not a secret, as the area draws new residents like moths to a flame. There is a downside, however; the place is full! There are perhaps locales in the country that are equally crowded, but somehow they seem eventually to accommodate everyone with new and bigger roads or an efficient rapid transit system. Seattle cannot build new roads, because it would displace too many people, and the light rail system is still in its infancy.

As a result, the freeways are packed almost all the time, regardless of the time of day. Downtown is crowded with people, and Pike Street Market is almost impossible to navigate. Popular restaurants often have wait times of over an hour. I'm sure this will be alleviated somewhat in the off season, but we found it a real chore to get around.

It's also very expensive. Here's a sample of some jaw-dropping prices we paid for the items listed:

Lunch: Two BBQ sandwiches (a mistake outside of Texas, Memphis, Kansas City, etc.), a shared order of fries, an iced tea and a soda - $35.00, including tip.

Dinner: One order of fish and chips, two fish tacos and two soft drinks - $43.00, including tip.

Dry cleaning: Five pairs of slacks - $39.00

Bear in mind that these purchases were made from mom and pop-style establishments that were anything but upscale. I'm guessing the recent minimum wage hike to $15.00 per hour in Seattle had something to do with this, but I don't know many people for whom these prices wouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, we finally got the message and were more much more careful, checking prices before we bought things and doing more eating in. We just wanted you to be aware, in case you come this way.

We arrived at our current location near Portland after a traffic-choked drive southward on I-5 and, after setting up, went for a familiarization drive around Wilsonville, Tualatin and Tigard. This area is very pretty and well kept, with things definitely slower paced than we found in Seattle. We stopped at a little mom-and-pop Asian storefront restaurant and had a great meal for a great price--almost dirt cheap after Seattle! Can you imagine shrimp and vegetable tempura for only $8.95?

Kung Pao Chicken

Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura

You're probably seeing a pattern here. We like to eat out, and oriental food and seafood are among our favorites (there could be worse things, healthwise, I guess). We are always trying new local spots like this, and we almost never patronize a big chain restaurant. Sometimes it's a real find, like this one, and sometimes it isn't. Rice Time makes it onto our list of favorite restaurants.

The next post will review our visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

A Look at Aviation Then and Now

At Pheasant Ridge RV Resort, Wilsonville, Oregon...

Yesterday was almost an overload of information and nostalgia as we toured the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field and the giant Boeing assembly plant in Everett.

The Museum of Flight is a large first class facility where you can view almost any kind of airplane from a Piper Cub to the SR-71 spy plane. Here are a few photos and a brief commentary:

I was surprised to see the SR-71 spy plane (the long sleek one on the floor in the above photo). Flown by the USAF from 1964 to 1994 on countless spy missions over hostile territory, not one of these stealthy airplanes was ever touched by a missile or enemy fire. Why? Flying at 80,000 feet and 2,000 mph, nothing--including a missile--could catch it! An engineering marvel, for sure.

An exact replica of the Lockheed 10 in which Amelia Earhart and her navigator disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

A Lockheed Super Constellation sat outside the museum. An airplane like this was the first large transport airplane that I flew. It was 1968, and the airplane belonged to a travel club, having been retired from airline service years before. It was antique technology back then, even though it was a queen of the skies in its day. I loved the airplane; it was fun to fly, and I thought it was a beautiful and graceful design. The big R-3350 radial engines were pretty temperamental, though. The flight engineer was always busy tweaking them, as I recall.

The original Air Force One of the jet age was interesting to see and walk through.

More amazing was a tour through the huge Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Washington, where we viewed the B-777 and 787 production lines. It seems odd that I spent quite a few years flying Boeing airplanes, yet didn't get to see the factory until after I retired from flying. Oh, well; better late than never.

We were not permitted to take any photos in the plant, but it was an experience hard to forget. The advancements in aviation technology just in the time since I last flew big airplanes is breathtaking. For perhaps the first time, I felt like a dinosaur; today's airliners seem to be more like video games than the ones I flew. I take some consolation in believing that we old pilots actually flew the airplanes rather than watching them fly themselves. The tour is very well done, and if you ever get the chance to go, you should.

This photo doesn't begin to capture the vastness of the Boeing complex; there is actually more of the facility outside of the camera's view than inside it. The building on the left encloses the B-777 and B-787 production lines as well as others. The buildings on the right are the paint shops.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough every day.

A Senior Moment, a Sunday Drive and Chinese Food

At Lake Pleasant RV Park, Seattle, Washington...

In putting together the previous post, I had a senior moment--I obviously didn't know where I was. Bill, one of the regular readers, commented (jokingly, I found out later), that he didn't know where Paradise Lake RV Resort is, although he is familiar with this area. I didn't pick up on the fact that he was needling me, good naturedly, about having absent-mindedly misnamed the RV park in which we are currently staying in Seattle!

For quite a long time, I have had the habit of listing our location in a small header at the top of each post. This is because I have read so many RV blogs whose authors fail to do this and, if I see something interesting I would like to know more about, I may have to go back several posts to find out where they are, and sometimes even that isn't successful. For reasons I can't explain, I listed in the header on that post that our location was Paradise Lake RV Resort instead of Lake Pleasant RV Park, its actual name. When Bill gently explained that he was toying with me a bit, the light bulb illuminated. Paradise Lake?! Where did that come from? I corrected it quickly, but thinking all along that I must have dementia...or Alzheimer's or something. Then I settled down, realizing this was probably just a senior moment. Nevertheless, I've started checking the mirror every morning now to see if I know the person whose reflection I see there. 

Since it was a beautiful morning, we decided to drive around the city and get more familiar with it. It wasn't long, of course, until we were hungry, so we took inventory of favorite foods we hadn't been able to have since being on the cruise and came up with Chinese and Mexican. We really didn't feel right about having Mexican food (in this case, Tex-Mex) outside of Texas, as we had never had much success with that. So the choice became Chinese. Since Seattle has a lively Chinatown district, there couldn't be any other choice for a place to look. A quick check of Yelp for Chinatown Restaurants revealed Hue Ky Mi Gia as being a favorite. No, I can't pronounce it, but Sandy hit the "start directions" button and we were led to this nondescript building east of downtown:

When we entered, the room fell almost silent, as we were the only non-Asians there; and soon it became obvious that we were the only patrons who spoke English. These were good signs, I thought. (True foodies are never deterred by such things.)

My instincts were right: We ordered butter garlic fried chicken wings as an appetizer, and these were possibly the best wings ever. Served with a sweet chili sauce on the side, these alone would have been worth the visit:

Next came wonton soup and stir fried vegetables with chicken, pork, shrimp and beef. These were just as good as they look:

Yes, we ate everything (we hadn't had breakfast), and took great satisfaction when the bill arrived:  It was dirt cheap! This restaurant will definitely be added to our favorites list.

After touring the city a bit longer, we decided to stop in at Bakery Nouveau, again highly recommended on Yelp. They specialize in croissants, and we chose a large almond one that had just come out of the oven. I split it with Sandy, and we agreed that it might be the best pastry we ever ate. I don't even have a photo; the croissant was gone before the shutter clicked. This place will also go on the favorites list.

After this, we did a little shopping. The keyboard on my new Dell computer never really suited me, so I picked up a new wireless Logitech keyboard with backlighted keys. I must say, I love this feature. I prefer to write blog posts in reduced light, and the backlight has proved to be very handy; I don't know how I got along without it:

Sandy picked up a pair of shoes at a nearby department store, so we both were happy when we returned to Phannie, except she let it be known that her shoes were on sale while the keyboard wasn't. (I don't stand a chance in such a comparison; she is a professional.)

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough every day.

Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria

At Lake Pleasant RV Park, Seattle, Washington...

Because of the difficulty in attempting to post from the iPad and the weak Internet available on the ship, I finally gave up until we returned to Seattle. So this is a synopsis of our stops at Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska and Victoria, B. C., Canada. I also might mention that I have also added photos to the previous three posts, beginning with "At Sea."

Sitka has the distinction of being the location of the signing of the Alaska purchase from Russia by the United States in 1867, perhaps  eclipsed only by the Louisiana purchase in terms of bargains. The cost? A little over seven million dollars.

The Westerdam is seen in the bay beyond the sign. Passengers had to be shuttled back and forth via tendering boats.

Perhaps its most prominent piece of architecture is a Russian Orthodox Cathedral, St. Michael's, built in 1848 and rebuilt in 1966 after a fire:

Cathedral of St. Michael

Altar Inside St. Michael's

Sitka occupies the largest land area of any U. S. city--2870 square miles--in which only about 9,000 residents roam.

The scheduled stops at Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria were fairly brief, so we weren't afforded a great deal of time to look around, but we thought Sitka a quaint town and steeped in history.

Ketchikan is the southernmost city in Alaska and dubs itself the Salmon capital of the world. Like all of our Alaskan stops, the weather was terrible for sightseeing:

Harbor at Ketchikan

It is known for its totem poles that can been seen throughout the city.

Totem Pole in the U. S. Forest Service Visitor Center

One of the most interesting places in town is the visitor center for the Tongass National Forest. This is one of the largest and most expensive visitor centers I have ever seen, complete with a huge multilevel walk-through history exhibit and a big screen theater to show films depicting the area. One of the documentaries we saw was a scenic flight over Misty Fiord National Monument, surely one of the most beautiful wild areas in the U. S. This visitor center, over-the-top as it is, is a testament, probably, to the ability of former U. S. Senator Ted Stevens to bring federal funds home to his state. (It was dedicated to him when built.) Nevertheless, it should not be missed by visitors. This stop convinced me that I must return some day to take a sightseeing flight over Misty Fiord.

Since we have visited Victoria, B. C. before and took in its best attraction, Butchart Gardens, we decided just to walk around downtown and take a few photos at the Empress Hotel, the iconic class destination for travelers:

The luscious landscaping in Victoria seems to be inspired by Butchart Gardens, one of the more beautiful ones we've seen, and certainly worth a visit if you haven't been there. 

Back in Seattle, our driver drops us back at Phannie and Mae, who sat quietly and forlornly in the park's storage area until our return. We were as glad to see them as they were to see us:

Some final thoughts on this cruise: While we enjoyed immensely the favorite gospel groups who performed throughout the voyage, we confirmed for ourselves that our traveling style may be somewhat too impulsive for cruising. We were a bit put off by the regimentation--dining at specific times, being assigned to specific tables, being issued specific times to go onshore and to return to the ship, etc. We also couldn't help but feel at little confined by not being able to just stop somewhere on a whim to check out something interesting we happened to see. On the other hand, we're probably among the least desirable customers for cruise lines, who undoubtedly would prefer those who spend time in the bars and casinos.

As far as the Alaska portion goes, we were very gratified to be able to see three Alaskan cities we had always heard about, but we got to see very little of the topography due to the awful weather at every stop. This had the effect of giving us a frustratingly tiny look at this vast and beautiful land. So the next time we go--and we will--it will not be via a cruise ship. On the other hand, It was because of the cruise ship that we were able to see the glacier and the calving of an iceberg up close--something we never dreamed we would see. And then we were able to see a number of whales--again, a first for us.

So, do we consider it a success and worth the money? Of course. But perhaps the most satisfying part was our needing to don jackets for all of our time in Alaska while our friends in Texas were baking in 100-degree heat. I hope they are still our friends when we get back.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough every day.

Tracy Arm Fjord and the Sawyer Glacier

Aboard the MS Westerdam, at anchor in Sitka, Alaska...

Finally, a little break in the weather occurred yesterday that allowed us to take full advantage of one of the most interesting sights of the cruise. The Westerdam eased its way for about 25 miles inland in the Tracy Arm Fjord, en route to the Sawyer glacier at its end. It seemed odd for the huge ship to be threading its way up the ever-narrowing strait, its confines exaggerated by the sheer rock cliffs jutting upward 2,000 feet or more on each side of the vessel.

When the captain entered the fjord, a navigation display that aired on each stateroom television showed the speed of the ship constantly slowing from 20 knots to 15, then 10, then 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and then to a dead stop. The dead stop came at a wide bend in the fjord where the Westerdam waited for another cruise liner to pass as it sailed outward to the sea, its passengers having already seen the glacier that was the quest of the day:
 



Once the other liner had passed, the captain slowly eased ahead, occasionally turning slightly to avoid an ever-increasing number of small icebergs that had calved off the glacier ahead. As we approached the glacier at the end of the fjord, the ship turned sideways in the channel to allow a broadside view of the jagged blue ice that was the end of the glacier on its slow but inexorable journey down the mountain to the sea.

 

Small Icebergs in Tracy Arm Fjord

As we arrived, the sun finally broke through the overcast for the first time since our departure from Juneau and illuminated the glacier very nicely for some good photography. As we stood there, taking in our first close sighting of a glacier, a huge chunk of ice, easily the size of a multi-story building, suddenly broke away from the glacier and fell downward and outward, crashing into the sea, as if in slow motion due to its size. A few seconds later, a sound like thunder reached the ship and a small tsunami-like wave began racing away from where the ice had impacted the water. 

 

At the Glacier Just After the Calving

The passengers collectively gasped at the spectacle, at once realizing they had witnessed a large calving that most visitors do not get to see. Naturally, we were thrilled and, although I did not get a photo of it, it will be etched in my memory, and I thought that it almost made up for the bad weather that had plagued us up to this point.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.

Juneau

Aboard the MS Westerdam, leaving Juneau, Alaska...



I'm becoming painfully aware of the limitations of an iPad when it comes to posting to my blog. As some of you may remember, my MacBook was stolen last year in Pigeon Forge, and I replaced it with a Dell all-in-one PC that lives permanently in Phannie. I like the large screen, but it is not portable. I rarely need a laptop and figured the iPad would suffice for those few times when I need a computer outside of Phannie. So far, that has proven to be true, except I've found that posting to the blog and dealing with photos is annoyingly clumsy on the iPad and, while wireless Internet is available all over the ship, it gets quite slow at times when it's in heavy use. I'll just add the photos when I get back to Seattle.

The stop in Juneau was dampened--if you'll pardon the expression--by persistent light rain, low clouds and fog. Nevertheless, we were able to leave the ship and look around Alaska's capital city . Complicating matters was the docking of no fewer than four cruise ships at the same time, disgorging some ten thousand tourists on the  small town. As you might imagine, it was a huckster's dream. It was like a feeding frenzy among the many shopkeepers along the narrow streets. We were struck by the large number of jewelry stores; I guess a lot of cruise passengers are a bit more well-heeled than we are.


Juneau is the second largest city in Alaska and the capital, of course. Here's a photo of the main drag; notice the clouds obscuring the mountains in the background:

Always on the hunt for fresh seafood, we stopped in the Twisted Fish Restaurant for some fish and chips and fish tacos--halibut, of course. These were very good but way overpriced, thanks to the restaurant's proximity to the docked cruise ships. 

Had we only known, we could have walked a short distance toward town and found local street vendors selling the same food for one-fourth the price. The vendors were cooking and serving from food trailers and even had covered areas for patrons to sit. It would have been a cool lunch venue, so we wish we had waited a bit and cased the place before deciding where to eat.

After walking around quite a bit, we returned to the ship. The rain and cold made the experience somewhat less pleasurable than it could have been.           

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.                         

At Sea

Aboard the Westerdam, Holland America Line, 300 n.m. southeast of Juneau...

Since we're not all that fond of cruises, we probably wouldn't have taken this one had it not been for several factors that made it seem like a good idea: 1) Seeing some of Alaska--even the tiny bit we'll see on this cruise--is a bucket list item, and we're trying to work on these while we're still able; 2) we don't want to drive there (we're not fearless like when we were young); and 3) most of our favorite gospel groups are providing the entertainment on this cruise. So, we thought cruising was the best alternative, since you can't see much from an airplane.

Besides, it's nice to be pampered, fed and entertained for a few days with no responsibilities. The Westerdam is not a large ship, nor is it very new (built in 2004), but it is very comfortable, and we don't have any real complaints. Fortunately, wi-fi is available throughout the ship--for a price--so we are not incommunicado. 

On this trip, the first leg from Seattle to Juneau spans 34 hours at sea. So far, the weather has been quite good, but it's too cold outside to sit on the balcony of our stateroom. It's not too cold to sit in the dining room and drink iced tea, though:

While we were eating breakfast today, we saw a couple of whales break the surface alongside the ship, and neither of us had seen that before. I didn't get a photo--they were too quick for me. 

For those of you who follow southern gospel music groups, we were shipmates with most of our favorites, hence a large motivator for our taking the cruise in the first place. Here are some photos of those groups:

 

The Collingsworth Family

Greater Vision

Mark Trammel Quartet



 

Mike Hanging Out with the Booth Brothers

It was a real thrill to meet these artists whose concerts we have attended for years. The intimate venue of the ship made this much easier and, to a person, they were just down-to-earth folks who love to sing and play gospel music. They gave performances every day, and it was a highlight of the cruise for sure.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.

Getting Ready to Sail

At the Hilton Homewood Suites, Seattle, Washington...

Because of the unbelievable traffic congestion in Seattle, we elected to relocate from Lake Pleasant RV Resort to a hotel downtown to be ready for the cruise ship embarkation on Saturday. We didn't want any hiccups when tickets are as pricey as these.

Sandy finally settled on a collection of clothes that she believed would be appropriate for the possible range of weather and activities that might be encountered on an Alaska voyage. After finally closing the suitcases, she declared that she would prefer to sail on a ship where Phannie could be lifted aboard and she wouldn't have to go through making all these decisions. I must admit, it might be easier.

We took a limo downtown and decided to stroll around after we checked into the hotel. We did the obligatory stroll in Pike's 
Market, of course. We watched them toss the salmon at the fish market and treated ourselves to some hot donuts. The market was very crowded, however, and we didn't spend much more time there. I think we're becoming less and less tolerant of mingling with the sweaty masses. Not that people were sweating, however. It was a very comfortable 75 degrees in Seattle today.

We ducked into Ivar's Seafood Restaurant on Pier 54 for dinner, and it was, of course, wonderful. We shared a seafood cocktail, clam chowder, caesar salad and fresh clams in a wine and garlic broth.

The next post will be from the ship; stay tuned!

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.

To Seattle

At Lake Pleasant RV Park, Bothell, Washington...

This will be a short post, as we just repositioned from Portland to Seattle. We had been warned that the traffic in Seattle was bad, but we weren't quite prepared for how packed the freeways were, and it wasn't even rush hour. We began to notice within 60 miles of Seattle on I-5 that the traffic was pretty much bumper-to-bumper, and by the time we reached downtown, we had come to a stop many times. I don't even want to know what it was like at five o'clock.

The park where we're staying has a very helpful program for customers like us who are embarking on a cruise from Seattle. They will reserve you a spot in their "storage" area with electric power for three bucks a day while you are away. Earlier today, I noticed that about six other RVs were parked there, and there were about four open spots, one of which we will occupy tomorrow.

Pretty much since we arrived, Sandy has been fussing over what to take on the ship. The luggage that we're not accustomed to carrying or packing is spread out all over the bed, and I notice that she packs certain articles of clothing, then she unpacks them. Then she puts them back, or replaces them with something else. Only the good Lord could follow her thought process, so I don't even try. My contribution to the packing consisted of, let's see, eight articles of clothing, two pairs of shoes, a belt, underwear and socks. Selecting these took about five minutes and resulted in no shortage of frowns in my direction from the little lady. I just smiled, having learned long ago that a commentary from me at this point would probably not be helpful.

Tomorrow, we will drive Phannie and Mae to the park's storage area, and a limo will meet us there and take us to a hotel at the waterfront downtown; from there, it will be a short walk to the cruise ship pier on Saturday morning. This will give us a little free time Friday evening to look around downtown Seattle. 

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

Waiting on UPS

At Portland Fairview RV Resort, Portland, Oregon...

We weren't able to do much sightseeing today, as we had to stay in and wait for UPS to deliver our  two-week collection of mail from home. Oddly, the park doesn't hold in the office UPS shipments for their guests. They are delivered directly to the addressee at the RV space.

However, the wait provided a chance for Sandy to catch up on the laundry, so the washer/dryer was humming in the back of the bus for most of the day. She also gave me a haircut, which hopefully made me look even more handsome! Yes, she has been cutting my hair for 39 years; I don't think I've paid for more than a couple of haircuts in all that time. Well, now that I think about it, I probably have paid rather dearly for those haircuts. But she's worth it!

My contribution was to cook up a batch of taco soup for lunch. We were more than ready for something Mexican, having been away from Texas for so long, and it turned out really well, if I say so myself.

The UPS driver didn't make it to our space until about 5:00 p.m., after which we got dressed and drove to Acadia, a Cajun restaurant on Fremont Street.

There were hits and misses with Acadia. One problem is that its theme is upscale Cajun food. Now that is a real oxymoron in my way of thinking. The food enjoyed by real Cajuns is hardly upscale, but it makes up for it in flavor.

Sandy ordered fried catfish, but it was served on petite hominy and a tomatillo sauce reduction. That's just wrong; catfish is supposed to be served in a plastic basket with some French fries! It was quite good, however, but way too pricey with all the frou-frou stuff.

I ordered barbequed shrimp, but it was not the usual fiery concoction that would be faithful to south Louisiana bayou cooks. It was served in a mud-colored wine sauce that wasn't spicy at all. It tasted pretty good, but it certainly wasn't what I expected, and the presentation wasn't very appealing. I didn't bother to take a photo.

The star of the meal was the bread pudding, served hot with roasted pecans, a luscious bourbon sauce and fresh whipped cream. It was beyond good, but it didn't save the restaurant from being excluded from the favorites list. If you go there, go just for the bread pudding. Or two.

Acadia's storefront on Fremont Street:

After dinner, we strolled in one of the many parks in Portland, this one named the Peninsula Rose Garden. It was a perfect evening, the temperature 73 degrees. Fortunately, the heat wave at our arrival in Portland lasted only one day, and it has been very pleasant here ever since.

And here is the prettiest rose in the garden:

Tomorrow we must head for Seattle to get ready for the Alaska cruise. However, there are things in the Portland area that we still want to see, so we'll probably stop here on our way back.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.

The Columbia River Gorge and a Bit of Nostalgia

At Portland Fairview RV Park, Portland, Oregon...

It was my first visit to the mighty Columbia River Gorge, and I was suitably awestruck. The Grand Canyon is perhaps more of a wonder to behold, but the majesty and beauty of the Columbia defies comparison with any other river system I've seen.

We made our way up the Washington side of the river, stopping now and then to take in the spectacle of nature's showing off:

We took little side trips to check out some of the towns along the way and found this especially quaint setting in Camas, dominated by a giant Georgia-Pacific plant and having this bucolic setting for its main drag in the town center:

It looks as though the city fathers didn't see the need to cut down some of the large trees that evidently grew to maturity partially out in the street. It's a wonderful shady place, though, and no one seems to mind. We liked this little town a lot.

We also took a brief tour of the Bonneville Dam, erected in the late 1930s as part of the New Deal, and found it very interesting--especially the massive amount of electricity generated by the dams on the Columbia. It is the most generated on any river, according to the information center.

Driving on to Hood River, we toured the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (at the suggestion of Joe and Betty; thank you!) and found it highly interesting. An unexpected surprise was my discovery of a display of not one, but two, types of airplanes that were of profound importance to my flying career.

The first was an Aeronca 7AC, the exact model of the airplane in which I flew my first solo flight when I was 16 years old:

So many memories came rushing back as I took in the sight of this old airplane. I remember vividly a slight sense of anxiety as I flew it around the flight pattern for the first time by myself, a mere kid, knowing I was quite alone and responsible for whatever good or bad was about to happen. Then came the euphoria of having made a fine landing and feeling the slap on my back by the instructor afterward. As I stood there in the hangar, I thought how primitive and fragile was this little fabric-covered airplane compared to the airplanes of today, and I suddenly felt old.

The second airplane of great significance was a Beech Super 18, in which I flew a lot of hours carrying mail at night. It was my first real flying job, and I learned more in those five years than perhaps any time since. The airplane was considered among pilots to be somewhat of a challenge to fly, and I confess to a degree of pride in having mastered it, flying at night in all kinds of weather. Standing there looking at it, I could again hear the unmistakable chugging of the Pratt and Whitney R-985 radial engines and could see the engine exhaust flame that was always visible from the cockpit at night. It was quite a moment, and I was so glad I stopped at this place.

After all this travel back in time, we were hungry, of course. When we made our way back to Portland on I-84, I did a little research to find a good seafood restaurant that wasn't ruinously expensive. From what I could determine about the reviews, The Fisherman's Wife might be a good choice. Indeed it was! As you can see, it is a very unassuming storefront in a part of town that was anything but upscale. This had all the earmarks of a good find, and we had high expectations, having found some of the best food in places like this:


The Calamari appetizer and my cioppino (seafood soup) were superb.

Sandy's Halibut filet was delicious, but we thought the serving was a bit skimpy; that was the only blemish on the meal.

It is always satisfying to have found a nugget like this, where the meal was half the cost you would find at one of the upscale restaurants. It will definitely go on the favorite restaurant list.

What a great day this was! One more day to go in Portland.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I do not appreciate it enough each day.