MONDAY, AUGUST 25

MONDAY, AUGUST 25: 

     Our last day here.  Our last day with Lynn.  (John is back to work.)  Another warm, beautiful day.  Lynn drove us to Mt. Hood. 

     We walked around the lobby of historic Timberline Lodge for a while, and watched a film.  This is another project which was built during the 1930’s as part of the PWA.   Pres. Roosevelt came to dedicate it at the same time he dedicated the Bonneville Dam. The lodge of course was built from local hewn logs and elegantly rustic. 


                                                                      

A local woman was hired as Interior Decorator, and she pretty much left the local carpenters, blacksmiths, and more refined craftspeople alone to see what they would come up with.  So the iron stair railings are elegantly turned in one piece; there are newel posts carved with faces of bears and other wild animals; the tables & chairs in the dining areas are semi-rustic, etc.  The entire lobby, in fact, is dedicated to holding and displaying artistic creations from that period in American history. 

 

Oh, yes, another thing the Lodge is well known for:   parts of the horror film The Shining, with Jack Nicholson, were filmed here.

      Then we went outside to purchase lift tickets for the tram which operates year-round.  Even though there were fluffy clouds, the sky was a brilliant blue, and clear, and we had wonderful close-up views of Mt. Hood, at 11,000+ feet, the highest peak in Oregon.

                                                      

 

                                                                             

We could even see Mt. Jefferson to the south, nearly 50 miles away.

 

              Rode about 1 mile (total length) up the slope, from 6,000 feet at Lodge level to 7,000 feet.       

                                                             

 

 Was of course cooler and windier there than back down at the Lodge, with more low-lying clouds, but still very comfortable.  Fun to see the mountain up even closer.  

                                               

 

 

                                                                

          

    

 

And awesome views!
                                                      

                                                    Mt. Jefferson as seen from Mt. Hood:

 

Watched some skiiers/snow boarders fly past.  The mountain has a small glacier on it, so hard-core skiiers can sky on that in the middle of summer!

                                                                

       After a  while, took the lift back down and went into the Lodge to have a late lunch/early dinner.  Lynn & I both had their award-winning clam chowder (mine in a bread bowl) and a arugula watermelon salad.  Had a seat with a view right out our window of the mountain.

     And back home.  Was a lovely way to end our stay here.  It’s always so hard for me to say good-bye, especially to Lynn, since we’ve become quite close in the past several years.  Of our immediate family, all we really have is each other, not only with that familial bond, but also as a repository of our family history.  Like a lot of siblings who have a healthy relationship, we can ask each other as a reality check, “Is this the way you remember it growing up?”  And in a dysfunctional family like ours, that resource is invaluable!  I’m grateful beyond words that we’ve developed the adult relationship we have now. 

      We vowed not to make it so long before our next visit . . .