MONDAY & TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 & 19

MONDAY, AUGUST 19:

     Lynn picked us up at mid-morning.  Headed out to Beacon Rock, a massive granite (?) monolith right next to the Columbia River (on the Washington side) about 30 miles east.  I read that Lewis & Clark stopped here and actually gave the rock its name.  They knew they were getting closer to the Pacific here, as they noted the influence of the tides here – actually, they determined that this point marked the easternmost influence of the ocean tides on the Columbia.

 

            There’s a series of pretty easy switchbacks up to the top of the rock

                                                                   

           from where you have fabulous views of the Columbia.          

 

                                           

                      

We soaked up the view and the warm sunshine for quite a while, and, on the way back down,  relaxed in a nice cool shady spot and snacked, sharing our trail mix with a greedy little chipmunk.  

                                                    

                    

                                                           

     Drove back to Lynn’s condo, where we relaxed a bit and cleaned up, and then drove to one of her & John’s favorite places to eat -   McMenamins.  They began as a micro-brewery in Portland, and then expanded to a regional casual restaurant chain all over the area.  This particular location is extremely popular, because it’s right on the Columbia.  So we got a table on the patio (who in their right mind would eat inside in a setting like this??) and ordered drinks & appetizers while we waited for John to join us after work.  A really wonderful  relaxing and also invigorating, atmosphere.  I love places like this!   

                                                                    

Soon John joined us, and we all thoroughly enjoyed dinner.  Was great to get to meet him!  He’s very knowledgeable about music, so he and Bill had a couple of very energized conversations around that subject, which Bill loved since he seldom gets to talk to anyone about his passion any more now that he’s not teaching.

                                                                  

 

    A thoroughly delightful day, with wonderful Portland summer weather – dry, high in the upper 80’s, actually still warm in the evening, even on the water, which I think is a little unusual, but which we loved!

 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19:

     A quiet day largely spent going through 8 weeks worth of mail!  Also got a 50,000 mile tune-up on my hair.  Lynn found a place very close by which had an opening today, for a very reasonable price.  It’s just one guy who owns & operates it.  He did a great job – was intuitive about how I wanted to modify the cut.  And since DeAnne had given me the color formula, that part was easy.  So now I’m good to go for another 8 weeks . . . hmmm, do we think we’ll be home by then??

     Bill did some grocery shopping while I was having that done.  Got pork steaks for dinner, along with fresh corn-on-the-cob which we grilled with my glaze.  Cool outside tonite, so we ate inside (although, come to think of it, there’s no picnic table outside, so we’d be eating inside regardless).