Fri, May 13, 2011

Friday, May 13, 2011

Photography is my passion, found later in life I hope I have time to get better at it. – Donna Downey

Yesterday we went ahead and made a reservation at one of our favorite places, The Inn at Canon Beach, Oregon.  Our room has a fireplace and a Jacuzzi and we have been looking forward to it since we made the reservation.  Since we had a place to stay we were free to ramble… like we don’t ramble every day.

The morning consisted of a return trip to the Columbia River Gorge and started with mild temperatures and blue skies.  The Gorge was beautiful as usual and at several river inlets the area was covered up with fishermen.  Don’t know what they were fishing for maybe salmon or trout but they were packed in there like sardines.  Coming from the deep south it still seems odd to see everyone fishing with sweatshirts, hoods, and jackets on while actually looking like they are enjoying themselves.  This part of the country is probably one of the few areas where a sweatshirt actually seems appropriate. 

We knew from the forecast that the sun probably would not last, and sometime around lunch the skies were mostly cloudy.   As we drove toward the Pacific coast the temperatures began to drop and it remained overcast for the rest of the day. 

We made a few stops to photograph wild flowers and watch the fishermen but our first real stop would be right after lunch.  The Gray’s River Covered Bridge was built in 1905 by a family that owned property on both sides of the river and is the only covered bridge in Washington state still in use.   It is 158 feet long and 14 feet wide and with no windows it seems almost like passing thru a tunnel.  The family that built the bridge left it uncovered originally but soon found out that the exposed bridge became too slippery to safely cross with livestock so they covered it.  Charles took a nice long nap and I explored the bridge.

Just a few more miles and we made a short stop to see the St Mary Catholic Church in McGowan, Washington.  It sits on the Columbia River and was built in 1905.  It has never had any utilites and services are held periodically for special occasions with kerosene lamps.

Our next stop of some length was the North Head Lighthouse in Ilwaco, Washington.  The lighthouse is located in Cape Disappointment State Park.  It was built in 1898 to guide ships coming from the north toward the mouth of the Columbia River.  This area is the windiest place on the west coast and the second windiest in the US.  Winds in excess of 120 miles per hour have been recorded at the lighthouse.  The area also served as a fort as early as the civil war and gun batteries still sit atop the cliffs near the lighthouse that were used during World War II.

We made the hike out to look at the gun batteries and then made the hike out to the lighthouse.  We got a pretty good dose of the chilling wind and since the light was not good for photographing the lighthouse we did our best and were ready to get out of the cold wind and back to the Jeep. 

From the North Head Lighthouse it was just forty miles to Canon Beach and our warm room awaited us.  We checked in and lit the fire!  Charles walked to the restaurant next door and brought us back some supper.  We are warm and toasty in our room.  It began to rain just before sunset so we didn’t make the walk over to the beach but are enjoying relaxing.

We love the Pacific Coast and plan to take most of a week to enjoy it. We’ll be in no hurry tomorrow to get up and out and hopefully will have some good weather sometime before we have to leave the coast headed back toward Mississippi. 

We are well tonight and hope y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger