Another wonderful day greets us on the Columbia River; a magnificent river that flows out of British Columbia from Columbia Lake, reaching the Pacific Ocean, 1,250 miles later. The Columbia/Snake River watershed covers 259,000 square miles (the size of France) and carries 17.5 trillion gallons of water out to the ocean.
Our day started once again with Darcy’s fabulous 7:00 a.m. stretch and yoga exercises, followed by another homestyle breakfast, then the golden voice of our expedition leader Larry as he gave us the particulars of the day. Around 7:30 a.m., we arrived at The Dalles, a beautiful town nestled in the foothills of the Cascades, just where the eco-system. Our morning adventures started with an exciting drive along Sam Hill’s historic Columbia River Highway up to Rowena Crest, bringing us spectacular views of the gorge. Next up was the wonderful Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, which is a two museum experience; one is the Wasco County Museum, which tells the story of Wasco County and the other tells the story of the Columbia River Gorge. We had several options before returning to the National Geographic Sea Bird for lunch.
Next we visited Sam Hill’s extraordinary museum, Maryhill, resting on the basalt cliffs overlooking the Columbia River and Mount Hood, which rises 12,276 feet, making it the highest of the Cascades in Oregon, and the 3rd highest of the Cascade range, only behind Mt. Rainier and Mt. Shasta.
Our day was completed by a stop in Maryhill along the Columbia River for an ice cream treat or a delicious piece of fruit, provided by Larry. To finish off the day, we had a short DIB ride back to the National Geographic Sea Bird.
