The Dalles – Hood River – Maryhill
Another lovely sunrise found us nearing The Dalles, Oregon for our morning excursions. After breakfast, we boarded the coaches for a visit to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. The Center houses wonderful displays on the varied natural and human history of the area. After becoming enlightened about our surroundings, we then traveled up a portion of the historic and cleverly engineered Columbia River Scenic Highway, the brainchild of Sam Hill and Sam Lancaster.
Then some of our intrepid explorers went with our hotel manager Anna Marie into the Hood River Valley to select fresh pears from Rasmussen’s Fruit Orchard. The rest of us were taken to another section of the Columbia River Scenic Road so that some could walk along it while others biked it. A slight uphill climb brought us to the Moser Tunnels before starting a gradual descent into the quaint town of Hood River.
After lunch, we coached to the quirky Maryhill Museum, another of Sam Hill’s ventures. Here we enjoyed displays of Rodin sculptures and sketches, a large collection of Native American artifacts, an outstanding collection of chess sets, and many other works of art. Views up and down the Columbia River from the museum grounds were stunning. And eventually, we saw our little ship making its way upstream to our appointed rendezvous place.
A short Zodiac ride brought us back to our ship, where we enjoyed well-deserved refreshment consisting of local cheeses and wines while going through the John Day Dam Lock. Behind us, the sun dropped into a pink haze and the faint outline of Mount Hood towered on the far horizon. Indeed, another lovely day in the Pacific Northwest.
