Yesterday I drove to Vancouver to pick up our Santa pictures. Everyone went and Journey even got to go in to the store to pick up our CD. He got treats and I believe he may have sniffed every dog bone in the store.
Vancouver, Washington is right on the Columbia River, across from Portland, Oregon. We went on into Portland to visit my daughter and her husband. It rained most of the day. At my daughter's the dogs got to play in the woods a little and visit.
There was a wreck obstructing the traffic on the Interstate Bridge, north bound. I had noticed it on the way south. When we checked the traffic it seemed a good idea to take a different route home. The new route leads through the center of town, across the Willamette River and then toward the airport. That route leads us to a different Interstate Bridge and the traffic was moving along fine. What I had not thought about was our new little guy's first impression of the big city.
We live in the country, about 40 miles north of Portand. Even our downtown area is pretty unimpressive. I am not a "city person" so that is fine with me. It is nice to see the city once in a while though. Portland is a gorgeous city. It has multiple bridges crossing many rivers all through town. There are many hills and on clear days there are gorgeous views of Mt. Hood, (which to me, is about the prettiest mountain you could ever want to see).
Photo by Lonnie Gorsline
If you climb to the top of the Hoyt Arboretum you can see Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.
Mt. St. Helens
Hoyt Arboretum - Oregon
The lights of the city and the bridges are reflected in all the beautiful rivers. There are no two bridges the same and there are beautiful walkways and parks everywhere. Portland is decorated for Christmas and they go all out. Every tree in the downtown area is lit with tiny white lights and even the tallest buildings are decorated. I had not thought about driving through the downtown area, but I was enjoying it immensely when I noticed people on the sidewalks and in cars beside us smiling at us. When I looked in back, the dogs were looking everywhere at people and lights and cars and just enjoying the view out their windows in the back of the Subaru wagon. I had the shade pulled back from the sun roof, which gave Journey a chance to look straight up in the air, at the tallest buildings and the decorated tree branches over head. His cute little face just registered awe. Actually, so did Pirate's. I guess I have deprived these guys. Spirit and Quest have been to so many cities, so often when we were traveling, I just didn't think about it. Even when we are traveling we normally stop to camp before evening, so we do not often see lights like this. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Too soon we got to the freeway and headed for home. It takes about an hour. It is a beautiful drive in the daytime, all along the Columbia River to Kelso, Washington where we live on a hilltop just out of the city limits.
It is nice to visit Portland, but it is a never ending joy to me to turn off onto our little winding road and head up to our hilltop retreat overlooking the river. The only sounds we hear are from nature, unless you count the occasional sound from a distant train. We enjoyed our visit, but this is where we belong.
