Spending a little bit of time playing catch up with my blogsite. We're in Spokane Washington today. This pic was from a beautiful winery we visited with some new friends. We met a group of very jovial retired firemen who invited us to do a days wine tour through Rattlesnake Hills Wine trail in Yakima Valley. Enjoyed lots of new Washington wines. Also stopped at fresh produce roadside stands. The sweetcorn is unbelievably delicious. Great fun, good wines, beautiful scenery with new friends...a terrific day.

Beautiful: Multnomah Falls near the Columbia River Gorge. The top fall was over 500 feet and the lower 69 feet. Wish I could capture the sound of this water roaring down the mtn. We also visited the Bonneville Fish Hatchery..I never thought this could be so educational and entertaining. They have a viewing tank for Herman the Sturgeon who is over 10 ft long, weights in excess of 450 lbs and is over 70 years old. The hatchery has the capability of fishrearing 6 to 11 million salmon and has several fulltime people counting fish swimming upstream . Count this year is 402,361 chinook, 537,492 steelheads and 1,373,738 shad.. Too bad no catching just watching.

We visited the Maryhill Museum of Art located in Goldendale along the Columbia River. The museum was originally planned as a very large 3 story home with the surrounding 5000 acres. The grounds are home to an extensive collection of massive works by Northwest sculptors. Maryhill was opened as a museum in 1940. They display over 100 chess sets, 47 black and white works of Ansel Adams, an extensive collection of Rodin sculptures and my favorite the replicas of 1935-40's clothes from the Theater de la Mode. Wish we could be here for the English style high tea to be held in October.

Mt Hood.. a day trip up to enjoy the cool weather, climb up to smell the wildflower, listen to waterfalls, tour timberline lodge and appreciate the clean air. Dick was ready for a ski run.

Our campsite at Iron Creek with Dean and Judy. Lush green with moss growing on everything that stands still, Hmm had to keep moving so we wern't covered, too. We enjoyed a wonderful week of touring Mt St Helens, attending a town yardsale, listening to 3 days of rain, sitting around the camfire at night, catching up with travels and comparing great campsites.

Got to use our golden age passport again. Now we even admit to getting old.

Dick and Dean at the Pacwood yard sale. They are thinking about a big barbque business .......... Some competition for Gregg

Mount Ranier on a cloudy day. Mt is 14,410 feet high and was first climbed in 1870, several years later the first woman climbed in a long dress with pants underneath..considered very risque for the times. Great hiking areas to the falls.