31 years of Wedded US!

I have been serenaded by this song for years and it's still true.

"I hear the cottonwoods whisp'rin' above

Tammy! Tammy! Tammy's in love

The ole hootie owl hootie-hoo's to the dove

Tammy! Tammy! Tammy's in love

Does my darling feel what I feel

When he comes near

My heart beats so joyfully

You'd think that he could hear

Wish I knew if he knew what I'm dreaming of

Tammy! Tammy! Tammy's in love"

Today on our mini anniversary trip I found this cottonwood flower pod. We see the cotton floating all over the area especially near the river but I have not gotten to see the flowers before.

Heading out of P-town

I love this picture of us. I think we are still cute together. I like the copper heart up in the corner of this photo. Yup we may have met in Minnesota but the Copper Country is where it all really started.

Our travel plans this week were for a drive up to Goldendale and a leisurely scenic drive back home.

Our B&B for the night

Our hosts for the evening, Naomi and Mike! We have been wanting to get up to see them in their new location. We finally made it.

They have a right pretty little homestead. A nice yard and out buildings too.

In the back portion of the garage they have put a sauna in. It may not be totally finished but it is totally functional!

Harlan and I enjoyed our first sauna since we were in Michigan 6 summers ago. Makes us anxious to get going on the plans for our own.

Mike and Naomi have quite a few Finnish touches in their dressing room and steam room.

If you haven't had a real sauna bath experience you can't believe how clean you feel afterward. I told Naomi that after I got out I couldn't even talk dirty!

Journey back to Portland -

First stop Centerville

I took a few pictures of familiar scenes from our early marriage. Mt Adams (left) was something we could see from the folks' living room window every time we visited. The wheat field on the right reminds me of all the drives out to Centerville to church.

We drove by the church too. It has been there forever and was such a huge part of Harlan's childhood and our early married life. The current congregants have done a wonderful job of renovation and landscaping. It is beautiful and serene.

The Dalles Mountain Road

Naomi encouraged us to take The Dalles Mountain Rd over the hills from Centerville. I wish my camera could give a better representation of the vastness of the landscapes up there. The picture above shows Mt Adams and Mt Ranier.

I took a shot of Mt Hood with Mt Jefferson as well but preferred to display this one of the Columbia, The Dalles and

Mt Hood instead.

True sage green and growing before it matures and becomes a tumbleweed right out of the old west.

I'm sure all of the vegetation we saw and the rocks themselves have not changed a whole lot since this was untamed land.

It's easy to imagine what it was like back then when you come upon wagons like this one and see crosses on hilltops notice craggy cliffs with scrub brush hiding who knows what type of critter. As we crossed the river, I glanced back and saw a couple of fishing platforms. The Native

Americans have used platforms, such as these, since they lived along this river hundreds of years ago.

We have never driven on the old scenic highway along the gorge.

So we remedied that today. We stopped at many touristy places and took our sweet time. We didn't do any hiking this time. Just wanted to see what was there.

We saw Horsetail Falls, Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls. If we were dressed for hiking we would have gotten to see Bridal Veil Falls as well. Perhaps next time.

There are miles of beautiful stonework through out this area.

This bridge is at Horsetail Falls.

This is Vista House. We have been here before but at the time we couldn't go inside. It was renovated in 2004 and is simply lovely.

We went out on the balcony to look around.

The pictures do not do it justice.

It wasn't super windy or hot today so it was an enjoyable visit there. We walked through the gallery on the lower level and did something I've wanted to do for years... we bought 2 coffee mugs that were made by our former brother-in-law, Dan Stevens.

We took 5 hours getting back to town. We went out to a movie and then on to Gustav's for dinner. It was a perfect ending to a very relaxing day. We have a few things that we'd like to accomplish in the year ahead and there isn't anyone else I'd like to be planning and working along side than Har.

It was a good couple of days of celebration. Thirty-one years and we're looking forward to more!