Adventuring {Oregon: Airplane Ride + The Columbia River Gorge}

For the annual gathering of the Blanch Herd (that would be Gregg's family), we all met up in Oregon for about a week of seeing sites, taking walks, combing the beach, playing with cousins, eating good food, and having a marvelous family reunion together.  Why Oregon?  Well, Paul and Kim moved to Portland shortly after they were married and that's where Heather, Ryan and Gregg were all born.  The original Blanchards had all been back to visit their roots but none of the in-laws or kiddos had been yet, so we figured it was high time to visit.  We spent the first night in Portland and then the rest of the trip was in Oceanside, just a few minutes from the beach.  We totally lucked out with only one rainy day of the whole trip (I didn't think it was possible in Oregon!) and enjoyed some marvelous beach days and hiking days and Tillamook cheese/ice cream days.  Pretty dang great trip, all around.  And with that intro, I'll let the (millions and millions . . . almost) of photos do the rest of the talking.

Day One: Monday, June 20th

All aboard the plane!  Sam's first ride and Cal's first that she
can remember.  Everyone did great and the flight went as
smooth as can be.

A special treat: coloring (with a pen!) in a notebook on the
cool little airplane tables.

Sleepy Sam is under that jacket somewhere.

Flew right past Mt. Hood.

A completely unprompted ring-around-the-rosy
occurred as the cousins were reunited at last
at the motel in Portland.

After lunch we took a drive through the Columbia River Gorge
with a pit stop at Multnomah Falls.

Happy hiker.

It was super crowded and quite warm, but a
fun and beautiful little hike up to the
bridge.

So! Much! Green!

Family picture pit stop on the way down the trail.
(Sam was sleeping in his stroller at the bottom with Auntie
Heather keeping watch.)

With everyone awake (but not all looking at the
camera) it was our turn for a family shot with the
falls.  (Kage was our photographer -
high five to him!)

The whole Herd (minus Ryan and his girls who
couldn't make the trip).

Some fun stats: It's the tallest waterfall in Oregon
(620 feet), and the second-tallest year-round
waterfall in the U.S.!

After Multnomah Falls, we continued on our drive
to Bonneville Dam

Here the kids enjoy (?) a little pit stop inside one
of the guard shacks over-looking the dam.

The real fun part of the dam was looking through
the windows at the fish ladders.

This was Grandpa Blanchard's trip highlight,
I think.

The lamprey eels were the most terrifying fish in the ladder.
Eeeew!

Pretty impressive stats, I'll say.

Amazing quantities of fish!
(And all done by human-power!)

Back outside you can look over the edge to see
some of the fish hop right out of the water to
get up the ladder.

Cousins in a little house - it was to teach kids about energy
conservation.

Views from the parking lot.

It was the most beautiful day!

Our last stop in the gorge was just down the road from the dam
at the fish hatchery.  I realize this picture does not have any
fish, but I just couldn't believe my eyes when we parked
near these bright-blue bushes.  I've never seen anything like
them and just had to snap some pics.

Of course I had to send a pic to my sis to get the
ID: hydrangea.
(Turns out we'd see many, many more of these
all over Portland, in varying hues from bright
blue to purple.  I loved them!  They won my
"favorite plant of the trip" award easily.)

The hatchery grounds were gorgeous!  Roses were in bloom and
there was so much green everywhere.

Here's the sturgeon pond - the highlight of this stop.

They're absolutely huge!

I can't remember if this was Herman the Sturgeon or not, but
apparently he (Herman) is Oregon's largest fish, measuring over
500 pounds and 10 feet long!!

The glare makes it hard to see, but this guy is
comin' right at ya!

Can you see him?

There are other big fish there, too.  And no wonder!  Everyone
pays a quarter to buy food to feed them!

After a big day we were all famished and found ourselves a great
Black Bear Cafe to enjoy dinner together.

Back at the hotel, Cal and Dad enjoyed some cousin swimming
time (something she was especially looking forward to).