Becky arrives!

Last Friday night, while Reidar and Loren were still in a holding pattern outside the compound, Becky arrived in Portland! She has just finished her PhD thesis, so she and her fiance Gordon are taking a two week, West coast vacation, starting with a week with us in the Gorge. Hurrah! (Gordon had already made other plans in Miami for the weekend, so he wouldn't arrive until late Sunday night.)

Night on the town
After picking Becky up from the airport, we decided to head into Hood River to listen to Django's Cadillac, a local band. We first heard Kerry Williams, one of the members of Django, performing with The Cascade Trio at the Huckleberry Festival a few weeks ago. We liked the Trio so much that we actually came back the following day specifically to hear one of the Trio members perform a set as part of a different duo. We then saw Kerry at another performance - this time a kid's concert with Victor Johnson, another Django member. (We were literally the only people at the concert who didn't have kids with them.) Through this circuitous route, we discovered Django. Anyway, the sound at Dog River Coffee Company wasn't that great, but we still enjoyed the music - and the company. Thankfully, Max returned soon enough in the evening so that we could all relax together after the day's stress.

We all crashed at our place that night - no problem sleeping 6 in our house (as long as somebody sleeps on the floor, or several people are "cozy"); the following morning, we shared my famous scrambled egg breakfast before Reidar, Loren and Leif had to head back to Seattle.


Breakfast at home

Walk on Condit Dam
The rest of Saturday was spent doing nothing in particular. On Sunday, we decided to chose a hike from the "Curious Gorge - 50 Ways to Leave Hood River" local guidebook. Condit Dam is a controversial old dam on the White Salmon River. Built in 1913 as one of the first power generators in the area, the dam now supplies only about 0.1% of the power for the area - most comes from Bonneville Dam on the Columbia. The controversy comes from the proposed removal of the dam, which would allow salmon to migrate upstream again, but would eliminate Northwestern Lake which is currently created by the dam.

Anyway, the dam provides a very interesting hike/walk along the top of the large, wooden pipe which transports water from the dam to the generating station about 1 mile away.


Walk along Condit Dam. You can see the pipe behind and below us. Beautiful weather. It was really just a walk, not a hike, but unlike any we've done before.

- Mike (& Corinne)