WHAT I DID ON MY VACATION

On April 7, my friend Marge Mullaly and I flew to Portland and then boarded the ship EMPRESS OF THE NORTH to sail up the Wilamette, Columbia and Snake Rivers. This was the same ship that Maggie and I sailed on when we went up the Inside Passage in Alaska. We were even in the same cabin! We visited and retraced the route of Lewis and Clark in many places. I probably know more about what they did on their travels than their families did.

I had never been on a body of water which was controlled by Dams and Locks. There were 7 dams between Portland and Lewiston Id. I was fascinated by sail in and the water went up or down and you sailed out. Some had gates that swung closed, some were guillotine and some just went up and down from the bottom. As you can tell, I watched in sunshine and driving rain and at night they had search lights on the boat to locate the entrance. In the process we traversed the tallest lock in the world. Every night during dinner, the Captain came to the dining room to give us the Dam Report as to which locks we would go through in the next 24 hours

The food was plentiful and often. All meals served in the dining room, lots of forks and knives. There was always the option of the grill on the 4th deck which offered a cafeteria option, so we did the "do it yourself" option for breakfast. Marge had her waffle and I had my Oatmeal, no problems with swallowing, but I was careful.

We were assigned a table for dinner and we were a little apprehensive about who we would be seated with for 7 days. We were so lucky. We had Butch, who was from Oklahoma and he was a Big Guy, he even made "THE BIG GUY" look small. He ate the appetizer and desserts that I was too full to eat. On the last night he had 2 lobster tails for his dinner and one for dessert. His wife told us that on a previous cruise he'd had 6. Must have major bucks or major debt by the size of the diamond he was wearing. Rick and Madelaine were from Luguna Nigel CA. They had worked in a lot of jobs and were interesting to talk to. The third couple were Helen, a retired nurse and her husband Norman. Both wore diamonds that would put your eye out, but were very nice. We had lots of interesting discussions and were always last to leave the dining room. Every nigh

On arrival in Portland when we were making our way to the transportation, we met two older ladies who shared a table with us at the Hotel where we went to Check In and then take the bus to the ship. They had been friends for many years. They were both over 80, but didn't act like it. Victoria had taught PE and Health for many years and Jo was a surgeon. They live in San Diego and went on all the side trips with us and their assigned dinner companions were a really weird couple who had everything beaded. Even his hat had beads on it!. Jo and Victoria would snarf their food and return to their cabin until we finished, then came to ours, then went to the entertainment with us.

On Tuesday, we went to Pendelton and had a brief tour of the Woolen Mills. The looms are controlled by computer and work fast!. Went to their outlet store, but even there the prices were steep. Our bus driver drove us past the "Old Mental Hospital". It has been revamped for the Prison system and they sew Prison Blues clothing:jeans,tee shirts and sweatshirts. Their motto is: Mate in the Inside to be Worn on the Outside. The prisoners have to go through a rigorous selection process to get there and it makes money for every one. The products were sold at a shop just across the street from where we had lunch. It was Corrections Connections. I was freezing, so now am the proud owner of a sweat shirt.

When we reached Lewiston Id, we boarded Jet Boats for a trip up Hells Canyon. We went over, not through the rapids. Saw lots of Big Horn sheep and the hills were covered with Wild Flowers. Lots of summer homes without running water or electricity, we saw what looked like a shed and the sign said $425,000. If you want running water, you have to pump to a tank up hill and then you have Running Water.

Friday we went to the visitors center for Mt. St. Helens--hard to believe it has been 27 years since it blew it's top. Still areas with no regrowth and ash still deep in the streams along with little trees in the area with the landslide. Spirit Lake Lodge is buried under 300 feet of ash. Never did see the mountain as the clouds were low as it was raining and snowing. --Later we went to Astoria, OR. which is the oldest city in USA. Some cities were founded prior to Astoria, but were Spanish at the time of their founding. Pretty old Victorian Homes and a great port. Walked to a Fish Market/cafe and had Divine Halibut Fish and Chips and while Marge walked the hills, I hit the shops and the Maritime Museum.

On Sat., we disembarked in Portland and were bussed to the Hotel where we stored our luggage and shuttled to the airport where we took the light rail to down town. We visited a bookstore covering an entire block,and were looking into the Portland Market, which turned out to be UNDER and overpass, we watched as we went by on light rail. Hit a place one of the bellhops recommended for lunch and explored Nordstroms Rack, Williams Sonoma and Whole Foods, but we made no purchases as there was no room in the suitcase. Took light rail back to the airport, shuttled to the hotel, checked in and crashed. We did eat dinner as we had a 7:30 flight and knew that breakfast would be in SLC.