Road Trip Day 4

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

I have fallen behind due to a combination of circumstances, but I need to catch up since this is taking the place of the scrapbooking that I don't plan on doing ever again. (Luckily my date doesn't show up on my posts, so I can just pretend I'm posting this on the actual day these things happened.)

Today we explored the Fruit Loop, a scenic road the hits some of the farms of the Hood River Valley. Thanks to Kaylynn's suggestion, we visited an alpaca farm. This was the highlight of her day, and we all had fun feeding the alpacas, and checking out the yarn shop, where I bought some alpaca yarn to make a hat.


The next stop was Packer's Farm, where we bought fresh raspberries and cookies, and I just had to try a pear-sweetened marionberry turnover. We had our treats out a picnic table outside, and took some pictures by their cute signs.


We left the loop for a trip to visit Timberline Lodge, a historic hotel located on the south flank of Mt. Hood. We checked out the hotel, which had a huge fireplace in the middle of the lobby and a few historic exhibits. We had fun playing with the old-fashioned mailboxes until we realized that they were currently in use (oops!) We had trouble getting a good view of Mt. Hood because of the clouds, but managed to get a shot in the parking lot just before we were about to leave.


To get back around the mountain and back to Mt. Hood, we decided to take Lolo Pass Road. Dan told us that Lolo means crazy in Hawaiian, and we decided that we were indeed crazy to take this road. The unpaved portion had major damage and dips in the road, and we were having flashbacks of our last road trip getting stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. We made it through okay, with a possible leak in the exhaust system. Anyone reading this, take our advice: If you see this sign, TURN AROUND!!!


Back on the Fruit Loop, we visited Alice's Farm, where we bought delicious cherries and took a ride on The Gator to see the cherry orchard. This farm was just beautiful, with a picnic area and a cute white house.


Next, we stopped to pick our own blueberries. Each of the kids went off with a bucket, and all together we picked about five pints.


After crossing the Columbia River and taking the Washington side of the Gorge, where we saw lots of trains and wind surfers, it was back to the hotel room. When the kids aren't swimming, they are usually watching TV and eating microwave popcorn.