4 Wheels 4 Girls

After the Catherine Creek and Shreiner Zoo, we went to our friends’ boathouse in The Dalles, back in Oregon. We drove up and parked, and then walked down into the marina and found their boathouse. It was REALLY nice, and was incredibly surprised to find that they had built the entire thing themselves!

Hanging out at the boathouse

We stepped inside, and we were surprised to find how much it was like a regular house. It had a kitchen, a dining table, a shower, a murphy bed, a bathroom, another small bed, some living space, and a large deck, and even many places to store things. We settled in, and then Lori got out some manicure stuff and many colors of nail polish, and we did our fingernails and toenails. I painted mine black, metallic blue, and hot pink. They look awesome. 😉

Meanwhile, the adults made lunch, soba noodles mixed with veggies and chicken. We also had fruit salad. The meal was delicious. We ate out on the deck and enjoyed ourselves.

After lunch, we plopped down on the comfy couches in the living room and played Scrabble. Jean won, obviously. She’s a beast at Scrabble, and usually the only person that can beat her is her older sister Barb. Although Dad has beat her once, he says.

We ran a few errands on the way home, and then we hung out a bit at home and then we had halibut and a mixed green salad for dinner. For dessert Lori made pumpkin pie.

It was really nice to be able to see Lori and Sarah’s boathouse!

June 3rd, after the Catherine Creek trail, we went to the Shreiner Zoo in Washington. Me, Stella, Daddy, and Sarah were riding in the mustang when we pulled up to the zoo. We got really excited and happy. When we first got in there we saw these marmots. We drove some more and saw some zebras. We drove farther and saw a llama on a huge boulder. Then we went farther and saw some camels. Then we saw some deer-like things and then we saw a really tall neck poking out of nowhere. Now what could that be? A giraffe, of course.

Camels, giraffes, and Mount Hood

We got closer and saw some more camels. We saw this really old camel that had foam coming out of its mouth. We asked what the stuff was and Mom said that it was spit. She also said that they like to spit. I thought the camel was going to spit on us.

This says it all about camels and spit. (Thanks to Sarah, for the great photo!)

We saw this other camel that was molting. It was so gross.

I had so much fun there. Thanks to Lori and Sarah. I had never seen a camel in real life.

Friday, June 3rd, we left in two cars to Catherine Creek. The one I was in…actually, I’ll say the other one first. The “other one” was a camper van. I thought it was really cool, but the car I was in was cooler. Ellie, Ana, Jean, and Lori went in the van. Dad, Sarah, Greta, and I went in the… other one. Okay, I’ll tell you now. It was an old 1960s red mustang convertible. It was so cool! But it was also so windy. I had my hair in a braid that day, but by the end it was gone. Well, it wasn’t completely gone, but about 3/4 of it was.

Everyone piled in the Mustang

We drove across the Columbia river into Washington, to a state park called Catherine Creek. It was right on the Columbia river. Ana grabbed the scooter and we started. The little sister poodles ran off ahead. But we didn’t worry because they’d always come panting back. Sometimes I ran after them a little ways, then waited for the crowd to catch up. At one point, Roxanne ran up to some strangers, who were sitting on a bench enjoying the view of the gorge, and she hopped right up onto the man’s lap! He dealt with it pretty well.

We all took turns on the scooter, and we put Lori and Sarah’s little video-camera thing on a strap around our heads. We started the video and then scootered away. It showed everything coming up ahead of us. There was one time when Greta had just put the camera on her head and was scootering away when– CRASH!!!– she wiped out in the grass. It was really funny.

Jean is riding the scooter past lots of California Poppies on the Catherine Creek trail

We had a fun time on the Catherine Creek hike. I hope we come again–with the video-camera and scooter!

After looking at Multnomah Falls and taking some great pictures, we drove into Portland and went to Powell’s book store. It is HUGE. It’s two stories tall and it has TONS of rooms. The one I picked out my books in was the Rose Room. It was stocked to the brim with young adult and kid’s books. It took me like an hour just to walk through all the aisles of young adult books!

The view from Crown Point, on the road to Portland

Soon we had to pick out books and leave the bookstore. Then we walked to a nearby restaurant we all love, Noodles and Company. I ordered an asian pasta dish with some coconut curry soup, and it was delicious.

Visiting Portland, OR

After that, we went back to Hood River. When we got home, Sarah had a surprise for us. She had gotten an ice cream cake to celebrate Jean’s upcoming birthday! We ate it happily and then got ready for bed. It was a really fun day!!! 😀

June 2nd, we visited the Bonneville Powerhouse. It is a dam operated by the Army Core of Engineers. Dad says the dam converts the power of the Columbia River to electricity. He also says that the Columbia River is one of the most powerful rivers in America because so much water moves down from the mountains so fast. I learned that the turbines (which are huge metal things that look kind of like dreidels, or at least some type of thing that spins) get spun around by the water, and they spin generators. Electricity is made and it powers the whole northwest.

That huge thing behind me is a turbine

The fish ladders helped the salmon swim upstream to where they can have babies and live the rest of their lives before they die. The picture there was of us looking underneath the ladder. It’s easier for the fish to swim under rather than over, so most of them we saw from the glass windows that looked into the fish ladder.

Watching salmon make their way up the fish ladder, through the dam

It was fun to learn about the Bonneville Powerhouse, the Bonneville Dam, and the fish ladders.

The Columbia River is running so hard right now that water is gushing over the spillway behind me

When we got to the Bonneville Hatcheries we had lunch. Me and Daddy went to get Lori some coffee. We went back and finished our lunch. We got ready and went to see the white sturgeon. We ran to the pond and then we went down under ground. Then a huge fish came by. It was huge! We wached the white sturgeon swim. We also saw some rainbow trout.

That sturgeon is huge, and that rainbow trout is pretty big, too

After that we went to see tanks that held a ton of fish. Then we went to the hacheries. When we got there we looked through windows and saw these trays that held salmon eggs. Daddy says there were 15 million eggs inside that one room. Then we went and wached a movie on the fish. It was really cool there.

On June 2 we went on a hike to go and see a waterfall. When we got there we all got out except for Stella. She was not felling well. We brought Olive and Roxanne with us. Me and Greta got to walk the dogs while Ana walked along and was petting the dogs. We walked through a green forest and we walked beside a stream. We were looking for acorns. We walked for quite a long time until we came to a small waterfall where we got our picture taken and got wet.

Then we came to a place where the path went two directions, so we waited for Lori and asked her which way to go. We saw a cave. Me, Greta, and Ana went inside. We had to crawl through it.

Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge

There was a really long bridge across the stream in front of Wahclella Falls. The waterfall was coming down fast and we got a little wet from the mist. We watched the water come down for a little while, then finished the hike and went back to the van.

Then we went to see another waterfall, Multnomah Falls. I was very tired and sleepy when we got there. It was really cold. The waterfall was really tall. We saw a really cool bridge that was high up in the air in front of the falls. We were going to go up to it, but decided it was already a pretty view.

Multnomah Falls with Lori

On June 1, we went to visit Mommy’s friends, Lori and Sarah. At Lori and Sarah’s, we met some poodles, Olive and Roxanne. We played with them for a while before dinner. They are very fluffy and cute. They like to lick your nose. They like to lay around sometimes, and other times they like to be up and wild. They look like little tiny miniature poodles.

With Roxanne and Olive in the Columbia River Gorge

Just like me, they are seven years old. We both can walk. We both can sit down. We both like to eat meat. But they don’t eat tuna, and I like tuna. Poodles can’t chew with their mouth closed, but I can.

I like many things about them: They are very fun, they let us hold them. Well, not Olive. Olive let me hold her for the first time on Sunday. Olive has a smooth tongue, and Roxy has a rough tongue. They like to play.

The funnest thing I have done with them is probably sit with them on my lap.

On June 1, we drove to Hood River, OR. We went there to see our friends Lori and Sarah who had invited us to come and stay with them for a while. We weren’t sure if they knew what they were getting themselves into but we decided to take them up on their offer. Lori, my great friend since about 2nd grade, had told me about having moved to this beautiful area in the Columbia River gorge about an hour from Portland where it didn’t rain all of the time and windsurfers from all over the country fill the river in the summer. So, when we headed for Hood River we were excited (“disneyland excited” as Lori says) not only to see Lori and Sarah but to see the paradise that Lori had described. We didn’t need to drive very far down the gorge to begin to understand what she had been talking about. It was beautiful. Where we entered the gorge east of Hood River it was dry and deserty but as we drove west along the river the hills were soon filled with trees. The town of Hood River is located at the point where the Hood River (coming from Mount Hood) joins the Columbia.

As we arrived in Hood River, we zig-zagged our way up the hill in search of Lori and Sarah’s house and as we, unknowingly, drove past their driveway, one of the girls said a bit dumbfoundedly, “Look, there is a sign there that says ‘4 wheels 4 girls'”. We had arrived.

A warm welcome in Hood River, OR

Lori was soon at the RV to greet us and to help us overcome our hesitation to move inside the house. When she told the girls “we have rooms and beds for everyone” that was it, they were off, a good share of their belongings in tow.

Though we had initially planned to stay for a couple of days we ended up staying almost a week. We had a great time, exploring Portland, Hood River, and the gorge by foot, car, and bike. We visited, played games, ate like royalty (thanks to chef Lori), hung out with the poodles Olive and Roxanne, and celebrated my pending birthday nightly. Though we did so reluctantly, as Lori and Sarah left for work on Monday morning we finally packed up and moved down the road. We left feeling sad to leave Lori and Sarah (and Olive and Roxanne) but really happy to have had this time with them and know that we have friends like them in our lives. It was hard for all us to leave paradise.

Me and my friend Lori

Following will be several stories from the girls which reflect how much fun we all had with Lori and Sarah in paradise.

On May 31 we woke up and found out that the RV was right next to some horses. We had breakfast and then we went to go and look at the horses. They let us fed them. I came back and did some posts and then me and Stella went to go and play with the horses. I named them all. Here are some names. Sugar, Hot Coco, Blosome, Mocha, Big Red, Sanddune, Camomile, Brighty (is a mule), and there are some more but you might not want to hear them all. We fed them grass and we rubbed their bellies and we scrached their necks. After that we came and had blt bacon lettuce and tomato. We ate them fast and then we went back outside and played with them. Some of them farted real loud. We fed them for along time and then we left.

I named this beautiful horse Sugar