Road trip to Vancouver Wa 4 to 6 June 2021

My friends, Jim and Christine Johnston, recently moved from Utah to Vancouver Washington. LOTS closer to me. We are now in same time zone and only about 4-5 hours driving time apart! I was able to go visit them Friday to Sunday, 4-6 June 2021.

The drive down was a lot longer than should have been. Road work along the Hood Canal for about 15 miles had spaces of one lane traffic. It is a curvy road and can’t drive fast anyway, but those one lane stops really slowed things down. There was a funeral to attend via Zoom that I ended up missing.

I got off freeway ok, but there was no street sign for the park they live in so bypassed it the first time. Finally arrived at their temporary quarters. Nice park. Chatted a bit while stood up and Christine on break from her training for new job. Then off to motel for me. Google maps did good job on getting me to both places.

Went back over for dinner. Nice to have good food and good company for conversation. Chatted and caught up on life. Christine visited me in 2019, but haven’t seen Jim since 2015. We went for a drive to see his new work site and a bit of Vancouver and Portland. He is lucky living about 10-15 minutes from work and before major commute traffic in Portland starts. He’s enjoying the company, coworkers and new job. We sorta planned out the travel plan for the next day.

They are not big Twilight fans but support me with my interest and were willing to go see the filming sites in St Helens. The weather was only cloudy in St Helens. We drove up to the Swan House, then the parking lot to see the ‘bookstore’ and alley. Drove by the ‘dress shop’ and the county seat that shows up in the HalloweenTown movies and the marina. Then on the Cascade Locks and Multnomah Falls.

We went back to Washington side to go across the Bridge of Gods. It started raining on our way there. Still able to see some nice scenery, just not as much with clouds and rain. Stopped for lunch at the Bridgeside restaurant. GF buns and soup available! Ate too much for mostly sit down and riding in car day, but it was good. The weather cleared some while ate, so able to get some bridge pictures without getting soaked.

The soaking waited until we got to Multnomah Falls. The main parking lot is between the east / west directions of highway I 84 and almost full. The lot accessed from highway 30 was full. My back was bothering me so I got out the rollator so able to sit when needed and I needed to. With the rain it was wet but it didn’t matter. While driving the other side of river we could still see the fire damage, but not noticeable around the Lodge and Falls. Took a bunch of pictures and posted to pamrice.smugmug.com. Turned a penny into a souvenir at the gift shop. Nothing else caught my eye at either gift shops. We all got soaked. So homeward. Oh forgot to mention Jim was driving. A rare treat for me to not drive. They dropped me off at the motel to dry off and put some heat on back.

I went back to their quarters for evening. We all decided still full from lunch so no meal. We watched a couple of movies, Rio and 100% Wolf. Both are animated films. They were both enjoyable. Laughed lots. Disappointed that Nigel didn’t completely bite the dust in Rio. I knew a little about Rio but 100% Wolf was unknown. The summary sounded fun and it was. A great day!

Wish the motel room was better so sleep better. The people upstairs seemed to walk back and forth all night and not lightly footsteps. Also the room was too close to the street so traffic noise was too loud at times. Think I will use a different motel when visit again.

Up and away about 9am on Sunday. Drive home started off dry. Rain started about Woodland and rest of way home. No road work to slow traffic down. I took a side trip up to Mt Walker south view point. Four miles up the mountain from the highway on an one + pull outs lane road. It was a little nerve racking driving up and back. Drove through some clouds and no rain at top with view point. It was windy and interesting hearing the leaves moving. On a clear day one can see Mt Rainer, it wasn’t clear could barely see next mountain over. I’ve been wanting to take that trip up and it was worth it, just have to do again when the weather is clear. Another car was coming up as I was going down. I was closer to pull out on my side so let them by. There were a couple of larger pull out areas, one with a nice view.

I had a light lunch in car before final miles to home. Car unloaded. Caught up with things on laptop. Looked forward to sleeping in my own bed. It was a good trip. Glad I was able to go and visit my friends. Hope the possible more permanent residence opens up soon.

More pictures are at https://pamrice.smugmug.com/5-June-2021-Road-Trip/