Last evening the Sea Bird made a left turn from the Snake River and returned to the Columbia. The ship rocked gently through the night, riding into a stiff breeze as she passed down the river and through the locks at McNary, John Day, and finally, early in the morning, The Dalles Dam. The sun gave the air comforting warmth as we pulled into the small marina at The Dalles, Oregon, where we boarded buses for a visit to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum. The combined center and museum present in vivid displays the complex geologic and human history of the gorge region. The state-of-the-art building is set high above the river with inspiring views of the eastern entry to the Columbia Gorge. An increasing number of trees especially scrub oak and big leaf maple, hinted at the climate change we would witness traveling from the arid eastern end of the gorge to the wet western slopes of the Cascade Range. The group made the first four or five miles of this journey by foot and by bike along the Columbia River Historic Highway. The recently restored road, an engineering marvel when it was completed in the 1920s, passes through a long series of tunnels and beautiful mixed forests high above the river. At the end of this section of the road, four of the bikers climbed to the top of a nearby butte for spectacular views up and down the gorge near Hood River, Oregon. Snow-capped Mount Adams peeked just over the northern horizon, above swirling clouds, illuminated by a brilliant sun. We returned to the Sea Bird for lunch, yet another fine meal, and continued our journey down the Columbia. The late afternoon sun setting in the west welcomed us as we passed through the last of the locks at Bonneville Dam and came, once again, to the free-flowing river. Contrasting clouds and blue sky, shadow and sun highlighted beautiful scenes all along the river past towering Beacon Rock on the Washington bank and the shimmering, wind-blown ribbons of water that cascade down basalt cliffs at Multnomah and the other lovely falls on the Oregon side.