The Dalles

This morning the Sea Bird dropped us at the small dock located at The Dalles marina. The uniquely named town on the Oregon side of the Columbia River was titled by French fur trappers who saw the river flow through eroded chutes in the basalt rock of the riverbed. This reminded them of the flagstones gutters of their home country and so hence the name.

We spent the first half of the morning at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center enjoying the two museums housed within the building. We took some time to enjoy the passing of the Sea Bird down the river on its way to Hood River, which is where we would meet up with the ship later in the day.

The second half of the morning was spent at either Hood River by a few shoppers or enjoying the sights seen along the river from the Historic Columbia River Highway, designed by Sam Lancaster and built by Sam Hill. The highway portion we enjoyed by walking or biking was refurbished over 10 years ago and includes the Mosier tunnels and the famed outlooks over the Columbia. The changing scenery of the gorge showed us the rain shadow affect of the cascades on the botany of the Pacific Northwest.

Lunch was had on board as the Sea Bird made its way down the Columbia to Bonneville Dam and on to witness the great waterfalls of the Oregon side of the river before we enjoyed cruising further down the Columbia on our way to Astoria.