Cock-a-doodle-doo (ahem)...in Portland

Odell Lake

On Tuesday, we drove north from Diamond Lake through some amazing landscapes on several scenic roads on our way to Portland, Oregon. We drove past Odell Lake, one of many picturesque lakes along the way.

We found Columbia River RV Park near the airport in Portland, and across the street from the river itself. On our first day in town, we headed over to Vancouver, Washington to get some groceries. We spied snow-capped Mount Hood towering off to the east as we crossed the Columbia River on the bridge, but of course, had no camera with us. We could also see Mount St. Helens with a snow-capped top north of the river as well. How beautiful!

Fort Vancouver

On Wednesday, after a grueling day of thrift store shopping and wandering around downtown Portland aimlessly, we headed back to the RV to work on some chores. We scrubbed down the RV inside and out, got the oil changed in the car and did some overdue laundry. On Thursday, the chores continued when we brought the RV in for an oil change and such, but on Friday we did manage to do some actual sight-seeing in the afternoon.

Trellises for peas at Fort Vancouver

We intended to drive up to Mount St. Helens (whose snow-capped stump we had not seen since Tuesday because of the clouds) and made our way towards it. With the heavy cloud cover and me suffering with a nasty headache, we opted instead to visit Fort Vancouver.

California poppies

The fort was originally built by the Hudson's Bay Company to secure their giant fur inventory from attack by Indians (or even employees). Built in 1825 by the company as a fur trading depot in the Pacific Northwest, the fort quickly became the most important outpost of the entire area from San Francisco to Russian Alaska. In 1849, the American Army took over the fort after the division of the territory along the 49th parallel resulted in the fort residing on American soil (much to the dismay of the British). By 1860, the Hudson's Bay Company had moved out when trade dwindled and by 1866 fire and decay had destroyed all the structures of the former fort.

Despite its 10 foot tall fir tree fence and a three story bastion, complete with cannons to thwart any attack, the fort never saw warfare and only ever fired its cannons in celebration or in the welcoming of a ship down the river. Archaeologists began excavating the site in 1947 and reconstructing the buildings within in 1966.

Outside the fort's walls are the stately homes of the former Officers' Quarters lining Officers' Row on East Evergreen Boulevard. The 21 homes were sold to the city of Vancouver in 1980 by the Army for $1 providing the city would restore them and never sell them. Several are leased as residences, several house offices for various businesses, one has a restaurant and the Marshall House provides offices for the state's two senators.

Marshall House at Fort Vancouver

We walked through the Marshall House with a personal tour from the docent there and learned that the homes were received by the city in a sorry condition and without much description about their original interior design. Former residents of some of the buildings offered some first-hand accounts of the interiors, but all the furniture has been replaced. The docent mentioned that the gorgeous woodwork throughout the Marshall House had been covered in more than 10 layers of white paint over the years. Yikes. The house is now beautifully restored and  frequently serves as a reception hall for weddings and other parties.

We headed back to the RV for dinner and some more Frasier episodes. What a fun afternoon!

On Saturday, we met Jon, Denise and Logan for some serious doughnut munching at VooDoo Doughnuts. As we approached the little cafe we realized the line stretched halfway down the block and back again. Wow. Not a problem, though, as the line moved quickly and soon we were trying to decide between the bizarrely adorned and creatively named donuts. They offer a donut shaped like a voodoo doll filled with raspberry jelly, covered with chocolate, complete with a pretzel 'stake' through its heart!

VooDoo's Cock-N-Balls

I went with the Raspberry Romeo, your standard glaze covered jelly donut; and Denise picked the apple fritter. Jon, a bit more daring than the two of us, chose the Bacon Maple Bar...a slab of a donut with maple icing and two strips of bacon. Ken, whose favorite donut normally is the bavarian cream, chose the Cock-N-Balls, a gargantuan triple-sized chocolate-covered cream-filled donut with the words "Happy Birthday Gary Busey" scrawled atop it. As we left the store, a young woman walked past us, obviously trying to educate her friend on the cafe's selections, when she gleefully (and loudly) exclaimed, "That's the Cock-N-Balls!" while passing Ken eating his phallically shaped pastry. Wow. Not sure what to do with that...but we did get a LOT of mileage out of it all afternoon.

In any case, we continued on into the Portland Saturday Market, which bills itself as the largest continually operating outdoor arts and crafts market in the US. We spent most of the afternoon wandering around all the aisles looking at every booth of fascinating handmade goods. We stopped for a bit of lunch at one point and had gyros. Logan found an area where folks were hula-hooping and he gave it a try. We saw a guy twisting balloons into swords and animals and such, so Logan had the guy make him a crazy hat. We listened to a one-man band playing tunes on his accordion, drum and harmonica all at once, and saw a group of young guys pandering to the crowd for tips while they break-danced in the street. It was a lot of fun!

Pam, Denise, Jon, Logan (& Ruby), John

After we left the market, Jon and Denise showed us around some of downtown Portland and some areas along the way back to their house. Jon's parents, Linda and John, also joined us for a yummy home-cooked meal at Jon and Denise's house. Since we hadn't seen them all in a year (except for Jon), there was a lot to catch up on. We also got to meet and pet Linda's cute pup, Ruby.

What a fun day!