Taking a trip to Portland to meet a Niece I met once before a LONG time ago. SWMBO and I were in the truck and hit the road by 0900. Belfair to Shelton to Tumwater to Portland to the East Historic Columbia River Highway off I-84 to visit several Falls and it took us only about 3 hours. And only two “rest” stops! Butt-ton of rain but it was scattered.

We stopped for the Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, & Horsetail Falls. Got totally soaked just from the rain; but then you add in the mist coming off the Falls and you’ve got some serious wet. But it was cool! Wasn’t sure if my pictures would be in focus because of the lens getting wet; but they didn’t turn out half bad.

Still had some time to “waste” so we headed further East and stopped at the Bonneville Locks & Dam and took the tour. (Truck told me to turn on Dam Road.) it was pretty interesting. They have windows on the fish ladder where you can watch fish swim upstream.

“The Girl” (our Nav system) took us on the scenic, back roads, route to “The Screen Door” restaurant in Portland where we were to meet my Niece. Got there about 1630 and they didn’t open until 1730. Got to wait in line with a bunch of folks. If you ever get to Portland, you really need to stop by and eat. The food was excellent. But get there early cause the line gets long.

My beautiful Niece and her Girlfriend (who is also very easy on the eyes) showed up and (I think) we had a very nice visit. I gave her all the old pictures of her Dad that I’ve had laying around the house forever and she seemed to enjoy them. Just spent time getting to know each other.

Finished dinner and our visit and headed North. Several times the rain was so hard that traffic slowed to 35 mph for a bit. But, all in all, the trip home went pretty smoothly. We went 398.2 miles yesterday on 1 tank of gas. Still have just over 1/8th tank left (but I’ll take her down and fill her up today cause I’m paranoid about running out of gas).

But, of course & as usual, the best part of the day was getting to spend time and seeing new sights with my Schweetie. I really appreciate her taking the day off from her usual Sunday routine to make the trip with me.

Back to pretty much SSDD around here. Getting my usual chores done with the addition of laundry that I didn’t get to do yesterday. Cat puked on the quilt on our bed so that’s getting a special wash today. I’d like to wash that damned cat in the washer at the same time but SWMBO would get upset about it. Cat too probably.

Sun came out for a bit so I took the Dog for a tour of the back 40. That wind we had around here yesterday took down one of that old, rotten, tree I was planning to cut this next summer. Broke off about half way up. That’s good.