Summer 2025 Road Trip, Day IV: Vancouver, Washington to Seattle, Washington

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Our fourth and final day on the road on our way to Seattle found the weather to be mild and forgiving thank goodness.

We started the day by walking

across the street from our Vancouver

hotel to the City of Camas' delightful

Otra Vez restaurant for breakfast

By Otra Vez, I liked the mossy rock

while Laurie loved the purple flowers

Our plan for the morning was to cross over the expansive Columbia River to view the reportedly spectacular Multnomah Falls about a 35 minute drive from our hotel.

About half way into our drive we were back in Oregon where one of those changing traffic message boards alerted us that "Multnomah Falls Pass Required for Entry 9:00 to 4:00."

Multnomah Falls Pass? We don't need no stinking Multnomah Falls Pass!

We pulled off the freeway to check out the veracity of the distressing message.

It turns out that we did need a stinking Multnomah Falls Pass to see this wonder of nature. The first available Pass for today was at 4:00 p.m.

Ever adaptable, it was time for Plan B.

This worked for us

A short drive along the Sandy River

that empties into the Columbia River

If you need a life vest, Oregon

provides them gratis for the

safety of all, including immigrants

I suspect

This drive got us . . .

. . . back in touch with nature

Laurie loved all of the wild

berries growing on the road side

We pushed on in search of an offbeat town for a cup of coffee in a random locally owned java hut.

This Washington city was just the ticket

Population: 23,232

Battle Ground received its name as a result of a potential battle in 1855 between a tribe of Klikitat natives led by their Chief Umtuch and U.S. Army troops from Vancouver Barracks under the leadership of Captain William Strong.

Apparently, the Klikitat people had been held in harsh conditions at Vancouver Barracks and one day just left to head back north to their tribal grounds.

The U.S. military took exception to this escape and hunted the Klikitat down with the final act occurring in what is now downtown Battle Ground.

Except, no battle ever happened. Instead, after a standoff, the two leaders agreed to a truce that would return the Klikitat back to the Vancouver Barracks.

Unfortunately, at least one shot was fired after the truce which killed Chief Umtuch.

So much for peaceful negotiations.

We explored Battle Ground.

A serene statue across the

street from . . .

. . . Founders Coffee Shop

Laurie wanted to sip her

latte outdoors

Well, maybe if we could instead

sit in this pink butterfly chair

We negotiated yet another Battle

Ground truce and sat inside

I did still get to sit in my

preferred seat before leaving

Battle Ground District Stadium

It is located on the campus of Battle Ground H.S.

The district stadium hosts athletic events

for both the Battle Ground H.S. Tigers

and the Prairie H.S. Falcons

We stopped in Battle Grounds

Fred Meyer Mega-Supermarket

Quickly I surmised that these Selena Gomez cinnamon/horchata flavored Oreos may be part of some sorted ICE attempt to round up immigrants.

I took my photo and backed off posthaste.

Laurie was fascinated by this dog

riding on a motorcycle

Rather than get back on Interstate 5, we opted to take the scenic route for about 30 minutes.

The Road Less Traveled

 

We pulled over to let a car pass

us more safely at this spot

What does that yellow sign say?

Modern times invade rural life

Once back on the Interstate, Laurie found out on-line that the Parker Family Winery has a wine tasting room that operated near the Port of Kalama.

Why not?

Funky Port of Kalama tree

Fishing the mighty Columbia River

A floating hotel

We are in the Pacific Northwest,

of course there are huge Totem Poles!

Smaller ones too

As opposed to popular belief,

it was the figure at the bottom of

the Totem Pole that the natives

believed to be the most important

More of Laurie's purple flower passion

The Columbia River is impressive,

especially if you are from dry

Southern California

A Totem Pole laying on its side

in the hall where the wine tasting

should be occurring

I say "should be" because the Parker Family closed up their wine tasting shop in the Port of Kalama and moved it back to Battle Ground.

Close but no chablis.

On to Seattle it was!

We finally arrived at the home of Mark and Susie Johnson at about 5:45 p.m., just in time for dinner. 

My post-dinner constitutional

along beautiful Portage Bay

The Sun setting on Seattle after

another absolutely delightful day

One final shot across the bow from the net . . .

TACO humor just has to

irritate him, don't you think?

Stay Strong and peacefully RESIST!

Summer 2025 Road Trip, Day III: Grants Pass, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

For the Adventure to continue properly, we needed to start the day with a good breakfast.

I consider any hotels' waffle iron

for customer use to be an essential

component of a good breakfast

A cool sign to be sure but the waffles did not cost 40¢, they were part of The Lodge at Riverside's all-included breakfast for all of its overnight guests.

My apple-cinnamon waffle was made to perfection with lots of love.

Beautiful colors in early morning

Grants Pass

One last look at the Rogue River from

our hotel grounds before hitting the road

We only made one stop on our drive through Oregon today as we took our time and got off Interstate 5 to travel along some rural, rustic country roads for a change of pace.

Corvallis, Oregon

Population: 61,849

Once in Corvallis, we found a parking spot for the Blueberry II next to the ancient Benton County State Bank building.

We were hungry and Yelp had given us the location of an eclectic pub that we thought would fit the bill.

As for Corvallis itself, it is a small college which is the home of Oregon State University. OSU, home of the Beavers, has an enrollment of 38,000 students which are not counted as part of the city's official population.

We were in attendance at the Washington-Oregon State football game in Corvallis in November of 2023 and fell in love with this quaint city. I think that if a ever moved out of California to another U.S. city, Corvallis would be high on my list of places to relocate.

The Brass Monkey was Yelp's

recommendation for sandwiches

Their outdoor table art hooked

me instantly

So did that poster on the right

I liked this sign to be poignant

Laurie and an I.P.A. with

several other wall hangings

The Brass Monkey was fun place

that offered up a great pulled pork

sandwich and an awesome ahi taco

for our dining pleasure

Our fine lunch deserved a fitting dessert. We knew just where to go.

Next door to the Brass Monkey

was Sugar J's Ice Cream Workshop

It was warm again with temperatures in high 80ºF range, a far cry from yesterday's 102ºF in Grants Pass but still perfect ice cream weather. On a comforting side note, the humidity was much, much lower today as well.

Sugar J's had lots of ice cream

related art work to enjoy along

with their delicious concoctions

What my raspberry chocolate chip

ice cream would have looked like

in yesterday's scorching heat

So that's how they do those

multi-scoop cones, who knew?

We thought that a walk around part of Corvallis' downtown would aid our digestion.

The hanging gardens of Corvallis

Not sure what this piece of art

represents but it was interesting

In front of an old, old dive bar

We decided to drive over to the OSU campus for a visit before driving on to see the famous Multnomah Falls near Portland on the Columbia River Gorge.

OSU's Reser Stadium can hold 35,548

rabid fans for a Beavers football game

The stadium is named after mega donors and OSU alums, Al and Pat Reser.

Indeed it is!

Awesome football art in front of

the main gates

We visited the huge merchandise

store across the street from both

Reser Stadium and . . .

. . . Gill Coliseum

This is OSU's multi-purpose arena that opened in 1949 and can hold 9,301 fans for a Beavers basketball game.

This Coliseum is named after

Amory Tingle "Slats" Gill a member of

the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

He had received his nickname as a 12 year old from his friends who noted that his ribs stuck out of his thin body like the slats on a picket fence. Slats stuck with him for the rest of his life.

Gill was a star basketball and baseball player at OSU, then known as Oregon Agricultural College, from 1921-1924, twice earning All-Pacific Coast Conference First Team honors and was a 1924 All-American.

He would return to his alma mater to be the Beavers Head Basketball Coach for 36 years, Head Baseball Coach for six years and then Athletic Director for the final two years of his life.

As we walked around the inside of Gill Coliseum we noted some of the tributes to legendary Beaver cagers. 

Slats was a Beaver for Life to be sure

 

Harvey Wade "Swede" Halbrook

This was one interesting 7'3" Beaver Center who I remember due to his nickname mostly as an NBA player for the old Syracuse Nationals. He still holds the OSU record for most rebounds in a single game when he gathered in a whopping 36 caroms in a game against Idaho.

Mel Counts

An apparently rare Oregon State athlete without a nickname, Mel was a 7'0" Center who went on to play for six NBA teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, in an 11 year pro career. 

As we walked back to the Blueberry II, we passed the following building across the street from Reser Stadium.

Maybe not the best place for a person

named Contreras to be standing

in these horrific days of ICE raids

A nice mural of Cesar Chavez

on the Centro Cultural

Go Beavers GO!

Our drive off the OSU campus took us by the Beavers baseball stadium proudly displaying its rich heritage. How a program from the rainy Pacific Northwest can become so good at baseball is a mystery to me.

The 2025 OSU squad just qualified for the eight team, double elimination College World Series next weekend.

The Beavers will join Arizona, Arkansas, Coastal Carolina, Louisville, Louisiana State, Murray State and UCLA in Omaha Nebraska battling for a fourth NCAA Championship since 2006.

Their Beavers (47-14-1) first game will be against the ACC's Louisville Cardinals (40-12) on Friday.

Due to intense traffic from Corvallis to Portland, we revised our plans to visit the Multomah Falls and headed straight to our hotel in Vancouver, Washington just across the Columbia River from Oregon. We now plan to visit the falls on Wednesday morning before moving on to our final destination, Seattle.

Stay tuned . . .