Taking the scenic route

We had such a fun weekend. We were supposed to go camping with two other families that are close friends of ours. However, due to some major personal issues, one of the families couldn't go. Not wanting to sacrifice the whole weekend, we made plans with the other family to have a day out. We got up early on Saturday morning and got together with our good friends Brian, Rosie, and their four kids. This is a frequent ritual for us anyway, but today was a nice change of pace. The ten of us drove (in two separate cars) out to the Multnomah Falls area that was about an hour away. We started out driving up to Crown Point, overlooking the Columbia River. We were up pretty high, so that was pretty exciting for the kids. Then we went on a scenic tour of the Historic Columbia River Highway and saw all the waterfalls and had some wonderful photo ops. Too bad I forgot to recharge my camera battery, so I only got a handful taken of pictures taken. We got lots of hiking in and got up close and personal with some of the falls. The setting was absolutely breathtaking and so peaceful. Waterfalls are one of my favorite things in the world to see, so I was so glad that the kids had such a grand time too.


After hiking to a few different sites, we opted to drive down the road a little bit to have our picnic lunch at Bonneville Lock and Dam. It was pretty windy and turned a bit chilly while we were there. I think it was a combination of the gathering clouds and the massive mist generated from the dam. After we finished our picnic, we took the kids to see the Fish Ladder. They got a real kick out of watching the fish migrate upstream to their spawning grounds. Then we finally headed over to Multnomah Falls for the grand finale of our scenic tour. Apparently, everyone else in Portland had the same idea we did. We looped around twice, along with probaly 40 other cars, and still couldn't find a space. Finally, we called it a day and decided we would return in a month or two to see it. We figured the fall leaves would be in full effect and we could plan to come out in the early morning to avoid the crowds.

The hubbies and boys headed back to Brian and Rosie's house. Us girls made a pit stop at a children's resale shop so I could drop off some consignment items. We couldn't resist getting a few things for the girls since we had a 75% off coupon. Then we went back to the house and hung out for the remainder of the evening. It was a really fun day for all, but boy were we all tired! I was awfully glad that I had the next day off so I could sleep in. More than anything else, I was so happy that we all got to spend such a great day with friends in such a fantastic setting.