A TYPICAL OREGON DAY

Saturday (9/8) was a beautiful sunny day with a steady breeze to keep things pleasant, so Wendy and I decided to take the day off and drive to a couple of our favorite places.

We left The Fulton House about 10:00 a.m. and drove to Hood River, then north on the aptly named "Fruit Loop Tour" towards snow-covered Mt. Hood, which towered ahead of us and seemed to fill the entire windshield. Soon, deep in the Hood River valley, we were surrounded by fruit trees, mostly pears and apples.

At Parkdale, we turned off the main road and found our way to our favorite roadside fruit stand, filled with about 15 varieties of early apples and pears. We bought a couple of dozen, to be enjoyed by our guests and us, and turned around to I-84, where we headed east to The Dalles, where we stopped for lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant.

After a leisurely meal, we headed back towards home, but got off the Interstate to drive a number of miles on the Old Columbia River Highway, much of which has been re-paved and re-opened. We stopped at each of the major waterfalls we passed, and even took a short hike to a higher set of falls, just to stretch out our legs. It's really amazing....just get a few hundred yards up a trail and 95 percent of the people are nowhere in sight.

At the foot of one set of falls, we stopped to eat an apple, getting drenched by the mist but enjoying it in the sunlight. Then, back to our vehicle for the short drive home. In all, we logged just over 200 miles, but it wasn't particularly tiring since much of it was at a steady 65 m.p.h. on the Interstate.

And that evening Wendy baked delicious apple turnovers for dessert, a perfect end to a perfect (and typical) Oregon late summer day.

Please come visit us at The Fulton House this autumn and you can re-trace our steps. I promise you you'll enjoy it immensely.