Donna and Glyn's Visit, October 16-17, 2012

My longtime friend, Donna, and her husband, Glyn, came to Portland for a day and 3/4 visit via Amtrak from Iowa   We rode MAX light rail from the train station to their hotel where they left their luggage.  We rode MAX to former-mayor Bud Clark's Goose Hollow Inn where we had the world famous reuben sandwiches for lunch.  We rode MAX through the tunnel to the Zoo station and saw the earth core samples along the walls.  We had planned to take the shuttle to the Japanese Garden but we found out that it was not running.  We rode the MAX train to the Chinese Garden.  After a guided tour of the garden plants, we had tea in the tearoom.  We rode MAX to the streetcar line.  We visited Tanner Springs garden.  Sometime during the day we visited Pioneer Courthouse Square with the statue "Allow Me" (see photo) and saw "Portlandia".  We returned to downtown on the streetcar where they caught the MAX train west to their hotel.  I caught the MAX to Delta Park and my car.

I arrived at their hotel at 8:00am.  We drove to Troutdale where we had a light breakfast at McDonalds and got gas in the car.  We drove the Old Columbia River Highway from Troutdale to the Womens Forum.  Low Clouds obscured the view unfortunately.  The highway was closed to Bridal View however I drove east anyway to the Viewpoint Inn that appeared in the prom scene in "Twilight".  It caught fire earlier this year.  The Inn was gutted.  The owners had no fire insurance.  We drove back to Corbett and down the hill to I -84. At Bridal View we stopped at the small post office.  Donna sent four postcards.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls.  We stopped briefly Horsetail Falls.  We saw the fish going through the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam and the enormous sturgeon at the Fish Hatchery.  We traveled west, crossing the I-205 bridge to Vancouver where we had late lunch at Burgerville.  We stopped by my house briefly.  We drove past the Aviation Museum, Fort Vancouver, Officers Row and the new Fort Vancouver Regional Library.  Donna and Glyn arrived back at Portland Train Station in plenty of time to catch their train back to Iowa.  They arrived home safely but their train was 2 1/2 hours late.