Chris and Shawn and Annie came over this morning for breakfast. We had French toast and scrambled eggs to fortify us for today's adventure: a trip to Maryhill Museum of Art, located near Goldendale, WA, about 90 miles east, with most of the trip on I-84 in Oregon and Hwy 14 in Washington.
We arrived about 10:45 a.m. The museum appears like a French castle overlooking the Columbia River. It started life as the intended home of Samuel Hill, a Quaker entrepreneur and idealist who hoped to start and agrarian commune in the fertile Columbia River valley. When this plan failed to materialize, he was persuaded to turn his intended home into a museum. His friendships with Marie, Queen of Romania, Loïe Fuller, a French modern dancer, and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels were instrumental in shaping the museum.
Its eclectic collection includes furnishings once belonging to Romanian royalty, Orthodox icons, paintings, ceramics, drawings and sculpture by Rodin, American Indian art, about 100 unusual chess sets--and much more. Ken especially enjoyed the chess sets and pointed out a couple that he had once owned sets similar to.
We had a picnic lunch on the grounds. Fortunately we were able to find a picnic table that was partially shaded. Shade was important because the high today was around 101 degrees. After our visit to the museum we drove four miles further east to Stonehenge Memorial. It was built by Sam Hill as a memorial to Klickitat County, Washington, soldiers who died in World War I. The memorial is as nearly as possible a duplication of the original Stonehenge, as it once stood, before the centuries had taken their toll.
We didn't stay there long, because of the heat, but soon headed back west along I-84. We stopped at the Bonneville Dam and went to the Visitor Center, where we saw fish swimming valiantly upstream through the fish ladder there. We saw Lamprey eels clinging to the glass with their sucker mouths.
Someone is charged with counting all the fish that pass through the fish ladder, keeping track of the various species as they swim upstream to spawning grounds. It's hard for me to imagine how anyone is able to count and identify the fish as they pass by in the murky waters.
After leaving the dam, we drove to the Eagle Creek trailhead and hiked up the trail part way. By this time it was later in the afternoon and a bit cooler, especially in the shade. We were able to park pretty close to the trailhead because some hikers had come and gone, but we could see that people were parked over half a mile away.
The trail must really have been crowded earlier. We had plenty of company as it was. One unsettling encounter was with a group of rescuers bringing a young man down on a body board. As they hurried by we could see that the guy appeared to be in pain, but looked like he was going to be okay.
Unfortunately, Annie remembered being on this trail once before. That wasn't a happy occasion since she was injured. We didn't hike far. This trail leads to several major waterfalls, but we turned back before reaching any of them.
After our day's adventures, we located a well-reviewed Mexican restaurant on Yelp. The Agave Azul in Gresham is a small place, but we will certainly add our voices to those singing its praises. The food was unusually good, especially the Chile Rellenos con Salsa Roja de Chipotle that both Chris and Ken ordered and the cheese enchiladas that Annie and I had (although Annie didn't appreciate the mole sauce on the enchiladas). We shared some flan and fried ice cream for dessert. The flan was smooth and creamy, some of the best I've ever tasted. We all agreed we'd come back another time.
We are definitely planning to sleep in tomorrow! It was a wonderful but tiring day. We're grateful to Shawn and Chris for driving and to Shawn for treating us to dinner. We'll see them all again on Wednesday, when we plan to celebrate Annie's 14th birthday. (Her birthday is actually Tuesday, but she'll spend that day with her mom.)
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