Bonneville Hatchery and Dam...and Llamas

One of my favorite local sites that we visited in Oregon was the Bonneville Hatchery and Dam. How interesting can it be to look at a bunch of fish?

Very.

The Bonneville Hatchery and Dam is located just an hour from Portland. As I mentioned in my last post, it's a great addition if you're visiting Multnomah Falls. Do both and make a day out of it.

As with Multnomah Falls and Mount Hood, we visited Bonneville multiple times during the summer of "Our Year of Living in Portland." The falls are majestic and Mount Hood is stunning, but Bonneville is just a bit quirky. I love quirky.

This "Historic Area" has cute cottages that remind me of Alice in Wonderland.

One of the best parts is the Sturgeon Viewing and Interpretive Center, where they have an enormous fish named Herman: Herman the Sturgeon. He's massive! There is an underwater viewing area for visitors.

The hatchery has dozens of breeding ponds for trout.

But the Salmon runs are the most impressive. The giant fish jump over locks, jumping several feet in the air, as they desperately try to swim upstream to spawn. They were really active in mid-August. The cute pug in the picture is Jewels. She belongs to our friends, Dave and Cath. They all visited us for the eclipse.

Here we are with Dan's mom, standing in front of a fish ladder. The fish climb up the ladder. I could watch fish climbing the ladder all day. It's mesmerizing. This isn't as weird as you think, I used to do animal observations at The Greater Los Angeles Zoo. The Bonneville Hatchery has employees who count fish to understand the current status of the fish population. They want to keep the salmon thriving.

We went on a free behind the scenes guided tour of the Dam. This is a great bonus for visitors. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers build the dam at the during the early 1900's and it was renovated in the 1950's.

It is here, that I learned about the most horrifying creature on the planet. Truly, this is stuff straight out of a horror film.

I'm talking about Lamphrey.

Lamphrey attach themselves to fish ( or in this case windows) and slowly eat them. They basically have a mouth that sucks on and these sharp, vampire like teeth. Additionally, they look a bit like eels and one of the few creatures that freak me out are eels. I think it's because they hide in crevices and dart out. I remember going snorkeling in Maui and being freaked out over the eels, sharks were no bother.

Lamphrey are infinitely worse than eels. And now I will definitely never go swimming in the Columbia River!

And the river...

The Dam spans both Oregon and Washington. It's easy to cross over and there are exhibits on both sides. Plan to spend a few hours at the Bonneville Hatchery and Dam.

I'm sneaking this in here, but when we took Dan's mom to these sites our day was epic. After the dam, we drove to the Hood River County Fruit Loop. This is a ride through the lush countryside, where there are many farms and opportunities to purchase local goods.

Cows hanging out by the side of the road. They say California cows are the happiest, but I think an Oregon cow enjoying the summer sun, takes the win. These cows earned the weather.

Dan's mom loves to knit and we found an llama farm with a store selling llama wool. Dan and I visited with the animals, while Jan picked out pretty yarn for her next project.

There are so many great places to visit in Oregon, make sure that the Bonneville Hatchery and Dam are on your list. Also, make time to enjoy a drive through the Fruit Loop.

Oregon Wine Tasting

During our year in Portland, we were lucky to have our friends from California (Valerie, Bryan, Susan, & Greg), visit and include us in their trip to Salem. After spending an afternoon showing them around Portland, we drove to Oregon's capital, where we spent two nights.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early, to begin our day of visiting wineries. We met up with their other friends (Larry & Judy), who had arrange a whole day of vineyard sightseeing in the Willamette Valley.

First stop, Domaine Drouhin, a winery that has been in Oregon since the 80's. The same family who owns it, also has vineyards in France and has been in the business for over a century. Judy and Gary arranged for us to have a private tasting, prior to Domaine Drouhin's business hours.

I know very little about wine and I do not have a sophisticated palate. I'll drink just about anything. To that end, we drank a lot on that day and I have zero memory of what I enjoyed the most. I left it completely up to Dan to make the decisions as to which bottles to purchase. I was far more interested in the places we visited, than I was in the wine that we were drinking. I'm left with a clear memory of what I saw, rather than what I tasted. I do remember that I was fairly tipsy after leaving Domaine Drouhin. Drinking in the morning on an empty stomach is rough.

Domaine Drouhin is a beautiful property.

They have vineyard dogs!

The tasting room was very grand and the private experience definitely gave it a personal touch. A great way to kick off our morning.

Next stop, was the Stoller Family Estate. This was my favorite, because it was the most casual. We took in the gorgeous views, while sitting in a heated tent and enjoying nibbles.

For lunch, we headed to the Hotel Oregon in McMinnville. The Hotel Oregon is a McMenamin's property. McMenamins is a PNW chain of quirky hotels and restaurants. For example, a few of their properties are old schools that have been turned into hotels. Each McMenamins has its own theme and charm. In addition to the main restaurant, The Hotel Oregon has four bars, including a roof top bar and a basement speak-easy. It's the type of hotel with a surprise around every corner. It reminded me of The Magic Castle in Hollywood. Lunch was great and we snuck down to the basement for a quick cocktail. If you visit a McMenamin's ( and you should) make sure to get a passport to collect special stamps from all of the properties.

To further solidify the quirkiness of McMenamins, they host an annual UFO Festival.

Our final winery was Willamette Valley Vineyards. This was the grandest of the three and it had a country club vibe. The weather was starting to get cool and rainy. It was wonderful to be in a cozy environment with warm fireplaces, while enjoying wine and majestic views.

We had a wonderful day spending time with friends, enjoying great wine, and being tourists. Here is our haul from the wineries. It has been over a year and we still have a few bottles left!

Astoria

If there was one movie from my childhood that reigned supreme over all others, it was The Goonies. My mom took me to see it at The Alex theater in Glendale on its opening night in 1985. I remember the trailers and the anticipation. My expectations were exceeded. I watch it at least once a year and I own two copies on DVD.. The second copy came way of my husband buying a surprise copy while out shopping on our 2016 Orlando vacation. He saw the DVD on sale at Target and we introduced the kids to my favorite childhood movie, during a much needed "stay inside and enjoy the air-conditioning" afternoon. They became fans.

Although I grew up in Los Angeles and spent many years working at Universal Studios, I never get tired of movie magic. As soon as I learned that we were moving to the PNW, I started planning our day trip to Astoria: home of The Goonies!!!

We set out on the two-hour drive from Portland to Astoria on a cool day last May. Our first stop was lunch at the Elderberry Inn Restaurant.

The Elderberry Inn Restaurant is a greasy spoon with good burgers and great pies. It also has some fun decor on the exterior of the building, which is the real reason we stopped. If you see Bigfoot and an enormous frying pan, you have to stop.

The mighty Columbia River provided amazing views during our drive. We had to pull over to take pictures.

Finally, we reached Astoria and I was super excited. SO EXCITED!!! Look, it's the bowling alley where we first meet Chunk!

Obviously the Walsh house would be the ultimate place to visit. However, after reading up on the filming sites, it seems that the woman who owns the home has gotten fed up with fans stopping by and has taken action to alter the front of the home to make it less appealing. I'm a fan, but I'm also not a jerk. I can respect her right to privacy, so we didn't even attempt to stop by the house.

Instead, we went to the Oregon Film Museum.

Which happens to be inside of the former Clatsop County Jail, which you may recognize from the opening scene of The Goonies, with the Fratelli jail break!

and also used in the film..."O.R.V.- Bullet holes!"

Admission was six dollars for adults and at a leisurely pace, it took us about thirty minutes to enjoy the museum. It's small. A majority of the exhibits involve The Goonies, however there are also nods to other famous movies filmed in Oregon: The Shining, Kindergarten Cop, Short Circuit, Animal House, One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest, and more... They have movie props and interactive exhibits, where you can film yourself reenacting scenes on a set or in a prop car.

But before we could enjoy the museum, we had to get booked.

Inside the jail cell where Jake faked his suicide, were props from The Goonies: Data's jacket and his little sister's bike that Brand borrows.

The mailbox from the Walsh house, the skeleton key, and Chester Copperpot's wallet were in a glass case. They even had one of the David statues with Mom's favorite piece intact.

We wrote a note for The Goonies and left it on the wall. I wonder if anyone involved with the movie ever actually visits the museum?

Unfortuantely, The Goonies arcade machine was either broken or turned off. I must seek this out and play it!

Hey you guys, I'm Reenacting the Fratelli car chase scene. It was kind of awkward with one person, but I used my drama school training to play all of the parts.

And that was all there was to see. There is a small gift shop, where I bought a magnet and a few stickers.

The Flavel House Museum, located across the street from the Oregon Film Museum, served as the exterior for "The Astoria Historical Museum", where Mr. Walsh was the curator in The Goonies.

On a different trip, we visited Cannon Beach, where the last scene of The Goonies was filmed. More on that in a future trip report.

After sightseeing in Astoria, we drove across the Astoria-Megler Bridge to cross into Washington State.

Just across the state border, we took in a short History lesson, learning about Clark's Dismal Nitch.

The sun was starting to set, so we hit the road for our two-hour journey back home to Portland. Astoria is absolutely worth the visit for fans of The Goonies. It's a quaint, pretty town for those who are not fans of the film. I'd love to go back, perhaps even stay at a bed and breakfast.