Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' on the River

Do you remember that song by Ike & Tina Turner?  Little known factoid - I helped put on a rock festival near Seattle in my youth and Ike & Tina Turner played at sunset all 3 nights of the festival, and since I was festival "Staff", I got to go up on stage and sit on the side while they performed.  Oh my gosh, those people put on one heck of a show.  But I digress.... today I organized a group of volunteers for the Friends of Multnomah Falls to participate in a free cruise on the Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge.  

Isn't she pretty?

Above is a new sculpture near the Sternwheeler building depicting Sacagawea, "A Symbol of Peace", a young Lemhi-Shoshone woman accompanied Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery during 1805-1806, all while caring for her infant son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau.  The presence of the young teenage mother with the party showed it's peaceful intentions to tribes along the way.

Her baby son is shown in a papoose on her back.

My grandson's are on the back of Meriwether Lewis' dog, "Seaman", a Newfoundland dog that accompanied Lewis & Clark and proved himself valuable as a companion, hunter and guard dog, warding off buffalo and bears and once caught a deer midstream.

Here is a copy of a page out of the Journal of Meriwether Lewis.

After we boarded the sternwheeler, I walked about and got some photos.  This is shot from the bow of the boat looking at the pilot-house.

A view of the gorge and the side of the boat.  The water is rather brown as we have record run-off of rain and snowmelt, the river is very high right now.

Can you feel the spray of the water from the wheel?

A shot of one of the windsurfers.. we have a LOT of them in the gorge due to the infamous winds.

I took my grandsons up to the pilothouse or wheelhouse - behind it is the smokestack.

My 6 year old grandson, Gabriel, took a turn at the controls... the Captain watches carefully and tells them how the lever controls the rudder.

The 11 year old Michael takes a turn.. look at that smile of his brother! LOL

We pass a boat with local Native American Indians pulling in a fishing net over the side of their boat.  They have tribal fishing rights.  Out of camera ranger was a Osprey nest in the top of a tree.

Here is a guy doing the "new thing".. kite boarding!  Oh my!!

Remember the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center I showed you a few weeks ago?  Here it is from the river and behind it is Skamania Lodge.. a REALLY awesome hotel and golf course.. I'll show you that some day.. great restaurant!!

As we neared the dock returning to Cascade Locks Marine Park.. this beautiful sailboat was heading out and I got this photo of it in front of the Bridge of the Gods.  Love this photo! :-)  We have a sailboat and I lived aboard for 4 months in the San Juans Islands and singlehanded it there.. fun memories.

We actually moored our sailboat, Stargazer, in this marina there at Cascade Locks for several years.  We found out today that one of our friends from those days bought this wooden ketch and restored it from nearly a pile of lumber back to it's current glory.  AND, he's a Captain of the Sternwheeler now, too!

Here is the gang of volunteers posing for a photo. We had a great time.. hope you enjoyed going along for the ride.. thanks for visiting!!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)