Far Vistas and Farm Flowers

Hi!  How is your summer going?  We're having quite possibly the best weather in my life!  On Sunday Dayle and I decided to take a drive up to Cascade Locks, cross the Bridge of the Gods, then have dinner at a Mexican restaurant we'd heard was good - El Rio - in Stevenson, WA.  After dinner we decided to keep adventuring and drove up the Washington side of the Columbia River to Hood River where we crossed the bridge there.  I spied this out of the window and pulled off the road and snapped this shot of a sailboat on the river with Mt. Hood behind it.  

The railroad was busy and hubby snapped this photo of a Burlington Northern engine heading towards us.

Although fuzzy I like this shot of the engine roaring past us.

We snapped this of an outcropping on the river with two old abandoned Indian fishing platforms.  It was probably difficult to get out to them!

Washington is on the left of the river and Oregon is on the right.

A shot of Oregon from the WA side.. 

This is a zoom of Mt. Hood from the same spot as the one with the sailboat.

We drove over the Hood River Bridge and drove up to Panorama Point for some nice views of the mountain.  What you see in the valley are many fruit farms, the crop is mainly pears.

Closer...

Closest!

Do you see that guy waving at us?  :-)  JUST kidding!

Sorry if I'm posting too many of these.. but goodness, it's pretty.

We were just cruising around looking for the road down the hill and the sun was shining through these grasses and it was so pretty.

And then we came around a corner and WOW.. one of the farmers had a beautiful flag flying over his orchard!  I would call this "the money shot".  I love this!

Then we found the road to head back down the hill to Hood River and I go..  What mountain is THAT?  It was over in Washington.. Dayle checks a map and found that it's Mt. Adams, and it's taller than Mt. Hood!  

OK, if you're tired of mountains.. lol.. here are some of the flowers blooming in the farm yard.  I'm very excited about this Crocosmia - I've loved these and admired them in other gardens for years and finally we have some blooming in our yard!  

The 4th of July rose keeps on blooming!  

The Streptocarpus or Streptocarpella continues to amaze me with how full the flowers are.  I just googled this and it's common name is "Nodding Violet".

The nickname fits it as the long stems with the flower on the end catch the breeze and they move up and down.  Sweet.

Million bell petunias are happy.

The other color variety of million bells petunias -- I just love these!

Well, time to pack up my swim bag for lap-swimming with Gracie!  What a gorgeous day!  I hope you're having fun and "make hay while the sun shines"!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)