Portland Women's Forum Gorge Tour 2016

Hello!  Would you like to join the Portland Women's Forum on their Gorge Tour with me?  Great, come on along!  First stop was the Troutdale Historical Society's Barn Museum.  They have an outstanding exhibit on display of the history of the Historic Columbia River Highway.  

Our guide for the tour was Len Otto (center) - he is the driving force behind this amazing exhibit and was a wonderful docent.

This exhibit is all the things that might have been taken in a camping trip 100 years ago.  

I was happy to see sign I drew up many years ago as we entered the barn museum.  I worked on a committee many years ago - the "Historic Columbia River Highway Task Force" and we dreamed of restoring the historic highway, I was asked to come up with a sign design, so I took my pen and ink and sketched this design out to show the group.  They liked it and asked me to show the design to the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Multnomah County Commission and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Gorge Commission - which I did and told them in my impassioned speech why I thought we should have the sections of the historic highway signed.  And amazingly it all went together and ODOT had their sign department make and install the signs from the beginning of the Historic Highway in Troutdale all along it to The Dalles!  :-)

My sister Denise called our attention to a photo of US on the wall of the museum!  How fun to see our group showcased in the museum show!

Our next stop is the site of the future the Crown Point Country Historical Society museum.  Member Chuck Rollins told our group of their future plans for a wonderful Museum and a Native American Long House to be built here.  I'm so excited about their plans!

Here is an artist's rendition of what they hope the museum will look like.

One of the museum displays will be these little cars found in digs in the area.  The fun back story is that one of the local ice cream shops sold a sundae that had two scoops of ice cream with a crispy waffle set between them as a "bridge" with a little toy car on the bridge.  I look forward to seeing their plans come to fruition.  PWF gave donations to both the THS Barn museum and the CRCHS.

Next up was visiting Portland Women's Forum Scenic Viewpoint and our annual group photo.  My DIL Kristi drove up to take our photo for us, she did a great job!  Please click on the link to PWF above to learn about our group.

This iconic view from "our" park.  :-)  

Kristi snapped a photo of some Queen Anne's Lace at the park.

Then Kristi walked down the trail a bit and saw some color up in the trees.. I had no idea that some Wisteria had grown WAY up into the trees.. I can only assume there was an old homestead here long ago that planted the Wisteria and it has made it's home in the tree tops here.  It is not a wild plant.

We then left PWF park and drove along the Historic Columbia River Highway towards Multnomah Falls where they were awaiting us with two tables set up for our group in the "Falls Room" for lunch.  We drove around Vista House (we'd come back later to visit there) and through the beautiful forest.  

Rick Buck, the manager of Multnomah Falls Lodge, Co. came over to greet us and talk to us.  He's a wonderful guy.

They made up a special menu for our group, I got the Hot Turkey and oh was it delicious!  They even surprised us with a dessert of triple berry crisp warm from the oven with a dollop of whipped cream.  

After a time of fellowship, fun and a great lunch, we headed back up the Historic Highway to visit Vista House.  There were volunteers dressed in period clothing handing out cake to visitors.

One of the ladies was my very own longtime friend, Diane.  We met in a barn sale 38 years ago.. I told her I was looking for a stainless steel bucket to use to milk my goats.  She said.. so am I!  I asked her what her husband did and she said he was a railroad engineer.. I said.. so is mine!!  She asked me how many kids I had and I said 3.. and she said.. me too!  We became instant friends and were the Dairy Goat 4-H leaders for our kids for 5 years together.  :-)

Look at the amazing ceiling in Vista House.  I think it's beautiful.

I served as one of the founders of the Friends of Vista House and it's first Executive Director for 15 years.  I have a deep love of this building.  The walls are Kasota limestone, the floors Tokeen marble from Alaska, the windows stained glass.  Click HERE for more of the history of the building.

I hope you've enjoyed touring the gorge with us.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)