Apple and Pear Harvest in Hood River

Dayle and I headed off on Saturday to visit the Hood River Valley on a beautiful sunny and brisk day.  This was my favorite photo of Mt. Hood looming behind the fruit orchards and farms.  To be honest, we took a road we've never been on and found ourselves climbing up a steep hillside with this view peaking through the trees.  :-)

Our first stop was Panorama Point where I snapped this photo, I was very disappointed as the sun was actually back-lighting the mountain so it was not a clear photo.  

As we meandered around the back roads in the orchards we came across this charming church.

We drove up Hwy 35 and found a fruit stand we have visited before, we got some apples and pears fresh off the trees and a bottle of cherry syrup and sour cherry jam.  Oh, and a gallon of fresh squeezed apple juice.  Heading back to Hood River you can see Mt. Adams which is in Washington.

We headed to the Hood River Marine park area and lo and behold, we saw the Queen of the West, which we had seen the weekend before in Astoria when we were there to sail on the tall ship!!  She'd covered 151 miles since we'd seen her last.

As we drove around the marine park we got to the bow of the sternwheeler.  

We also visited a place I'd heard of but never seen, Ruthton Point.  Dayle snapped a few photos from the viewpoint.  See the old farmhouse and the vineyard below?  The train going by.

Looking north and east from the viewpoint, Washington across the river.

The train curving through the farmlands on the shore.

We had lunch at Riverside restaurant which offers a lovely view of the river.  The most notable part of the lunch was a woman who laughed uproariously and loudly during our entire meal.  :-)

As we headed out of the restaurant I snapped this image of a maple tree covered with bright red leaves outside the window.

And then another.. covered with little bright red helicopter seeds.

We also drove through the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel, there was a wedding party going on on the grounds with tables and linens and partygoers.  I love this place. 

I also have snapped some trees in our area over the last few days.. this line of trees in Troutdale is beautiful every year.

A brilliant red-orange tree.

Another.. still with some green leaves below.

My big pot of mixed Christmas Cactus has a couple blooms, this particular one is the one I rescued from my mother's room shortly before we lost her.  Every time it blooms I think it's my Mother saying hello.

We went out to dinner last night at Bumper's Grill and when I ordered my steak tenderloin, they were out of them.  Dang!  But then the waitress came back and said they did have ONE of their specials, a Beef Wellington, would I like that?  Why not?  And what a wonderful meal it was.  It was pastry around a beef tenderloin with Bordelaise sauce.  

I wanted to show you some of the pears and apples we brought home.  We'll be dining on some of them today!

One of the pear varieties is HUGE!

I tried to capture a sliver of a moon the other night but the photos did not come out well of the close ups, but I think this one came out kind of fun.

The next night I tried again, it's better but still not the best.  How I wish I had a camera that would get super clear shots of the moon.

We are being blessed with a week of sunny warm weather with cool nights and breezy afternoons.  Works for me!  I hope you have a lovely week.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)