celebrating 30 years

In the words (more or less) of Jackson Browne ....."The next thing I remember I was all moved in, and he was buying me a washing machine." Our dishwasher has been faltering, but Doug is investigating. It's not nearly as old as we are! Before household repairs, we celebrated this past weekend with a stay at the Lyle Hotel, on the Washington side of the Columbia River.
We drove over to the Oregon side and got to see what the little town of Lyle looks like from Rowena Crest on the historic scenic hwy 30.
One of the places we stopped was the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. There is a raptor center there and one of the birds they had rescued was a Northern Sawhet Owl, only about 7 or 8 inches tall. He had lost an eye because of being hit by a car. His name is Hootie.








We also drove to Goldendale one night and met up with Lydia and Dave for dinner and a trip to the observatory. That was a unique experience. We didn't get to gaze much at stars because of lots of fog, although we did get to look through the telescope. Doug and I drove back through Goldendale on our way home, up the Klickatat River along the route that was used in the olden days by the

Goldendale-Lyle railroad. That was a great drive. We had our first picnic in the eurovan (I still think of it as a bus). I'll post those pictures later today.