Pacific Northwest Vacation - Day 10: Columbia River Gorge

This morning we drove east out of Portland and set out to explore the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at Vista House to take in the great view.

There are many waterfalls along the gorge and we made a quick stop to see Latourell Falls.

But the falls we really wanted to see was Multnomah Falls. It is considered a 'must see' when visiting Portland.

We arrived at the falls to find that the small parking lot was full. Traffic coming from our side was not allowed to wait for cars to leave the lot. Instead we were told to try a supplemental lot, and if that lot was also full, then to take a shuttle from a farther lot. To get to the supplemental lot, we had to get back on the interstate several miles down the road. But traffic coming from our side was not allowed to enter the supplemental lot either. We headed on to the area to catch the shuttle but we had to go an extra exit down and circle back. By the time we got on the shuttle and got to the falls, an hour had passed since we first arrived at the falls.

There were a lot of people at the falls. And the sun was right behind the falls making it impossible to get a good photo.

We walked up to the famed Benson Bridge, the footbridge that traverses Multnomah Creek between the two cascades of Multnomah Falls. From there I had planned to take the hike up to the top of the falls. Kai said he had enough and didn't want to walk further. My wife and I told him that we would go up ourselves and that he could wait for us there at the bridge.

That was a big mistake.

The walk up to the top of the falls was very steep and arduous. We had to stop a few times to catch our breath and rest. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top. If Kai had walked with us, he would have given up before we even got halfway.

At the top, we got to see the stream that fed the waterfall.

We refilled our water bottles with the cold water from the creek.

The following is a photo of the top of the falls looking down.

It was around this time that I saw that Kai had tried calling me. I tried to call him back but the cellular service was bad and the call would not go through. I texted Kai to let him know that we had just made it to the top and it would be a half hour before we got back down. We later found out that he did not receive the text.

We tried to walk quickly down and made it down in about 15 minutes. But we did not see Kai at the bridge. We walked further down and came across him coming back up the path.

He was furious.

And scared.

It was a huge mistake to leave him for that long.

We got him to go to lunch. A little calamari and a burger helped to calm him. He talked about how scared he was and that he realized that he is not ready to be alone. He said that after we get home, he would need to rest for two weeks.

After we left Multnomah, we drove further down the gorge. It wasn't as impressive as I had hoped and we drove back to our new hotel late in the afternoon.

It was nice to have a room with air conditioning!

This hotel also has a swimming pool so Kai got to go in the water which always helps calm him.

We had a late dinner at an Italian restaurant.

We let Kai have an Italian soda and have a canoli for dessert.

Our vacation is down to its last full day. While we enjoyed most of it, I think all of us are looking forward to having it come to an end.

Pacific Northwest Vacation - Day 9: Newberry National Volcanic Monument, and on to Portland

We had stayed the night in Bend Oregon and there are many places to see in the area. As we were moving on and needed to be in Portland by the end of the day, we had to choose one place to visit in the area. We decided on Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

We learned that Newberry is the largest of several volcanos in Oregon. But it is not a cylindrical shape, instead it is spread over an area the size of Rhode Island.

The first thing we did at Newberry was to ride the shuttle to the top of Lava Butte, a cinder cone that rises 500 feet.

From the top are nice views of the surrounding lava flow and mountains.

There are several snowcapped mountains including the three 'Sisters'.

The nearest mountain to Bend is Mount Batchelor.

After that we we went to Lava River Cave, the largest uncollapsed lava tube in Oregon.

You walk in and descend down the stairs.

The cave is dark with no lighting whatsoever. So we rented lanterns which provided the only light.

The cave is cool... constantly 42 degrees, so we wore our sweatshirts and jackets.

As caves go, it doesn't compare to the magnificent Carlsbad Caverns. There are no stalagtites or stalagmites as there are at Carlsbad. But it was still cool to walk through a large lava tube. This might have been the most interesting part of the cave, a section called "Tube in tube" where there are vertically stacked passages.

Kai loves caves and said he really enjoyed coming here. I love caves as well.

We had a late lunch back in Bend. We found a Hawaiian/Japanese restaurant so Kai had beef teriyaki, my wife had loco moco, and I had the two-item combo with chicken katsu and chicken teriyaki. I had a taste of my wife's loco moco and wished I had ordered that as well.

From Bend, it would be a three and a half hour drive to Portland. Bad traffic actually extended that by another half hour or so.

But we broke up the drive with a stop at Trillian Lake near Mount Hood.

Wow, what a nice view!

We got to our hotel in Portland to find out that the air conditioning in the entire hotel was not working and would not be fixed for another week. With 100 degree weather coming, the hotel was shutting down after this one night. They offered to refund our money but as it was getting late, I thought it best to stay the one night before moving on to a different hotel tomorrow. But sitting in our really hot room right now, I wish we had taken time to find another accomodation.

We went to dinner before all the restaurants closed for the night. We were lucky to find a table at Murata, a Japanese restaurant.

We were very happy to find out that the sushi was outstanding, among the best we've had and certainly better than the sushi we had in Seattle.

Even the ice cream was especially tasty.

It will be a challenging couple last days of the vacation with the extreme heat on the way. Wish us luck!

Pacific Northwest Vacation - Day 8: Crater Lake

This morning we got our last look at the ocean before we would drive inland. We went out to the beach near our motel in Bandon (Oregon) and was able to see the rocks in the water that were hidden by fog the night before. The large rock is known as Table Rock due to it's flat top.

We saw a lot of great ocean scenery the past few days and the scenery here was nice, too.

We then drove four hours to Crater Lake National Park. After arriving at the park, we got lunch at the park restaurant before going out to see the lake.

And then we went to the rim of the lake.

Oh my! From first sight, we were in awe.

The water was the bluest of blue.

I had to ask people to take a photo of the three of us here.

Crater Lake was formed when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed around 7,700 years ago and the caldera subsequently filled with rainwater and snow melt.

Wizard Island is itself a cinder cone so it is a volcano inside a volcano.

We drove the West Rim drive and saw the lake from a different angle. Every view was stunning.

It was definitely worth the trip to see this beautiful lake.

We then drove two hours to the town of Bend where we would spend the night.

We stayed at the only motel on this trip that had a swimming pool. Going in the water always helps Kai calm down.

But then it was time for dinner and he started to get agitated when it looked like we might have to wait a long time to be seated as Bend is a very popular town. Fortunately we found a great restaurant that had a table available on the sidewalk.

Kai enjoyed his flat iron steak while my wife loved her roast duck. I had blackened redfish which was also good.

We saw a lot of people walking around with ice cream so I looked up what ice cream places were in the area. It turns out that there was a highly-rated gelato place just around the corner so after dinner we walked there.

It was one of the best ice cream we've ever had. And that made Kai happy. And that made me happy.

Pacific Northwest Vacation - Day 7: Clouds and the Oregon Coast

It seems like there are times during each of our vacations where I wonder what in the world was I thinking of planning a vacation with Kai, and vowing that we would never go on another trip together again. On this vacation, this was that day.

Besides his autism, Kai has high levels of anxiety and depression. It can be hard to predict when those become a factor. In this case, tech issues may have provided a trigger. The night before, he couldn’t download the pictures he took from his phone to his laptop. Then the video game he was playing kept crashing. The extra long wait at restaurants didn’t help. And once Kai gets agitated, things can spiral. He becomes very negative and angry.

We took more time at our inn before we left Cannon Beach to try to give Kai time to calm down. But with a long day ahead, we had to get going. But he (and we) had a rough time in the car, to put it mildly.

I asked my wife to text Kai’s therapist and see if he was available. He said he could talk to Kai for 20 minutes. We finally came to a town and parked the car in the lot of a supermarket while Kai talked to his therapist.

After they finished talking, Kai was much calmer. We went to a Starbucks and got drinks for everyone. And then we continued on.

We ended up having a good day and Kai was happy.

We would drive 230 miles down the Oregon coast. Our first stop was at Cape Kiwanda.

For lunch, we stopped in Depoe Bay and found a place for more seafood. We started with more oyster shooters. The oysters were from the area and were huge.

Kai had fried oysters.

Depoe Bay (the bay, not the town) was beautiful.

Devil's Punchbowl is said to be better at high tide. We were there at low tide and the devil had drained the punchbowl.

Our favorite place of the day was Yaquina Head.

The area is beautiful but what made it extra special is that the low tide worked in our favor here as we were able to explore the tide pools.

We got to see and touch many sea life including anemones.

And sea urchins.

Kai loved it. He said this was his favorite spot on this vacation.

We even saw many seals.

And mussels.

We also went to Thor's Well which is also known as the drainpipe of the Pacific. As it was getting late, we viewed it from afar.

The area there was also beautiful.

For dinner, we found a place where the wait wasn't too long! Kai had a peanut butter and jalapeno burger. He said it was good!

Near the motel is a beach that has sea stacks. But it was very foggy and we could barely see it.

Our travels will continue inland.