On February 9th, this year, we had to do an appraisal in Rainier, Oregon. Out in daboonies. I love trips like this because I know we’ll see at least some new countryside in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest.

First of course, we headed mauka… hmmm… get mauka on two sides in Oregon! Mauka toward Seattle den, over the Columbia River, and from their past Kalama, Washington. KaLAHma, folks. NOT Kalama as in “cat” like everyone here pronounces it. Because the town was named for John Kalama, who was Hawaiian. And nowhere in the Hawaiian language is “a” pronounced like the one in “cat”. Remembah and obey, Grasshoppah.

Every year get “Days of Discovery” in Kalama, da festival combining Hawaiian and Nisqually Indian cultures.

Just south of Longview, we crossed the Columbia River.

The beautiful park in Longview, right in the middle of town.

We’re going to be crossing the Columbia yet again; see the bridge up ahead?

Huge log area… who knows what they’re destined to become? This is a common sight in the Pacific Northwest.

Get plenny, yeah?

A huge cargo ship lies at anchor in the river. I wonder where it’s from.

We approach the bridge.

There’s the cargo ship down dea.

And onto the bridge we go!

See where the road goes up the hill on the right? That’s where we’re headed.

We’re now heading up that hill, and stop at a viewpoint to take some photos.

What a view!

*** Alla stuffs hea on my blog stay copyrighted. Dat means photos, words, typos, hamajangs of any kine. If u kakaroach [steal] um, den I going hunt you down and give you da giant slippah and whack u wit um until u promise u nevah going do dat again. And eh! I whack hard and I get plenny menehunes can track u down. Copyright © 2008. The content on this blog is the sole property of the author. Dat would be ME! ***