Auē!  Last time I forgot to show photos of our grinds!  Ack! So here’s the photo of my amazing lemon/blueberry pancakes with lemon sauce.  Ho da ʻono!!

I can’t find the photo of Nolemana’s omelette. So sorry. Mines was moa betta any way. Heh heh.

Anyhow, back on da road again, this time heading makai, toward the sea. I’d meant for us to go back over The Dalles Bridge, but I forgot, and so we were back on I-84. Too much lemon pancake, mebbe?

There was small kine snow up on the hillsides.

We’re about five miles mauka of Hood River here; but we can’t exactly be mauka because Mt Hood is south of here. So confusing these mainland directions!

I told Nolemana I’d like to cross back over the river at Hood River so that we’d have more variety. And since it was still raining, I figured that traffic would be lighter without so many semis to throw up water on my windshield. People would be driving slower, too, and driving wouldn’t be so stressful.

So across the river we went!

Looking (I give up) east across the river.

I love this bridge. It reminds me of the “airplane bridge” back home. We have to drive really slow, and the sound of our tires on it reminds me of all the times my papa-san would take us for drives across the old bridge.

This one’s a lot bigger.

So here we are, on Washington State Highway 14. I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was even lighter than I’d expected. The other reason I wanted to take this highway was because I thought we’d have a better chance of seeing trains, because the tracks are much closer to the highway here. Not. Kill fight dat.

Oh yeah. And tunnels! This side has tons of tunnels. Which I also love. Not as much as trains, but I still love them. This photo shows car tunnel and train tunnel.

So cool. As long as there are no earthquakes, of course.

Yep. Still rainy. This is another da kine artsy photo.

I like this one, too.

Not too much further down the road, we saw two more train/car tunnels. It woulda been so cool if a train had come through just then.

Just one minute later? Another tunnel!

We stopped at a historical marker, because, well, that’s what we do. This one told the history of Broughton Flume.  Everytime I hear the word “flume”, I’m reminded of the sugar cane flumes back home. But his one carried rough-sawn timber.  It’s pretty fascinating.  I going wait while you follow da link.

K’den. U stay back?  Shaka!

Back on da highway again…we saw this truck on the railroad tracks. We couldn’t tell what the guys were doing, though.

Soon it was time to cross back over another bridge to the Oregon side of the Gorge.

This is a beautiful  bridge (toll: $1.00), and the views from it are fabulous.

This was one huge tow truck, and he was zooming along ‘way over the speed limit, kicking up tons of water onto our windshield. He was going so fast that I didn’t want to pass him, so ultimately I dropped back and followed him. ‘Way back.

It was so rainy, and had been for days, that there were waterfalls that usually weren’t there coming down over the cliffs.

Train!! And Canada, too!

Nolemana tried to get a photo of Vista House up there, but the windshield got splatted too bad.

It was still raining hard.

Another rainy season waterfall.

And a blurry photo of Multnomah Falls.

I thought that this would be our last trip up the Gorge for awhile, and certainly longer to The Dalles. But guess wat? We got a call from an absolutely desperate client asking if we’d go there again. That’s a long drive for an appraisal, but Nolemana, being kind-hearted, said we’d do it. Whoot! Now I get to try the Cinnamon Roll French Toast at Momma’s! That’s what’s important, right?  And maybe next time we’ll have better luck seeing trains.