Bucket list trip to the Northwest!

Back in July Kent and I went on a 13-day road trip. I'll give you as many days as I can get through today and continue tomorrow. 

Day one - July 8:
Our goal was to get as far in the northwestern direction as possible today. We drove 10.5 hours to Pendleton, OR. The night before we left, our wonderful home teacher and his wife brought us a "happy trip" basket. It included Gatorade, granola bars, trail mix etc. etc. What a nice surprise!

I drove first:

Kent navigated

We took a rest stop for lunch

It was nice to be out of the car for a bit!

After lunch we traded drivers. He wasn't smiling in this one so I told him to smile -----

 

I guess you get what you ask for. :)

IT WAS SOOOOO HOT!!!!

We arrived in Oregon in early evening. Even though it had been a long day, we really enjoyed the drive and being together.

That night we stayed in Pendleton. We ate dinner in this small town restaurant called the Rainbow Cafe. It was delicious. 

 Kent "patiently" waiting for his meal

This guy was watching over our table

They had these little books at the table to entertain ourselves with while we waited. Funny. :)

Food at last. It was their version of KFC - really, really good. :)

Day 2:

After a good night's rest we were ready for day 2. Today we drove through eastern Washington and were surprised to see that much of it looks like western Utah - prairie, sage brush, and wide open views. 

As we got closer to the Cascade mountains, we felt like were were getting into more wilderness. 

We had a nice lunch stop at a place called Dry Falls. It was once the largest waterfall on the planet during or after the last ice age. 

 Maybe you can read the story for yourselves.

We spent the night in a place called Winthrop, Washington. This was one of my favorite hotels of the trip. The lodging was right on the river.

We saw river floaters

 A mother deer and her baby

Beautiful scenery

 A bald eagle

 This is right outside our patio door

She was curious about the stairs, but . . .

. . . realized her error and changed directions.

That night, the night hawks and bats came out. Kent just pointed his camera and shot multiple pictures. He actually caught a few bats in flight:

Before dinner we wandered through the rustic, trendy little town. It was great.

After dinner we enjoyed some lounging on the banks of the river, behind our hotel room.

We literally fell in love with these chairs, and ordered 2 of them when we got home. :)  !!!

Oh, in case you ever want to stay there, it is called the Hotel Rio Vista.