A Gorgeous Day!

The Island Spirit, a cruise ship we have seen more than once on this trip, docked in Arlington last night also.  We heard their engine start up at 7AM and we popped up to observe.  We thought of Pastor Dan and how his wife Kathy said Dan would do the same thing on their recent Alaska cruise.

The Island  Spirit made it away safely.  We decided to forego onboard coffee and get a full breakfast at the restaurant in town.  Then we picked up a few items at the grocery store (more of that fabulous hamburger), and headed back to the boat.

Not far down, though it is not technically 'The Gorge' yet, the sunshine between the cliffs seems to beckon us home.

 Soon the dark clouds disperse, leaving fluffs of white at the top of the ridge where the line of windmills peek through occasionally.

Something unprecedented happened today at the John Day dam.  The Challenger and his load were waiting for a lift up as we came out from our ride down.  He had called the lockmaster just after we did and it was determined that we would go down first, since he was over an hour out at the time of our call. We turned up the rpm's just a bit to hurry along (doesn't make a WHOLE lot of difference in our boat, but still.  We were thankful that we hadn't left the dock a half hour later this morning, as we likely would have ended up waiting some time for this tug and barges to lock up!

Today's Stonehenge replica at Maryhill photos turned out much better than the trip upriver, because the sun is shining today!  We COULD have anchored out, dinghied over, walked a mile and a half (as the crow flies) up the hill to visit. Or PERHAPS tied to the short dock at the boat ramp (only 20 feet of dock floating?) and done the same walk.  

 Unfortunately, we would also love to visit the museum at Maryhill, and it is a mile and a half, uphill, as the crow flies, in the opposite direction from Stonehenge.  Al promises that we will do a car trip so we don't miss these things.  (I believe there is also a winery in the neighborhood.)

And as an end to this gorgeous day, we are at anchor  in the northeast nook of Miller Island.  We are doing something we haven't done in for quite sometime--we are sitting on the back deck with drinks and books.  I think we will stay out here as long as there is light, OR until it cools enough to be uncomfortable.   Goodnight!


(note:  All photography today (except for the barges) by Mr. Al Thomason)