May 24, 2008 - Portland

After the long climb up and down Mulnomah Falls, we head to the next one...

You can see where it gets its name.

It is a smaller waterfall, but much more accessible.

There's my baby!

We saw some dogs playing in and around this pool at the bottom of the falls.
Very cool spot, especially with the mist.

We get in our car and head for an overlook I saw in a postcard...

It didn't take too long to find it.

This is Columbia River Gorgeous!
(Sorry. Had to.)

This is the vain part of the trip where we take pictures of ourselves.

Check out the clouds!

I envy people who get to see mountains like this daily - that is, until I think of what their winters are like...

We leave the overlook and head southwest of Portland to wine country.

This is Duck Pond. It is more of a club than a winery. The wine wasn't bad. The bad wasn't great. The experience was totally worth the drive.

This it outside our next winery, the Four Graces.

We sat at a table out behind the little visitor's center, drank our wine samples, and had some light hors d'oeuvres.

Argyle - the only winery that we visited that we knew (and of which we'd partaken).

It isn't the best wine, but it is a neat setting.
Actually, we don't really like pinot noir, which is the predominant wine in the region. Really, the Willamette (will'-AM'-it) Valley is the most famous pinot noir area in the country. If you don't like these pinots, you won't like any.
I guess we don't like any. We thought the same of the French wines on our recent trip to Provence. We're just simple Napa Cab people - and are satisfied being so...