McMinnville, Oregon: Our only appointment today was lunch with the people we lunched with the most (pre-pandemic): Mary and Captain Jim - our great friends and neighbors from the Motorcoach Country Club. They summer in Vancouver, Washington (just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon). Mary suggested we visit a new development along the Columbia River, have lunch, and then enjoy a stroll. The weather was just perfect.
Who is this bearded man? Our friends looked just fantastic, and it was so nice to see them again - it had been since May! Mary chose Twig's restaurant and we had a water-front table overlooking the Columbia River.
We even had a sighting of river cruise boat on her way to Astoria, Oregon, and a very noisy fly-over by four National Guard F-somethings as they took-off from Portland International (across the river). Very exciting.
Captain Jim could not resist the Huckleberry martini! I mean, come on, it's huckleberry season in the Pacific Northwest. I could not resist the halibut fish and chips, because, I mean, come on, I just can't resist halibut fish and chips.
I don't eat the chips!
After lunch, we walked around to see the new Vancouver Waterfront area. The land once held a paper/pulp mill and now has restaurants, condos, apartments, retail, wine tasting venues, and office buildings. Everything is sparkling-new and there is a lot of public art, and a very fun little (two-inch-deep) "river" for the kids to wade.
So many of the buildings and walk-way bridges look like the bow of a ship. Very clever. Here is the view from the river back to the restaurant we visited for lunch:
If you live anywhere near Vancouver, I'd give the new waterfront a thumbs-up for a fun afternoon with the family. Just a few blocks away is a massive shaded park, Ester Short Park, with a playground and a water feature.
After a fun few hours with Mary and Captain Jim, we said goodbye. Dave and I drove back to McMinnville (90 minutes). We arrived to a dust cloud as a tractor was plowing the field between this RV park and the air museum. So sad DT washed the car (hisownself) yesterday afternoon. Insert sad face here.
After returning to our bus, we watched the (recorded) final Diamond League meet from Zurich (inside our motorhome as the dust/dirt cloud was just cray-cray), had vegan black bean tacos, and called it a night.
Can't tell you all how wonderful it was to see Mary and Jim today!
Until my next update, I remain, your Washingtonian correspondent.