The scenic route

For Mother's Day weekend we packed up ourselves and Shep and drove over to Hermiston to spend some time with my mom, Ramona.  The five hour drive zipped right along for me as I played DJ in the passenger seat (I'm pretty good with an iPod if you ever need someone!).  We spent Saturday helping my mom settle into her new place - she's got a pretty nice spot! - and had a nice dinner out at a restaurant that was new to me.  I have to admit I have spent very little time in Hermiston since college, so really there's a lot in that town that's new to me.  But, not surprisingly, many things have stayed the same.
  We took a drive out to the house we used to live in and I reminisced about school bus rides (have I mentioned before how I was such a big nerd that I used to actually play my clarinet ON THE SCHOOL BUS!  How I wound up as awesome as I am may never be understood!)  We took Mom out to lunch to celebrate her Mom-ness on Sunday and left town around 3:30 on Sunday. 
  Normally on road trips Jay and I are only interested in getting straight home - no lookout points or historical monuments, just a stop for gas or to let Shep stretch and that's it.  But this time we decided to spoil ourselves!  We first took the Historic Columbia River Highway to Rowena Crest, west of The Dalles.  No dogs allowed on the beautiful nature preserve grounds, so we didn't linger for long.
Then we continued to the wondrous waterfalls!    Horse Tail, Multnomah, Wahkeenah...  We stopped and hiked to a few of them.  The drive concluded with a stop at Crown point Overlook Vista House.  I have seen this from the freeway so many times over the years and never stopped.  We arrived there after sunset but tried our luck at some photos anyway.  Enjoy a few shots of our trip - and forgive the quality - they were all taken on my phone.
  And while you view these, I will be cleaning dishes from making a batch of raw oatmeal raisin cookies - they are currently "baking" in the dehydrator!!