Catherine Creek Hike and Driving East

After Mom got all settled in our first item on the agenda was a hike. I chose Catherine Creek in WA for several reasons. Firstly was the difficulty level, various sections are 1- 3 pies, the 3 pie part is an incline that sucks, ask mom lol. The effort would pay off with a view of the east end of the gorge and a slew of native blooming wildflowers. She did really well, I personally think it makes the sense of accomplishment greater when you finally do reach the top if you had to work a bit to get there. I think/ hope she agreed lol. She really got into it, even found herself a hiking stick! She had been asking about the frequency of snake sightings... We've ever only seen 2 and they were together on a completely different trail in OR.. Leave it to the most snake phobic person I know to almost step on the only known one in WA! It was a little garter snake but by her reaction you would have thought it was the worlds largest rattler! Once she spotted it she was off and running faster than I've ever seen her move. I felt really bad for her in the situation but I think it's comical it retrospect (she probably wouldn't agree lol). When we made it to the top we found ourselves a place to sit and take in the view, sun, and breeze. The wind was blowing the tall grasses all around and I was inspired to make a crop circle while Mom laughed at me.

After we hiked back to the car we set out for Goldendale with plans to see the Marryhill Art Museam and the wind turbine fields. Before going too much further we stopped at a the only place to eat in miles, a cute neighborhood mom n pop place that served Americana on a plate. Yummy Americana shaped like the most beautiful lemon pie you've ever seen. I though pie was quite appropriate beings that mom had gotten her first taste of our hiking pie rating system:

Bellies full we hopped back in the car and proceeded East. Mom got to see the awesome topography changes as you leave the Gorge. Tall green mountains giving way to large sloping grass covered and arid hills. The sky gets bigger and bigger as do the views. You feel like you can see forever when you look towards the horizon. It all looks rather fake and is truly hard to grasp the scope of.  We arrived at the museum, took a look around the beautiful property and sculpture garden, admired the peacock/peahens and saw what we could of the exhibits before it closed. From there we proceeded to drive north into Goldendale where we got our first view of Mt. Rainier and Mom marveled at the huge white spinning wind turbines. I enjoyed watching her go on and on about how huge they were. We ate at dairy queen in Goldendale which is about the only thing there is to do in that town, then back home we drove only stopping to eat mexican food in Hood River.
We did see by far the most spectacular sunset that evening. Mom's visit was off to a nice start.



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