A Day at the Museum

A few weeks ago (okay, it's been about a month now...) we all hopped in the jeep and went on a little road trip down to Goldendale, WA. Goldendale is located on the Columbia River Gorge; the river separates Washington and Oregon. It was a really nice day for a drive - windy, rainy, I think we might have even seen a little hail. We were all pretty cosy until we arrived at the Maryhill Museum (our first destination). Our initial intentions were to just stick to the grounds, as there is plenty to keep any toddler busy (and it's free). Due to incliment weather and a tiny two-year-old bladder, however, we made our way into the museum for an impromtu cultural event. Jeremy took some pictures to share, and Cadence did really good to be quiet and not touch things. She got a great reward on the upper floor where a kids room is set up with hands-on playthings that correspond with the exhibits on other floors. Her favorite exhibit was of Loie Fuller. Mostly because there was a video playing of one of her dances.

Permanent Native American exhibit featuring beaded purses, shoes, clothes, and other various items

Photo of Native American woman painting on a hat

Hat similar to the one in the photo above

Eskimo parka made out of seal intestine sewed together to make a waterproof outerlayer

Another of the permanent exhibits, the International Chess Set display holds around 100 different sets from around the globe, and from various time periods

En route back to our vehicle after our tour, we stopped to gawk at a tail-less peacock. There were three, actually, that seemed strategically placed in the landscaping for visual congruity, and they were all sans tail feathers. Cadence really likes the peacock feathers at Grammy's house, so I'm sure she's still trying to figure out how those funny birds are connected to the feathers we see that share the same name.

See - no tail!

After a semi-short detour a few miles in the opposite direction from our next destination (our 'navigator' had us pointed east, but our car compass told us we were pointed west...) we arrived at our second destination, a replica of Stonehenge built as a WWI memorial. If possible, it was even more blustery on this bluff, and the poor vegetation seemed permanently bowed towards the ground. Inside the memorial, however, it was almost eerily calm. The way the structure was constructed seemed to forbid the wind from entering in its destructive state. However, this seemed to make the wind even more angry. And, lucky us, we happened to make our trip on the day of the 10th annual equinox poetry reading and earth celebration! About seven people tumbled out of an older Mercedes stationwagon and met up with several others who had arrived by minivan. One gentleman, sporting a flowing white beard, was clad in a fleece pullover and cut-off shorts, flip-flops, and was decorated with numerous strands of Marti-Gras beads. It was maybe 50 degrees out and the rain was coming down horizontally. To get things started, one man played a couple songs on guitar and sang, then another read a prayer to mother earth before jumping into more celebration. We decided to head out before much celebrating got underway, along with several others who were just there to visit the monument. They certainly did add a bit of color to an otherwise gloomy, late-summer day, although, it's not really the color we were looking for.

Posing within the monument

The wind really wanted to play in Cadence's hair

Just inside the protective rings of stone...

Oops - an elbow and her hair have crossed the magical boundary!

Okay, so this may look like just a silly picture Jeremy took of his Jeep in front of Stonehenge (it is) but if you look off the end of the front of the car, you can see a person framed by the entryway - that's the guy with the white beard ... I think you can click on the picture to enlarge it and see him better

From there we went on a wild-goose chase to locate a potty (seriously, you'd think people would allow a two-year-old to use the potty, but no - only paying customers allowed at the gas station, and the gift shop just 'didn't have one' (ya right)) and ended up at the state park where we got to see some wind surfers up close. From the museum and the monument we could see down to the river where several wind surfers were out, braving the elements. It was pretty cool. They say Goldendale is the wind surfing capitol of - well, I forget now whether it's the world or the U.S., but there were a lot of out of state plates at the park. Apparently, due to some geographical anomalies, it's just windy all the time there. The bridge to Oregon was closed, so we didn't go there, and decided instead to head into Goldendale for dinner before going home. We stopped at a nice Chinese restaurant (really the place was a little shabby, but the food was pretty decent). Goldendale was holding its 'community days', or something like that. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but they were showing some nice old cars, and as we were finishing dinner the lawnmower races started. Although it sounded like a lot of fun, we opted to skip the races and loaded up and headed home instead.

Although Goldendale proper wasn't much to write about, the museum, memorial, and park are just a few of the activities near there that really are fun. There's also an observatory open to the public. I hear its spectacular. I can't wait to try wind surfing!