It took several rounds of the Uno card game to keep me awake all the way back to Seattle on the 27the travel day. We’d traded the planned 7:30am departure time for something more like 9am, and agreed to skip the Portland Japanese Gardens. I’m sure they would have been beautiful. Back in Las Vegas, we’d seen an art gallery displaying giant photo prints of beautiful natural wonders – pictures of the Portland Japanese Gardens among them. Other pictures included some sights we had actually seen, though! We were all a little bit anxious, though, so we needed the extra time. I was anxious about figuring out what to do with the RV and where we’d be sleeping that night (hotel or RV). Mom and the boys were anxious both to finally see some of the Seattle sights as well as board the plane for home.
Before we pulled out, I’d done some research on the computer and resolved to call an RV consignment place that I’d talked to, briefly, before the trip. I also came up with a list of RV parks near the consignment place. Pulling out of the campground, Mom and I agreed to have the consignment place assess our rig later in the day, sleep in it that night, and turn it in the next day. The other option under consideration was to try to turn it in that day, get a hotel for the night, and try to visit downtown Seattle the net day. We both knew it would be too much to think that we could quickly vacate our home of 5 weeks… and we still had enough food left for a few meals, too. So we headed to Multnomah Falls, where we took a short sightseeing walk and had a picnic. The RV consignment place was accomodating, and the campground I’d selected as available, so we had a plan that looked like it was going to work well.
Multnomah Falls was a late addition to my itinerary, but it looked so inviting, I had added it to the trip, which created that early 7:30am departure time from the campground. An easy thing to visit (a two minute walk from a highway rest area) and beautiful sight, it was worth it. Returning to our RV, we found ourselves parked in among 5 or 6 tour buses from the same company. I had seen their guides on the trail and even asked one lady her tour’s route. She named some towns/cities I’d never heard of. I don’t know if their tour was by bus or cruise ship. But one funny thing… one of the old ladies returning from the walk came right up to our door and asked Mom if this was bus #3. “No, it’s our private RV” she said. “Oh!” the lady replied “Yes, I was confused because I didn’t remember the bus looking so nice!” I told Mom she should have tried to sell the RV to the woman. Ha!
Anyway, Multnomah Falls is a very pretty two-stage drop of over 600 feet (over 500 feet on them main drop). There’s a nice visitor center there (which we bypassed) and a nice paved walkway up to a bridge which crosses over the top of the lower 60- or 70-foot drop. As usual, the boys put up a little bit of a protest about being dragged out, but they did think the falls were pretty cool.
Seattle traffic was a nightmare, which didn’t surprise me because went through at rush hour and because I’d experienced the same three and a half weeks earlier. We took care of business at the RV place and headed to the campground where the staff was super helpful in giving us instructions for how to visit Seattle the next day, if we wanted.
