Road Trip with Bruce and Louise: August 5, 2016, Driving the Columbia River John Day Dam, Bonneville Dam and Maryhill Museum and Stonehenge

August 5, 2016, Driving the Columbia River John Day Dam, Bonneville Dam and Maryhill Museum of Art and Stonehenge

Friday was a diving day, Kennewick to Kelso west of Portland Oregon. We were going to try to stay in Portland but the hotels were just to expensive so we drove onward to Kelso. This got us nicely in range for getting to the Pacific. For the driving we took the north side of the Columbia River, the Washington side. Somehow I pictured the landscape with trees but in reality there is nothing. This is some of the most barren land we have drove through. Beautiful and stark but barren. The Columbia River is a river of dams. There are quite a few. As we drove along we stopped at three of them. The John Day, The Dalles and the Bonneville Dam. These dams are huge, not particularly high but very wide.

One of the cool places we stopped is the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, WA on Route 14. The Maryhill, built by businessman Sam Hill in 1926, started out as his home but was converted to a museum. It is a cool place. It is so odd to see this huge stately building sitting in the middle of now where. The museum is filled with art from his travels and connections at the time. Including an excellent collection of Rodin's drawings and sculpture. Quite unexpected. The museum also has an excellent exhibit of native people of North America artifacts, baskets and other items. If you were into baskets then this is the place to come. Hill was a friend of the Queen Marie of Romania and has quite a bit from her life. And they have an excellent cafe.

One of the strangest places we stopped, just before the Maryhill Museum is a full size replication of Stonehenge in England called Maryhill Stonehenge. Started in 1918 and finished in 1929. Just so strange and also built by the same Sam Hill as the Maryhill Museum.