This is the kind of perfect day that cements a sense of what a place is like allowing us to easily fall in love with it. So many times, Caroline and I have been so fortunate to head into an experience uncertain of what we’d find, only to end up delighted with what we encountered. We crossed from Oregon into Washington for our first visit to this state today, crossing at Biggs Junction, Oregon. How can we be this lucky to see Mount Hood in the distance while looking down the Columbia River?

Our drive west keeps us snug up against the north bank of the Columbia. The reason we are over here (besides the fact that we like collecting visits to new places on the map): Interstate 84 on the Oregon side is a divided highway, meaning there will only be a few places we might be able to pull over for a photo while on this side we can stop anywhere there’s a shoulder. If traffic is light, we can even stop right in the middle of the street and jump out for a down-the-middle-of-the-road shot.

While between us, only Caroline can say she’s ever been to Bingen, Germany, which sits on the Rhine River downstream from Wiesbaden, we can now brag that we’ve been to Bingen, Washington, the sister city of its older sibling in Germany. The Loafers Old World Bakery here is instantly one of our favorite bakeries we’ve ever been to in America. We especially enjoyed their granola.

We crossed the Columbia to visit Hood River, Oregon, because there was a bridge there, but we wouldn’t stay long. I wish we’d had time to stop in at the International Museum of Carousel Art, though.

Back the way we came over the Columbia River to the slower Washington side.

And back to Oregon on Bridge of the Gods. Yes, that really is its name. We are heading over to the Bonneville Dam.

Wow, a salmon ladder and an actual salmon in the wild, another first for us. Of course, we’d prefer that their natural habitat was being maintained, but the damage of damming our waterways has been done, and while not perfect, at least there’s some level of effort being made to allow the fish to keep this stretch of the river alive and healthy.

Not as easy to see the salmon swimming up the ladder from out here, but you get to see what it looks like from above, which salmon never will. During the salmon season this place gets busy, we hear.

To reach Multnomah Falls, we have to remain on the Oregon side of the river as the next bridge isn’t found until we get to Portland on the Oregon side or Vancouver on the Washington side. While in the area, we visited Horsetail and Wahkeena Falls. Beauty overdoses were had by one and all.

Don’t forget to see the little details while gawking at the giant awe-inspiring waterfalls that might otherwise steal all of your attention.

This was the last view I saw before I went over the edge in a barrel; just kidding.

We had no idea how rare this view was at the time, and while it may be difficult to make out details in such a small version of the image (I have a much larger panorama on my hard drive), to the left is a little white bump called Mt. Rainier, towards the middle, is Mt. St. Helens, and on the far right is Mt. Hood.

Just north of Garibaldi, Oregon, and up the road a hair from Pirates Cove Restaurant, is this pullout looking out on Tillamook Bay.

We are heading south towards California as we have quite the drive home if we are to make it back to Phoenix, Arizona, by Monday night. Still, though, we take time to visit beaches that look promising for a romantic walk along the shore.

Looking north while we hike out to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

We probably couldn’t have timed this any better on arriving at the Cape Meares Lighthouse at sunset.

Looking south from the lighthouse and wishing we had a few more days out here on the coast.

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge as seen from Oceanside beach near Maxwell Point. Moving south, we dawdled with stops everywhere we saw another small glint of sunset, but it turned out this was our best shot of the late day. It was after 10:00 p.m. when we finally got into Florence, Oregon, for an overnight stay at the Le Chateau Inn.