Portland

Well, what a "triple F" lay day we had.(fantastic,free,freezing) Got the washing done early, so we decided to head off for a drive towards Mount Hood. On the way out we stopped at the Bonneville Lock and Dam, which is situated on the Columbia river (river separates Oregon and Washington States, much like the Murray but on a much bigger scale). They have two power plates run by the water flow and still a massive spillway (as pictured in gallery). The amazing thing for myself and the rest of Team Connor, was the fish ladder, for the salmon to get up stream past the lock. We have also included some photos of it but the unbelievable part to us was, where they funnel the salmon through, they have a person sitting in an office counting the fish as they go past!!! Some video footage provided for the fisherman to drool over (Raymond and Pritch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93r6H1l2EWs

Next we continued our journey to Mount Hood, another 1/2 hr. away. We were told there should still be some snow about, yeah right, it was everywhere!!! Drove up to a ski lodge (closed for summer! maintenance) and we all got out, had snowball fights, built a snowman and kids were even sliding down on their butts. Drove around to the other side, to another lodge, that was open and people were skiing etc. just couldn't get over the concept that at the bottom of the mountain it was 25 degrees and up here it wasn't that cold but while we were at this resort it snowed the whole time we were there. First time the kids had been out in so much snow. Also learnt that Mount Hood was a dormant volcano, 3% chance of erupting in the next 30 years, and is the 2nd most climbed mountain in the world, behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srtd4GPP_o
Finished the day off drinking beer, watching the final game of the Stanley Cup (ice hockey) live!!!.. on t.v. (not actually there N.Miller) lol...... All in all not a bad first day.

Well Portland peaked early for us, not much more to add. Went into town on the train twice, once to shop(no sales tax in Portland) and once into Washington Park, kids went to a museum and we kicked the footy and played ball  in the gardens(baseball). Last day here, rained all day, went outside twice for the day, once to shop and maccas for lunch (had a maccas store basically at the front door and only went there once).

Head off in the morning for our next destination, Vancouver, Canada. Will post from there in about 5 days time.

Team Connor USA