Thursday on the Town!

5:50PM
Took Petunia out for tourist stuff today - Clackamette Park, Oregon City and Canby ....


Here are a few pix of the Clackamette City RV park

 Clackamas River right at the park - southwest view

 Northwest view of Clackamas River

 "End of the Oregon Trail"  historic site - downtown Oregon City

 Covered wagon sculpture as part of the interpretive center 

building

 Gift shop and information center

Sights in Oregon City:

 Open daily - fresh produce market 

 Pears are really reasonably priced here

 Across the street from the produce market is Tony's Fish Market.  On the opposite side of the sign is the special for today:  Fresh Wild Willamette River Coho Salmon.  Yum!

Lots of historic buildings - This is the Barclay House, built in 1897

Across the street is the Alzey Goettling House, circa 1903

A lovely little chapel in the middle of town

Then I wanted to see the Willamette Falls so I drove to one lookout area at the Oregon Trail Historical Museum and took a couple of photos of that area of the Willamette River

 I probably should have driven across the bridge to get shots towards the south to see the face of the Falls.  This is from the Oregon City side of the river 

 Then I wound my way around and through tunnels, etc. to get to a turnout on the road above the Falls so this is a little better
This is a natural waterfall and is the largest in the Pacific Northwest and 17th widest in the World

A couple of signs in this turnout area:

As I'm a relative newbie to RV living I'm starting to notice signs and helpful information for RVers

Here's the humungous  Portland General Electric plant operation at the base of Willamette Falls.  The original plant was built circa 1873 and most of the buildings used today were built in 1895.

In 2007 during the Fall run of salmon, 52,000 fish were accounted for!  That's a whole lot of lox!

After viewing the Falls I decided to drive about 12 miles southwest on 99E to the town of Canby - home of Swan Island Dahlias.  Some readers may recall that one of the potential names for my Fleetwood Flair was "Dahlia."  I'm very familiar with the Dahlia Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; and my mom was an avid gardner of dahlia plants during y childhood.  They are the most amazing flowers; there are so many species it boggles the mind.  

So, Petunia and I headed to Canby and what a treat this was ......

Dahlias, gorgeous dahlias almost as far as the eye can see

Because I wanted to include so many shots, these are not altered but just as they came from the camera 

This dahlia is called "Diva" - thought I'd include it for our Desert Diva

I think this is my favorite.  Or is it the red?  Purple?

The bees, all kinds of bees, were busily buzzing and supplying their hive with Dahlia honey

 Each species has a name; some honoring famous people, foods, emotions, animals, birds, colors .....

Swan Lake Dahlias are celebrating their 87th year at this 40-acre wonderland for dahlia lovers.

Roses, dahlias and orchids are my favorite flowers.  This was really a treat for me to visit here.  I brought home the Swan Island Dahlias Catalog.  I believe I counted 415 species for sale.  For information go to www.dahlias.com

Happy Birthday to John!