WESTERN JOURNEY--SEPTEMBER, 2011--DAY 14

Portland, Oregon
St. Johns and Sauvie Island
September 20, 2011
Day 14--Our last day in Portland

Today Maia, Dick and Judy enjoyed lunch outside at a small St. Johns restaurant and then drove to see the famous St. Johns bridge, which is celebrating its 80th birthday this year. We viewed the bridge from several different parks and then drove across it.

One of the greatest bridge builder/engineers in the United States, David Steinman, designed and erected the bridge. Throughout his career he built nearly 400 bridges, including the Mackinac Bridge, in the United States and bridges on a total of five continents.

After crossing the St. Johns Bridge, we drove along the river until we reached the Sauvie Island Bridge which took us across to the largest river island in the United States, Sauvie Island. It is even larger than Manhattan! As you cross the bridge a serene vista of fields, trees and a wide expanse of the Cascade Range spread out in front of you.

The island is situated between the Columbia River to the east, the Multnomah Channel to the west, and the Willamette River to the south. It is an island so large it has its own rivers, lakes, islands, and sloughs. Along the waterfront there were hundreds of floating houses!

The island was visited by Lewis and Clark on their expedition to find a Northwest Passage and later became the home of fishermen, ship captains and farmers. In 1836 dairies were established on the island by the Hudson’s Bay Company. They were managed by French-Canadian employee Laurent Sauvé for whom the island is named.

Today its unique character as a wildlife area, agricultural community and recreational destination in such close proximity to Portland is highly prized by island inhabitants and visitors alike. Sauvie Island has become a popular destination for a variety of reasons. People seeking the freshest produce can commonly find fruit (most notably berries), vegetables, trees and bushes, pumpkins and flowers for U-pick including lavender. Below is a typical nursery on the island.

If you don’t want to get into the fields, island farm stands sell just about everything grown on the island and offer a superb selection of local staples and other delicacies. We stopped at the "big red barn" which is Kruger's Farm Market where nearly every kind of fresh vegetables and many kinds of fruit could be found. There's also a pumpkin patch and corn maze on the property.

After sitting on a bumpy log at one of the island's beaches and watching a scientist testing the river water for its inhabitability for salmon, we crossed back to the mainland. There we drove to a place where we could walk along the Columbia River at sunset. All four of us, Dick, Judy, Maia and Biscuit took in the sunset and realized it was the perfect finish for a wonderful week together.

Maia and Biscuit joined us for a while at our motel before we said our farewells since we'll be leaving in the morning. What a great time we have had together. Look closely at Biscuit. Do you think she is winking at us?