Corinth

 A buffet breakfast on the 7th floor with those awesome views again!!  Lots of strange food and they are not a fan of cooking bacon till it's done - most of it is barely cooked - but plenty to eat and their coffee is STRONG!

Soon we were on the bus headed to the Corinth Canal! The Agean Sea was beautiful as we rode beside it on the bus!!  And the picture below shows the actual Corinth Canal - it connects the gulf of Corinth which is in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Agean Sea - pretty cool to see it! 

It's amazing that ALL the tour buses stop at the same places - HA - I should have realized that!!  And of course there is ALWAYS something to buy at your coffee/restroom stop!  I snapped a couple of pictures to show some of the food items that are for sale!

I liked the packages of olives but realized they would probably taste the same as what we get in the U.S.!

Then we headed to this huge place where a guy demomstrated how he paints the vases - very interesting and so much to look at!

The intricate  painting on these vases is amazing!  

We walked out later and took a couple of pictures by the huge ones!

Yes, that's our attire for all of our day trips - hats, cross-over bags, sweaters or jackets, name tags and tennis shoes!

It was a jam packed morning and we still have the afternoon.....

Greece Bound

 After lots of planning and a lot of excitement it was FINALLY time to head on our trip to Greece!!  Because Patty and I were both worried about a snowstorm delaying flights this time of year, we opted to fly into Minneapolis (where the tour group was flying out from) the day before and just stay at a hotel that night - that way, no worries!

Patty flew from Omaha to Minn. and I flew from Denver to Minns. - she arrived first and since her plane landed in a different terminal than mine, she had to figure out how to get over to my terminal which was where we were meeting!  She did just fine and met me at baggage claim!

We called the shuttle from Embassy Suites and soon were in our hotel suite for the night - happy hour was up next with drinks and appetizers and later on we headed to the restaurant to split an entree for dinner!  It was a nice relaxing evening!

The next morning we wandered down for breakfast and it was delicious!  I've always enjoyed staying at Embassy Suites since we used to stay there every year for our "Suite Retreat" on scrapbooking!

We headed to the airport about 11:30, even though our plane didn't leave till 4:30 but we were supposed to be there 4 hours early for group check-in - so that worked out perfect for us!  And where did I head as soon as we got there?  CARIBOU COFFEE!!  It was delicious!

We found the rest of the tour group - many from the area, a few from Iowa - all very friendly and easy to get along with!  I was a little concerned as 5 of them walked with canes and were elderly  but it all worked out!  Headed through the ticket agent and got rid of those large suitcases and before we knew it, we were on the plane!!  Since we weren't sitting together (groups usually are alphabetized) we went up to the counter beforehand and asked if we could switch - YES!  So we did get to sit together!

The flight over to Frankfurt was fine - EXCEPT for the fact that I couldn't sleep - NOPE - even took part of a tylenol pm and couldn't sleep - oh well!  Watched a movie and read and were fed a couple of meals - even the dimmed lights didn't seem to help me!

We landed in Frankfurt and had a 3 hour layover there - grabbed some breakfast and just hung out - everybody was looking a little weary by this point but soon we got on the next plane and headed to Athens! Customs was a breeze and we grabbed our suitcases and met our tour guide and tour bus outside - Greece is 9 hours ahead of Colorado - I was running on no sleep but did pretty well considering!  We started to head to our hotel - I was amazed at the narrow and tiny streets the bus went on!

We stayed the next 2 nights at a 5 star hotel - very nice!  But we did find all the showers are kind of strange and if there was a bathtub, it was long and VERY narrow!!  We had asked our tour guide if she would take us somewhere to exchange dollars into euros so a lot of us met her in the lobby a little bit later and we headed on our walk!  She took us through the cute shopping center - our heads were turning fast as we walked through all these shops!!  Take a peek at this LARGE sandal outside a shop!

We did get our money exchanged - walked and walked around this area which is called "Blaka" - I loved all the greenery around and all the side streets that had hills and little cafes up them!

By this time we are all fading FAST!!!  But our tour guide continues to take us past items of interest - all fun to see but boy we were tired!

We walked into this beautiful church on a huge square!  WOW!

We finally started walking back to the hotel - we were all dragging by this time and it seemed to take forever to get back as we walked by such interesting things to see!

Back at the hotel we still had a 4 course meal to get through - the dining area is on the 7th floor and the views were outstanding!!  We just couldn't stop looking out!

Dinner was very formal and very good - I don't remember a lot about it except the main course was pork chops, so tender you could cut them with your fork - excellent!!

That bed felt SO GOOD that night but we were getting a 6:00am wake up call ( which was to be the norm for the ENTIRE time there!!) so headed to bed as soon as we could!

Timberline Lodge/Hood Crest Winery

 And the day continues.....We decided to head up to Timberine Lodge which is up Mt. Hood.  Little did we know we were going to run into snow and ice on the road!!!  It was a beautiful drive but lots of switchbacks and slow going!  It took us much longer than what we expected and it was dang chilly out when we arrived and parked in the slush, ice and snow!

We decided to look quickly inside and then get back down the mountain before it started snowing as the clouds were building up!  The walk up to the lodge was treacherous in our tennis shoes as it hadn't been plowed good at all!  But we all made it up there and it was quite an imposing structure!  Interesting enough, this is the place where "The Shining" exterior was filmed!!

As were walking in, an employee was walking by with an ax and she asked if we wanted a picture with it!!  I guess it's a big deal to take a picture with the ax in reference to "The Shining" - so of course we did!!  Amy came around the back and jumped in the picture too!!  HA!

Then we took a quick tour of the main part of the lodge - impressive!!!  It would be so fun to stay here!

The fireplace was massive!!!  I could just imagine sitting by it with a cup of hot apple cider, reading a book!

We made it back down the mountain with no problem - and then we were off to the winery!

Here's the outside - it was a lovely place and we ordered pizzas to eat there!

Karen and Marilyn shared a flight tasting of wine and I had a glass of excellent sangria!

Grapes on the vine!

Amy was kind enough to take pics of us with our wine!

We enjoyed our time there and also got to hear some live music which we thoroughly enjoyed!

Back home, nobody was hungry for dinner - but Karen and I needed a little something more so we walked up and got dessert to share - berry crisp and oh my it was good!

Then it was time to pack up for our journey home - we left our house at 8:00 as Amy and I flew out first and I was lucky to capture this pic of Mt. Hood from the airplane!

It was a wonderful time with these 3 special friends and I sure hope we can get together again soon!

Apple Orchards

 It was a beautiful morning and we were all so excited that we could actually see Mt. Hood!!  HOORAY!  There was even a pretty sunrise that morning!

I caught the sunrise hitting Mt. Hood - beautiful!!

We all went to breakfast in Mt. Hood (yes, across the bridge) at a place called Bett's - it was amazing!!  A "good ole' place" and my favorite part was there was a menu for Childrens/Seniors!!!  Now that's what every place should have since I don't eat a lot at one setting!!  To be honest, Karen and I actually split a senior meal and it was PLENTY!!!!  Amy decided to order the cinnamon roll - oh my gosh - it was huge and she took most of it to go - NO KIDDING!!

We drove up to a high place to see  Mt. Hood - it was completely clear when we rounded the last turn to get up to the parking lot - by the time we parked and got out, clouds were already covering part of it!  But we hung around a little bit and they soon moved out of the way!

We loved this apple orchard!!  Especially the fall displays and the old trucks!

We were coming up on a small town and since I hadn't had my coffee yet, I quickly looked and sure enough there was a coffee roasters place!!  HOORAY!!!  It was delicious!

We drove by several orchards and it was beautiful out!!  Stopped at this one and couldn't believe all the different types of apples they had - and so reasonable too!

Can you believe how big this particular brand of apple is?

I loved these trees with a picnic table underneath!  Pumpkins everywhere!

And next up - the winery!

Our HOUSE and MORE Scenery

 The house we had rented for our stay was on the Washington side - we had been on the Oregon side looking at all of the waterfalls so had to cross the LONG bridge over the Columbia to get to Washington - gosh it was a long bridge with that crazy pavement that makes you feel like you're going back and forth!  It was $3.50 to cross the bridge - I'm not sure I would enjoy doing that every day if you had to work on the Oregon side!

And it's funny when you get back home and you look at your pictures and say huh - guess I didn't take any pictures of THAT - being of the house!!  Oh well - the house was very nice with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath - a beautiful brand new kitchen and lots of room to spread out in the living room!  The deck was wonderful - not that we got to spend any time out there though - it seemed to always be misting or wet when we would get home from our outings!

The really nice thing about the house was that it was  only 1 block up to the "main" street where there was a grocery store and a few eating places - we decided to walk to the store and get a few things!  Marilyn and Amy weren't hungry for dinner since we'd had a late lunch but Karen and I needed something so we walked back up later and found a small restaurant and got kisch to go - it was great and just what we needed!

It was fun to just hang out and visit - but we were all tired so didn't stay up late!  Karen and I walked up to the White Salmon Bakery the next morning and brought home a breakfast sandwich to share and a delicious pastry!

Then we were out the door for more sightseeing!!

We saved the BIG waterfall for today - Multnomah Falls!  Glenn and I had been here before when we came out to visit Cindy and Rene - but it's definitely amazing enough to see a second time!  It's a hike up to the bridge but well worth it!

I stopped on the way up to turn around and take a picture - more moss covered trees and beautiful leaves!

The bridge was crowded but we finally got a spot in front and had a gal take our picture!

Later, Amy walked quickly down and we stayed on the bridge so she could get a picture of us waving!

We were actually heading back towards the house when we saw this tunnel and decided to stop!!  It was called Oneonta Gorge and I took some lovely shots from here!

I believe there was a waterfall you could hike back to if you wanted to - by this time we had seen our share of waterfalls so I just enjoyed taking pictures!

Back in Hood River (the town where you cross over the bridge to White Salmon) we stopped for lunch at River Daze - the lunch was perfect and since I hadn't had my coffee yet, I even got a special coffee there! Then it was back to the car to drive down to the waterfront - I LOVED these beautiful trees!

We took a long walk along a paved path at the river - it was cool out but a wonderful day for a walk and we all enjoyed it!

That evening we walked uptown - they were having a little art fair so we peeked at that and ended up eating at Everybody's Brewing!!  The place was full so we opted to eat out back - but it was darn cold that evening so the gal turned on the outside heater for us - and that heater kept blowing that hot air till we were all HOT!!!  WOW!!  The food was great - Karen and I split a delicious hamburger with sweet potato fries - yum!!!!!

We played some cards that night before heading to bed!  And what a great day it was!

Waterfalls

 Our day continued with more waterfalls!  Was the weather nice?  It was misty at times but the rain always seemed to happen when we were driving from one waterfall to the next so it actually worked out perfect!  We all had raincoats on so it was not a big deal if it did start raining a little bit - but it was pretty darn cool out!

Next on the list was Shepperds Dell Waterfall! It was nice but probably the least spectacular of the ones we did see!

Again, there was a beautiful spot looking through the bridge!

Driving to the next waterfall I took this picture of some of the vegetation in the area!

Next up was Bridal Veil Falls - it was a gorgeous walk down to the bottom of this waterfall and I love this picture showing all the moss on the trees!

There was a beautiful stream with a bridge over it to walk over to the falls!

And the falls didn't disappoint!  This one really had a large pool at the bottom!

We climbed up on a platform to take the falls picture and this is looking back down at where we walked!

Absolutely gorgeous territory and you can see the Columbia River in the distance!

By this time we are REALLY getting hungry and Karen had a place suggested to her on where to eat - we found it in the next little town and couldn't wait to eat this late lunch!

Amy and I split fish and chips and it was delicious!!  I believe Karen had clam chowder and Marilyn had some type of smoked fish - we all agreed it was great!

I took this picture inside the little place to show Glenn the price of the fish - WOW - it certainly was not cheap to buy any of this smoked fish!

We headed back out, ready to head to our house for the next 3 nights but found this waterfall along the way which was actually on our list but we thought we had missed it!  This was Horsetail Falls and it actually did remind us of a horses tail that had been braided a little bit!

I took this side picture so I could capture the beautiful leaves on the ground!

It was easy to take pictures of this as it was right along the highway!

I love that the camera on my phone can take pictures through the window when someone is driving!  A beautiful shot!!

And now, onward to our house.......