Hey! What about that snow???

The Six o’clock news said that the snow "is on it’s way".

Well, ok, you said that on this morning’s news, and that by four the snow would be falling.  Y’all said that by 4 it’d be really fridgid (well, cooolllddd for ol’ pdx).

I dressed accordingly.  TWO pair o’ long johns – the fleecy ones next to my skin and the XL ones I bought by mistake (but they do go well over the other ones, and so it was only kind of a mistake).

A pair of Wranglers over those and rain pants carried to the car.

A nice silk long pullover and a chamois shirt over that, a fleece vest and my best winter coat, an N3b ECWS military flyers jacket, that is not waterproof.  No, it’s made for dry snowy weather, and it RAINED all day.  The N3b has polyester filling and stays warm even wet (NOT soaked though), so it wasn’t TOO bad.

(it’s a WARM jacket and I’m sad it’s not a good rain jacket)

The car didn’t say it was under 36 all day, so while it was cold and windy, it was raining like heck all damn day.  Monacita had no trouble meeting the Dolphin and me in Troutdale, and it was obviously more or less safe to go out on the Old Highway.  We stopped at Women’s Forum overlook, where I got out and took a few pics and then on to Vista House on Crown Point.  It’s not open during the week in the off season, so we drove on to Bridal Veil Falls, where there is a restroom.

(well, it pays to know where they are)

The Dolphin had never seen Bridal Veil Falls before, so despite the rain we walked on down to see the falls.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves, and Multnomah Falls parking lot was almost shockingly empty.  We got coffee and spent some time in the Gift Shop there, where it was DRY.  We did walk up to the falls later – by that time I had found a dry enough place to pull on my rain pants over my jeans, but we only went as far as the lower falls, because, well, it was wet by then and so were we, pretty much.

After Multnomah Falls, the girls were pretty much ready to go home, but I talked ’em into going to my new favorite spot in the Gorge, Oneonta Tunnel.  The thing about short tunnels like Oneonta’s is that they channel wind through them and they are COLD.  I didn’t snap any pictures there and we didn’t stay very long.

We hadn’t seen each other for a while and it was good to catch up and reinforce each other – everyone has had some recent big life changes.  After the Gorge we hit an Arby’s in Troutdale and talked for awhile and then drove over to the Outlet Mall where Monacita had parked.  Turned out tht there were things to look at in the Outlet Mall and we talked some more.

So, it was less about seeing Great Beauty than it was about three friends seeing each other after some time apart.

I did get some pictures, of course, and will edit them and post them later.

A good day.

***

The TV just showed snow on 101 on the coast – the cold is coming, they say.  Snow over pdx in just a few hours.

Ok, bring it on dudes.

*****