WISH YOU WERE HERE

It is sat.nite and we are in Hood River, Oregon - just across the river is the state of Washington. I think it is around midnight. I wanted to put my pictures on my blog and write but, Steve fell asleep and I don't want to wake him, - and when i blog and put pictures on he still has to help me a little bit. I tried, but messed it up, so will probably do it tomorrow night or mon. We wanted to stay up on mt. hood at the ski lodge that President Roosevelt had built - it is something else!!! I tried to book a room the first of last week but they were booked with no rooms so Steve said just find us something around there. So,I got on the internet and found a place - they had some rooms left and I thought it looked nice but, when we drove up last night we couldn't believe it. We are at the COLUMBIA GORGE HOTEL and it's something else!!!It was called the "WALDORF OF THE WEST" a magnificent villa perched on a scenic cliff and has a sweeping view of the Columbia River and is known for it's very fine dining and finest accommodations in the northwest. It was built in 1921 and soon became a favorite retreat for movie stars and for presidents, and other political dignitaries. The movie star VALENTINO LOVED IT, and there are 2 rooms named after him. - The long breakfast room that looks out onto the river and gardens are magnificant and a falls that is so beautiful beyond description, and the lounge with a gorgous fireplace. Merna Loy - and Shirley Temple - Clark Gable - and his beautiful blond wife, loved to come here and vacation. It has been totally restored to its original state. It has a tiled roof - red like in Italy. It is stucco and painted a beautiful color and trimmed in hunter green or blue green. There is a door man that helps you in and a turn down service, so your room is always cleaned each day ,and at night bed turned down with flowers on your pillow and chocolates on the night stand and beautiful glass bottles filled with water from Norway - or so it says. Anyway, the grounds and gardens are magnificent and have received all kinds of awards,there are thousands of daffodils in bloom right now and all the other spring flowers, fountains, and bridges, and its all so richly done and looks so glamorous!!! This hotel provides lush, romantic ambience and the service is incredable and even though movie stars, and royalty and very important social people come here and stay, the hotel treats everyone like they are royalty. The artwork and paintings and mirrors and crystal and gold gillded mirrors and carpets and etc. are absolutely beautiful! Our room is something else and we love it. There are plantation shutters on all the windows and also on all the doors going into all the bedrooms, and our room looks out onto the gardens and entrance. I think it is a legacy of luxery that continues today. You should see the grand piano, and there is always someone playing it or some kind of music here. A touch of class!!! Today we left this morning and went up to the top of Mt.Hood,the ski area and to Roosevelts Lodge,it had snowed for 2 and one half days and was still snowing ( when it rains in the valley, it snows in the top of the mountains). There was so much snow it covered one half of the lodge and all of the entrance and they were plowing it out - it took us a long time to get up there because of the newly fallen snow, but, it was worth it!!!! There were hundreds of cars snowed in and trying to get out and the biggest john deer plow I have ever seen clearing the entrance. People were skiing and it was so amazing - we were in a cloud because it covered the lodge and it all looked like a dream or a movie. We finally got in and took forever just looking around and taking pictures and we ate on the top floor looking down on the massive fireplace - at this time outside it was almost like a blizzard and the snow covered most of the windows in the lodge - there were hundreds of people, and we met some kids about Rod, Greg, and Jeff's age and talked to them a long time, and they filled us in on a lot. We ordered chili - white bean - and hot chocolate and boy was that good!!!!! We went out finally to go on the ski lift up to the top where they come down and they had just closed them because of the blizzard - darn - we thought that would be so much fun. We were up almost as far as you could go anyway but, that would have been fun! You can't go to the top all the way unless you are a mountain climber with all the equipment to climb and then you have to have permission because you could die so easily. We had to head down and went through the government village ( that is where President Roosevelt had homes built for the men that built the lodge during the great depression and thats where they lived), now it is a fun place with shops and apartments and condo's. There were cars that were digging out from the snow, or trying to, and on the way down one SUV just like our truck had turned over - flipped - but the two boys in it were o.k. Tomorrow Steve has our day all planned out and it sounds like fun, and we go back to Corvallis tomorrow night. I think w e are going for brunch here at the hotel, and -places unknown to me, I am looking forward to more fun with the love of my life. For now I am going to get some shut eye and hope to blog more tomorrow . PSALM 4:8