Sunday September 29 - Portland, Oregon

We drove into Portland, finding the RiverPlace Hotel easily with the GPS even though we had missed our exit. Richard had to fill up the rental car's gas tank and almost got a $500 fine. No one told him that in Oregon it is illegal to pump your own gas.

We ate at the Newport Bay Restaurant, a very nice floating restaurant on a dock on the Willamette River near the hotel. For dessert we shared a local specialty - marionberry cobbler. Marionberries are like very large blackberry and quite tart. It was very good.

Tomorrow, before beginnning the voyage on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, we are going the take a narrated bus tour of Portland.