Monday July 17 (Some history on the way home from Portland to Port Orchard)

I never get tired of saying another glorious day, lol, and it was!

We checked out at 10 am and headed over the river to another IHOP for brunch. I had a breakfast combo and I certainly enjoyed it! We then headed to the Fabric Depot for Cheryl to spend some money, lol. I was dropped off at a Starbucks not too far away but a very unusual one. The seating is outside and they operate it of a very small area serving drive through as well as those wanting to sit down. The Wifi was useless so I used Karma, my own travel modem.

While I was waiting to order I got chatting to a lovely lady, she had spent six months in New Zealand, at a place called Cambridge, at a Bible College. She and her partner drove round the South Island and thoroughly enjoyed it. She would love to return there. We had a very pleasant and long chat. Then I went to anger place to find a restroom before returning for a coffee. At this time I got chatting, again, to a couple of younger ladies! Again it was very pleasant and passed the time while two of us were waiting for our orders.

It was very warm so I had some time sitting in the sun then moved underneath an umbrella. 

There was a lady sitting on her own at the table next to me, then a guy arrived, it seemed like a getting to know you chat possible looking at a job. He talked at the top of his voice so I moved along one table, lol! 

Cheryl and Jim stopped to pick me up on their way from the Depot and we headed towards Fort Vancouver Historic Site. We had some great sightings of Mount Hood on the way to Vancouver from Portland, there is still a lot of snow on it. 

Well, the GPS put us wrong again, in fact it did not seem to know of the Fort but we eventually found it with good old Google Maps.

It was a very interesting area and was built prior to WWI. There were many buildings on the site, these included officers Quarters, Barracks, a large hospital, a dental clinic, several different Quartermaster stores, as well as the fort itself which was on the river side of the site. 

There was a lovely garden behind a house next to the fort and an apple orchard which was planted way back when!

We drove round and and took many photos, including more of Mount Hood. There is an Army Air Training centre so there were many small planes parked outside. 

It seemed to us, from the number of cars parked beside many of the buildings, that some of these were being lived in. I spoke to a guy who was passing the car and he told me that some were for accommodation and others were being renovated to house businesses. 

Already, there are a number of businesses on site and hopefully more will be attracted. It would certainly be a great environment to work in and all it needs are a couple or so cafes!

Some of the beautiful red brick houses are being lived in. They appear to be quite large and anyone living there would have to get used to living in a bit of a fishbowl as the area is under the National Trust and open to the public.

We then started the final part of the trip home along I5. it was a lovely evening, we had our final views of Mount Hood and later picked up Mount Rainier. 

We passed the entrance to Mount St Helens but the I5 has too much tall timber alongside to see very much of the scenery. There are also areas of state forest to contend with, lol! 

We stopped at country Cousin for tea and I had the Prime Dip, this is fast becoming one of my favourite meals on this trip, lol!

We then made our way home and the sunset was rather beautiful but it was difficult to get good photos of the setting sun. There were some lovely cloud formations that reflected the sun's rays.

We had a rapturous welcome from the two four leggeds when we arrived home and, after we had unpacked, Cheryl and Jim had to go out again to return the rental. I sat up for some time chatting with Cheryl and finally it was time to shower and get a few hours sleep!