cascade locks

yesterday mon cher ami smuggled me aboard a jet boat tour up to cascade locks. (alas, no disguises or bondage were required. that fantasy about a hood over my head and waking up in the trunk of a car will have to wait.)

our tour narrator extraordinaire imbibed us with all kinds of neat knowledge. my nerd self was soaking it up. some of my favorite factoids:

during the month of august, the columbia flows backwards. due to the moon's closeness to the earth and the ocean's influence on the river, the columbia right now is flowing about 2 mph away from the pacific instead of its usual 8 mph out to sea.

the original burnside bridge was moved and is now the sellwood bridge (which is apparently a very unsafe bridge -- stay away from it). what is now the burnside bridge was built a couple years thereafter.

the city's building a new bridge to sauvie island. the one that is currently there is going to be moved and set up around flanders st or something like that.

the center span of the fremont bridge was lifted and put into place in about an hour. it was a record breaking dead-lift. 26 barges held the piece before it was lifted into place!

(i didn't realize i like bridges so much, but i must since that's most of what i retained. i also appreciated the beauty of the st. johns bridge...two years here and it was my first time seeing it.)

one of highlights, naturellement, was going through the lock at bonneville dam. when i was in 4th grade, my girl scout troop volunteered for a day at a lock house in maryland. we wore period dresses. (the little house on the prairie replica was not a flattering look for my pre-pubescent body, and the thick itchy fabric was nothing like the gone with the wind attire i had been hoping for. sigh.) we used period brooms to sweep out the original lock-keeper's house as we told visitors about how the lock worked. but the lock was no longer working, and it was small, and we just stared down into it briefly.

we entered the large cement pen which is the bonneville lock. the crew tied the boat to the side of the lock, and the huge doors behind us grinded shut. un peu de claustrophobia set in, but i held it mostly at bay. somehow i expected water to flow in from somewhere visible, but instead it bubbled up from under us -- raising us just over 50 ft in the process. after a light lunch at the cascade locks visitor's center and a short walk through downtown cascade locks (happening place that it is -- what vacant looking people), we returned through the locks. during the descent, wheels somewhere in the lock made creepy ringing siren calls in major thirds, creating the expectation of some creature to come forth when the doors opened. alas, the other side just held river, but it also held enough sunshine to make the choppy ride back mostly enjoyable.