Day 15.

We reluctantly left our friends with a lovely to go cup of coffee and a quick gathering of sleepy children. Got gas, ice and breakfast and hit the road for a long drive today, destination Joseph, Or. We lucked out and the berry stand opened at 8, so we snatched up local berries for snacking. I should have taken a picture, the berries were so beautiful and fresh. We got blueberries, raspberries and Marionberries, mmm. The drive along the Columbia River Gorge is scenic and offers a diverse landscape. It was hot, 87 and humid, one side of the river has lush trees, waterfalls, and rock cliffs and one side of the river has dry rolling hills much of which appeared to offer the perfect climate for wineries. Scattered along the river are locks and dams, last timewe were here we did the dam tour and it was fascinating. Highly recommended. I love to see the resource of the water being used to power the area. It does not feel like we have been going for two weeks, time does fly when you're having fun. Visiting lots of friends and family has been fun but also checking out new places, exploring, and new adventures. Hopefully, the kids will have fond memories and treasure this time we had. It has helped to have modern entertainment, dvd's, tablets, devices, headphones, music, audio books, as well as coloring, reading, and crafting.  Getting closer to Joseph, Or means the landscape continues to get more and more beautiful. If you've never been, you must. We pull up and enjoyed a seat by the stream with Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy while the kids go for a dip. Sadly, Lily lost a flip flop downstream. We took them on tour of the Lovebird trailer and walk to dinner. We close the place down chatting while Jose insists we need more drinks and dessert. Since they got up at 4am to balloon chase a friend's hot air balloon ride, everytime we sat down Mark fell asleep, so we had to keep moving. He was the one that initiated the trip to The Hydrant, the local karaoke bar. We sat and listened to some very confident and slightly of key "singers" but Mark was our fav. His first song was Billy Joel Movin' out. He had tough competition with a guy that looked Buddy Holly singing classic Frank Sinatra very well. We finished watching the kids movie with them and we all fell asleep fast.