Friday, October 7, 2016

After leaving Fabric Depot we headed to Menucha and their Blues in the Gorge program. It was a lovely sunny day and, although the drive to the facilities wasn’t long, we took our time and drove along the Historic Columbia River Highway. We passed a number of large waterfalls but the one we were headed for particularly was the Multnomah. When we arrived there was no parking to be found – it was completely jammed packed and even from the vehicle we could see why. It was just beautiful. We headed back towards Menucha but found parking at Wahkeena falls just half a mile away. There was a hiking trail leading back to Multnomah so we walked it and, after a look at the falls, we had lunch.

Menucha was the homestead of John Painter and his family who settled there in 1874. They fled Hawaii when members of the family were threatened with isolation in a leper colony. Most of the family later succumbed to complications from leprosy and are buried on the property (but I never found their gravesite). The property was purchased by the Meier family as a summer retreat and they built their main residence (Wright Hall) in the early 1920s. The Meier’s were Jewish and hadn’t been allowed into any of the country clubs in Portland; their home became a popular spot for many of the wealthy families from across the US.

But we were there for the music. One of the four instructors was Mary Flower who was the first performer at our first House Concert and it was nice to connect with her again; she will be returning to Powell River next week to do a show at the Cranberry Hall. The accommodations were basic but I had a good long counter to work at with a not-too-uncomfortable chair. Meals were adequate but I would have liked to have had a kettle or small coffee pot in the room or even in the common area of the dorm we were staying in. Pat enjoyed the sessions and I got a lot of stitching done. Pat will consider going back next year but I think I’d probably stay at home; I’ll get as much stitching done and be in a more comfortable environment.

Each evening there were performances by the instructors and one evening was devoted to the students. I enjoyed the concerts and when we got back to Portland on Sunday evening we attended another concert by all four of the presenters. There were a lot of the people from the music camp in attendance so we didn’t feel like strangers.

Our hotel looked out over the river and felt luxurious after the dorms at Menucha. One of our trips down one of the hallways led past a couple of bookshelves. I stopped to look at them and found several books that were on my list of books to read. The books all had prices marked in them so I asked one of the employees if they were for sale but she said they were available to hotel guests; they were books that had been left behind in the past. I limited myself to two of them!

We had looked forward to our day in Portland with quite a few things planned but Pat was pretty tired from the event and we settled on a trip to Powell Books. Powell’s is like Fabric Depot – only for books! We could have spent days in there but our parking meter only allowed us 90 minutes and we used that up without any difficulty. I was overwhelmed when it came to the crafting room – yes, I said room! I ended up with only one crafting book; two of our house concert people (back to back performers) sang songs of the Underground Railroad and, while performing in front of my quilt, mentioned the quilts of the Underground Railway. This seems to be the only book available that talks about the history of those quilts.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our room and got an early start on Tuesday morning, driving all the way home. The weather wasn’t as nice as it had been on the way down, but we were both glad to be home.