We spent Memorial Day Weekend 2011 in the Hood River area thanks to an invite from friends. Each day we enjoyed a fantastic view of the Columbia River and even caught a glimpse of Mt. Adams on Saturday (bottom-left photo). If you want a view and be just a few blocks from downtown Hood River I highly recommend checking out the Riverdell Vacation Rental!

Every day we walked from Riverdell to downtown whether to shop¹ or feed ourselves (or both). What is so cool about Hood River is the perpetual outdoor activities going on. This time it was the Oregon Super D Series; an Enduro mountain bike series. Which meant there were some cool obstacles set up in town that Bryce got to enjoy…watch the Biker in the Making.

Saturday late afternoon we drove south to Lost Lake. Amazingly there was still a ton of snow there…many of the campground roads still closed. We still were able to witness a phenomenal view of Lost Lake with Mt. Hood in the background as captured in the bottom-right photo.

Sunday afternoon we took a drive on the Washington side of the Columbia River and were treated with some gorgeous views even though it was windy and a horrible day for photography. Like most people (I assume), we normally just zip along the Columbia River Gorge on Interstate 84, but if you have the time travel along the North side on Highway 14. Again we were rewarded with some gems: a view of a wind farm² south of Maryhill on the Oregon side (top photo), the Maryhill Museum of of Art, and the Goldendale Observatory State Park.

Of course all of our travels revolve around food, so I have recapped our sustenance intake:

• Double Mountain Brewery - best pizza in town…and apparently if you are a single woman (according to my wife) the best spot in town to pick up a sexy, manly man
• Ground - had a delicious, dark roast americano
• Hood River Bagel Company - had one of the best breakfast bagels (egg, pepperjack cheese, sausage, sesame seed bagel)
• The Sixth Street Bistro - may be one of my new local favorites
• North Oak Brasserie - first time eating here in over 5 years; it was decent, but certainly not one of the top 5 restaurants in Hood River.
• 10-Speed Coffee Roasters - grabbed a fantastic americano on the way out of town…along with 2 pounds of whole bean.

If interested, I posted a higher-res version of the above photo on Flickr.