We decided to go on a drive just the two of us. It was our special day and we were spending it together.
We had breakfast out and then we were planning on a dinner out and in the middle of the day we were not sure where to go.
So when that happens the logical thing to do is ‘don’t plan’… just drive.
We started down the freeway from Oregon to the Washington side of the Columbia river following the old roads through tunnels and along railroad tracks.
The weather was beautiful and the colors of autumn amazing.

The Columbia River is a majestic large body of water that flows it always amazes me with it’s beauty and it’s power.
This is a little farm we saw while over looking the Columbia river. I noticed a little road that traveled up to the farm then as I looked closer I saw sheep and perhaps even a large dog or horse.
Can’t even imagine how beautiful that would be to live there.
My husband took a panoramic picture and it shows the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Autumn is so beautiful and so ‘ever’ changing. The landscape went from yellows, oranges, golds and from green fields to golden wheat fields.
It was amazing and so breathtaking at times.
God in all his glory painted beautiful portraits of color.

We also stopped and checked out a pioneer cemetery, we love to read the words and imagine why they died. One stone had baby infant named Lucille… the other stones had two babies from the same family who died a day apart, one was age two and the other one was age 19 days.  I cannot imagine the trip out west in the pioneer days on rough terrain and in wagon trains. The Oregon Trail followed part of the road we travelled, I cannot imagine losing and then burying your little ones and then continuing on in your wagon to a new ‘place to live’.
The broken hearts of so many left behind on the trail.

At the entrance of the cemetery there was a flag blowing in the wind and not far was a mighty oak tree standing in all it’s glory.

Before we got to these we had to travel up and down the road along multi colored trees and farm lands full of vineyards and fruit trees.
The difference from autumn colors to then wheat fields was both amazing and beautiful.
On our way home we headed from the wheat fields of almost Central Oregon, to the road near Mt Hood.
We even drove through a blustery light dusting of ice and snow mix.
It was a bit scary driving through the very empty roads and when the sky got darker, it was a bit unsettling as the heavy rain mist came down on our car window, we did end up seeing a road crew and that made me feel not so ‘alone’ on the road heading home.
We covered over 300 miles and saw lots of beautiful country.
It was all in a days drive on our fall anniversary.
Our 42nd wedding anniversary ended up at a restaurant named PF Changs and we shared our ‘final’ part of our day together before heading home.