After months of staying put, the urge to escape has hit hard. Emee and I have been going on some multiple night adventures over the past few weeks. Because summer is summer, gol darn it. We have been exercising due caution: Going only a few hours away (the one gas tank rule), eating outdoors, avoiding crowds, all the like. It still feels a little weird, though. But we’ll get over it because we have to. Coronavirus is going to be with us for a bit.
For our first adventure, we filled the tank of the van, grabbed Emee’s kids, and drove about an hour east through the Columbia River Gorge. Destination Hood River, a cute (and somewhat expensive) town where the Hood and Columbia Rivers meet. This area is renowned as a wind-surfing capital, due to those reliable breezes. We booked a hotel room for two nights, Wednesday July 29 and Thursday July 30. Hotels are still a weird thing right now, but we chose one that didn’t have central air.
The big reason to be out here was to relax. We strolled along the waterfront our first night and hit up a pizzeria for dinner (we ate in the park.) For Thursday we drove about twenty miles south, up the Hood River Valley, to have more pizza (see a theme) and beer at Mountain View Orchards.
What’s remarkable about the whole trip was that it didn’t feel so. After getting comfortable with the concept, it felt like “pre-COVID” times. We still kept up our guard, though. But it was nice to do something that wasn’t at home.
After this little adventure reinvigorated us, we planned more close-to-home adventures. You’ll see more reporting on that soon. For now, enjoy some photos of the trip!
Urban Adventure League 
We are struggling and are thinking of planning a trip next month; being in the same place is driving us crazy; although admittedly there are people in far worse situations than us.
We are trying to avoid hotels though as interacting with people in a closed space that we don’t know makes us uncomfortable.