Great Getaways

If you've dreamed of trying a new sport or learning a new skill while on vacation, you're in good company. While the days of the souvenir-collecting, sightseeing tourist aren't over, many of us are looking for different types of experiences when we head out on vacation-whether for a weekend or a week. A lot of us-half of all U.S. adults, according to the Travel Industry Association (TIA)-have taken an adventure trip in the last five years (think white-water rafting, scuba diving). Of course, we've always known that travel is educational, but now we want to do more than just soak in the local culture as we soak in the sun. In the last three years, the TIA reports that about a fifth of all U.S. travelers took a trip specifically to learn or improve a skill, sport or hobby. And some of us want to come away from vacation feeling good not only in body, but also in soul, so we're using our vacation time to volunteer. It's one of the biggest trends in travel, according to the TIA, which reports that 24 percent of travelers recently surveyed were interested in a service-based vacation. So what do you want to do? Learn to cook like a chef? Dig for dinosaur bones? Immerse yourself in history? Try surfing? Hop aboard for a vacation that's not exactly a day at the beach, but may be more fun-and fulfilling.

Culinary Travel
Satisfy your palate for adventure with a vacation that embraces food and wine

Cooking
Field-to-Table Learning at Fairburn Farm
In Italy, agriturismo refers to idyllic, rural travel destinations that incorporate food culture and gastronomy and has been around for years. While the concept is newer here, Fairburn Farm in Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley offers an admirable North American take on the farm stay.
It's no coincidence that the farm's resident chef and host Mara Jernigan has logged countless kilometers on Italian highways and byways, learning about regional food traditions and meeting farmers and food producers. She and Fairburn Farm's owners, Darrel and Anthea Archer, have translated that experience to this rich agricultural setting, providing guests with a standout experience.
On the 115-year-old farm's 130 acres, set within a deep vale, you'll see forest and a meandering stream, old apple orchards and robust gardens. The big, burly creatures you see on the property are river water buffalo brought over from Europe, the same breed that makes Italy's famed buffalo mozzarella. This herd is the source of Canada's only water buffalo dairy, producing milk, yogurt and cheese. The mozzarella is mild and slightly sweet, a flavor that's the essence of milk. 
The best time to book a visit to the Fairburn is on the weekend, when you can take part in the Saturday market tour and cooking class, whether you're an overnight guest at the farm or not. Jernigan leads an approximately one-hour tour of the nearby Duncan farmers' market, visiting with farmers and producers and gathering foods to include in the afternoon's cooking class.
When you and the handful of other guests return to Fairburn Farm with your market haul, you'll join Jernigan in planning a menu, then head into the farm's gardens to collect vegetables and herbs before rolling up your sleeves for the hands-on cooking class. Pizza (made in the woodburning brick oven) and fresh pasta (inspired by Jernigan's extensive travels in Italy) are often on the menu, along with island-raised free-range chicken or duck, seafood from nearby waters or perhaps lamb from the farm's own sheep. With final touches on all the dishes, the class sits down at the oversized table to enjoy a well-deserved, leisurely late lunch.
This delicious and inspiring day of gastronomy can be an à la carte option, but for the full-on food experience, sign up for the culinary weekend package for two, which includes two nights in the farm's rustic-elegant manor house and a number of meals showcasing local foods, many from the farm itself. You can embellish your Vancouver Island visit with further explorations: Jernigan can suggest a self-guided culinary itinerary, which might include cheesemakers, cidermakers, winemakers, picturesque seaside towns, artisan bakeries and heritage farms, all in or near the lush Cowichan Valley. (Cynthia Nims)

If you go
Fairburn Farm Culinary Retreat and Guesthouse (3310 Jackson Road, Duncan, B.C.; 250.746.4637; fairburnfarm.bc.ca) offers a Culinary Weekend for Two ($850 CAD plus tax and gratuity), which includes accommodations and a four-course dinner Friday night (wine not included), full organic breakfast Saturday and Sunday, a market tour and cooking class, as well as a six-course Sunday lunch on the veranda, including local wines. The menu always focuses on local foods. Or sign up for the Saturday market tour and class ($135 CAD per person plus tax).

Location: Near Vancouver Island's eastern coastline, south of Nanaimo and one hour north of Victoria. Approximate travel time from Seattle, via car and ferry: six hours.

Wine Making
A taste of the winemaker's life at Wind River Cellars
On the last day of my annual weeklong trek to Washington's wine country, I sit inside a tasting room, sipping and savoring a jewel-like Syrah and dreaming of the life of a vintner. My romance-tinged vision of a vintner's life involves stomping grapes and sampling the luscious fruits of my labor. I know there's probably more to it-and Vocation Vacations offers oenophiles like me a view into the real world of the winemaker. The Portland-based company offers a wide array of "dream job holidays" that lets vacationers try out a variety of occupations, including the business of wine making at Wind River Cellars.
Located on the edge of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area in the tiny town of Husum, the winery offers a two-day program customized to each vacationer's needs, but owners Joel and Kris Goodwillie recommend coming during harvest time. "It's very satisfying to participate in the wine-making process," says Joel. "But then you'll want to come back when the wine is ready to get the full-circle experience."
On-site, the workdays focus on the vocational aspect of wine making, which could be anything from picking grapes in the nearby fields to bottling your favorite wine or discussing wine marketing, depending on your interests. The staff at Wind River Cellars is small, with just five employees during the high season, which makes this boutique winery ideal for the one-on-one mentoring the program promises. You'll put in two full days-eight hours minimum each day-alongside the vintners. But after a long morning of toiling in the fields, a bit of vacation might slip in with the wine-centric lunch menu. In the evening, if you're lucky, you could be invited to join the Goodwillies in a private family harvest dinner, with each course paired with a matching Wind River Cellars wine. Kris says that, as for many foodies, her love of creating a great meal has blossomed along with her knowledge of wine. And the best part of all? Sampling their award-winning wines is all in a day's work. (Christine Clifton-Thornton)

If you go
The Winemaker Dream Job Holiday at Wind River Cellars (196 Spring Creek Road, Husum; 509.493.2324; windrivercellars.com; $799/person exclusive of travel, lodging and most meals) is a two-day vacation. While it doesn't include lodging, options nearby include Husum's five-room Riverside Bed & Breakfast (866 Highway 141, Husum; 509.493.8900; $100-$130) and Husum Highlands Bed & Breakfast (70 Postgren Road, Husum; 800.808.9812; husumhighlands.com; $129-$159). Restaurant options are available in nearby Bingen and White Salmon. The winemaker vacation is one of 250 options in more than 100 types of jobs in 35 states offered by Vocation Vacations (1631 NE Broadway, Suite 422, Portland, Oregon; 866.888.6329; vocationvacations.com). Vocations include everything from river guide to dude ranch owner to-the newest addition-a Nascar racing team. Cuisine is one of Vocation Vacations' most popular categories.

Location: The winery, just a few miles from the Columbia River, is near Husum, approximately 80 miles east of Vancouver, Washington. Driving time from Seattle: approximately 4.5 hours

TIP: You can visit our favorite north-of-the-border city, Vancouver, and get your fill of culinary adventures. Edible British Columbia, a private company (1689 Johnston St., Vancouver, B.C.; 888.812.9660; edible-britishcolombia.com), will help you plan a food-centric trip in that city, from making restaurant reservations to creating a personalized culinary itinerary that can include private cooking lessons and special tours of wine shops and gourmet food shops. Personalized restaurant recommendation and reservations, $25-$50. Personalized culinary itineraries, $150-$300 CAD. (Suzanne Rugh)

Adventure Travel
You've dreamed of heading to France to bike through the Pyrenees or to Hawaii to surf at Waikiki-if only you had the time and skills for these adventures. Turns out that trips like these-even for the novice-are right in your backyard

Kayaking
A five-day paddle around B.C.'s Broken Group Islands
With the stars twinkling above, our guide Natalie gives my kayak a shove from the beach, launching me into my first night paddling experience. To my surprise, a riot of white light in the water greets my first paddle stroke, exploding into the shape of a mushroom cloud as I pull backwards to follow through. As the other kayaks in our group leave shore, I see that each is fringed with the same curious white light where the hull meets the waterline. This strange but natural form of electricity is called bioluminescence, which forms when living organisms-in this case, waterborne phytoplankton-convert chemical energy into visible radiant light.
As we continue on our night's mission, circumnavigating the small island we are camping on, our group of six is mesmerized by the bioluminescence dancing in the water as our kayaks glide silently forward. Who knew that night paddling could be so much fun?
But while our nocturnal experience proves enlightening (pun intended), most of the magic our group experiences during five days of paddling through and camping in the Broken Group Islands of Canada's Pacific Rim National Park comes during daylight hours. As part of a fully outfitted trip run by BatStar Adventures, a B.C.-based guiding service, we get up close and personal with teal green ocean water, bald eagles, old-growth cedar trees, barking sea lions, breaching humpback whales and fluorescent sea stars.
The Broken Group Islands, a smattering of 100-plus islands and islets in the protected waters of Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island's west coast (just south of the coastal hamlet of Ucluelet), is ideal for kayaking. The cove that is Barkley Sound shelters paddlers from the big winds, waves and currents of the Pacific just beyond. Kayakers can paddle quietly around this wilderness archipelago, finding tranquil sand spits and barnacle-encrusted bluffs, or breach the invisible line between the Sound and the ocean to find more challenging swells. No two points within the Broken Group are more than three hours' worth of vigorous paddling apart, and eight first-come, first-serve island camping areas distribute the summer crowds accordingly.
But BatStar, through an agreement with the local native tribe, the Secharts, has usage rights to the choicest campsites within the Broken Group. We're using a campground on Keith Island-in the middle of the archipelago-as our base camp. At the end of the day, as I take my place around the beach campfire, I note that although my arms are tired from the seven-plus nautical miles of paddling we did earlier in the day, I still find the strength to lift a forkful of warm cake, fresh from Natalie's Dutch oven. As the sweetness of the cake pervades my senses, I realize that roughing it with BatStar is more luxurious than anything in my civilized life back in Seattle. Just then, Gitan, another guest on the trip, refills my plastic wine glass with some of the Pinot Noir he snuck into his dry bag, and Natalie launches into a yarn about the Gumboot Ghost, a local legend reputed to torment the occasional BatStar client. Somehow, I'm not too scared. (Roddy Scheer)

If you go
Do-it-yourselfers who want to paddle the Broken Group Islands can launch their kayaks from a ferry drop at the Sechart Whaling Station, a remote lodge on the inland side of Barkley Sound, where single and double sea kayaks, and a limited number of well-appointed rooms, are for rent. Lady Rose Marine Services (ladyrosemarine.com), the Port Alberni, B.C.-based ferry company that owns and runs the lodge, provides the only transportation there via a three-hour boat ride out Alberni Inlet aboard one of two passenger-only ferries. BatStar Adventure Tours, based in Port Alberni, offers guided sea kayaking trips to different parts of Vancouver Island's wild coastline, including deluxe three- and five-day immersions into Broken Group Islands (4785 Beaver Creek Road, Port Alberni, B.C.; 877.449.1230; batstar.com; $1,200-$1,500/person USD). All BatStar trips include the use of top-notch camping and kayaking equipment as well as deluxe camp meals prepared by the guides.

Location: The Broken Group Islands are off Vancouver Island's west coast in Barkley Sound, south of Tofino. Most kayak trips begin from nearby Port Alberni. Travel time by car and ferry from Seattle: five to seven hours.

Surfing
Hang five on the breaks around Vancouver's rugged coast
It wasn't too long ago that surfing on Vancouver Island was confined to a small, tight-knit community who carved waves at places like Jordan River and Sombrio Beach north of Victoria and at the sweeping beach breaks of Tofino and Ucluelet.  
Today, surfing in Canada (despite requiring the full-body wet suits, hoodies, boots and gloves needed to tolerate the 52- to 62-degree water) has gained mainstream appeal and now some of the better-known breaks have become-gasp!-crowded. But ocean swells pound more than 300 miles of rugged Pacific coast on Vancouver Island's western edge, and there are still some relatively undiscovered spots.
On a brisk April morning, surf guide Clay Hunting, owner of Tatchu Adventures, and a trio of adventurous Californian surfers duck-dive through bracing, green-blue waves on the outer shores of Nootka Island, nestled next to Vancouver Island and about 200 miles northwest of Victoria. Gnarled old-growth cedar, Sitka spruce and hemlock, draped in moss, line the shoreline like old men leaning on canes.
Four years ago, surfing aficionado Hunting was scouring Vancouver Island for property close to surf breaks not yet discovered by the crowd. His search led him to Nootka Island, not far from where Captain James Cook, in 1778, became the first European to set foot on this northwestern edge of North America. More than two centuries later, Hunting, an explorer of a different variety, found his surf paradise, bought a chunk of oceanfront and broke ground on Tatchu Adventures' surf camp. Today Hunting guides guests both on nearby breaks and ones farther away and accessible by boat only.
"There are about 29 breaks, mostly reefs, within an easy boat ride," Hunting says. "We basically head out on the boat in the morning, explore waves all day, come back for a sauna and a big feast, and do it all over again the next day."
The surfers bob on their boards and look onshore to this wild island, awaiting the last ride of the day. Beyond the shoreline, where black bear, wolf and cougar occasionally saunter past, dark green forest rises to a cluster of mist-shrouded peaks. A wave set approaches, and the surfers furiously paddle their wetsuit-clad frames onto the crest of the first wave. There are no crowds out here to hamper the efforts of these weekend warriors, and like any northern surfers, they enjoy a warm place to return to. That's why they'll ride this one in to the shore for a hot beverage in one of Tatchu's tree houses. (Andrew Findlay)
 
If you go
Tatchu Adventures offers four- to seven-day all-inclusive surfing packages (equipment, meals and accommodations) for novice and experienced surfers (250.934.6602; tatchuadventures.com; $1,295-$1,895 CAD) from April-June September-November. Guests stay in private rooms in the main lodge or in one of two whimsical tree houses, heated with woodstoves, and rinse off the saltwater in a wood-fired sauna and shower beneath the towering rain forest. Leave your laptop at home-there is no Internet or TV, all the better for appreciating the wild and remote west coast of Vancouver Island.

Location: Nootka Island is just off Vancouver Island's west coast, north of Tofino. Tatchu Adventures meets guests in the town of Tahsis. Travel time by car and ferry from Seattle: approximately 9 hours

Sailing
A historic schooner hoists its sails for hands-on adventure
When the 101-foot two-masted schooner Adventuress raises its 5,478 square feet of sails in Puget Sound, it's been known to draw gasps of awe-both from those on board and those watching from shore.
The thrill of hoisting those sails and walking the well-worn deck of this majestic vessel isn't reserved for a trained crew. Each year more than 3,000 participants join the crew on one- to five-day sailing adventures (some longer) offered through Sound Experience, Port Townsend.
The Adventuress has been plying salt water since 1913, when her original owner, John Borden, took her through the Strait of Magellan to the Arctic to search for whales. From 1915 to 1951, she was a pilot boat stationed on the wicked seas near the Farallon Islands on the approach to San Francisco harbor.
Today the Adventuress is a National Historic Landmark-and one that still offers hands-on experience. Guests who book a trip can loaf and sun aboard, but most prefer to work the sails and lines. "One of the biggest thrills was to steer her in eight knots of wind on Elliott Bay," recalls Karl Leggett of Edmonds, who sailed on a four-day adult trip. On my own trip, even though I've sailed smaller boats, I found managing the large sails a new challenge. Lying on deck admiring the sails stretched in the wind, it was easy to imagine myself on an 1800s clipper ship bound for the South Seas or maybe a Northwest trading schooner.
As many as 24 guests are accommodated on the Adventuress in dormitory-style bunks; though Spartan, they are authentic to this experience. There's a spacious galley and open space belowdecks.
To sail on the Adventuress, you don't need sailing experience; you'll be supervised by experienced crew members as you learn how to hoist the huge sails and where to secure lines-and perhaps even take a turn at steering the vessel. During lazy summer evenings, talented crew members and volunteers stage skits, play guitars and often enjoy a mutual interest in sailing, history and the ecology of Puget Sound. A three-day passenger, Tom Pagano of Tacoma, sums it up: "It simply is very, very fun!" (JoAnn Roe)

If you go
The Adventuress sails from several Puget Sound ports from March to October (360.379.0438; soundexp.org; e-mail: mail@soundexp.org). Overnight accommodations, when needed, are belowdecks in bunks (bring a sleeping bag). Overnight trips include meals. Among many offerings are three-hour sails from Seattle on May 6 at 1 p.m. and Tacoma on June 2 at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. ($50/adults, $40/kids). A three-day adult sail from Friday Harbor is planned from August 10-12 ($350/adults). If you're looking for a deeper sailing experience, consider the one-month Ship's Apprentice program that includes instruction in navigation, steering, and raising and lowering six sails in response to wind velocities.

Location: Trips on the Adventuress leave from various ports around Puget Sound, including Bainbridge Island, Everett, Friday Harbor, Olympia, Port Townsend, Seattle and Tacoma.

Bike touring
Easing into a San Juan Island sensibility on two wheels
We had just pulled our bikes into the turnoff near Cattle Point on the southern tip of San Juan Island when we saw the raptor-a sparrow hawk, flying low and slow just above the tall blond grass that stretched over the rolling hills toward the lighthouse. It seemed to hover as it hunted, the fingerlike tips of its wings playing with the air currents as it glided along in search of field mice or other live munchies.
My wife and I leaned on our bikes and drank our water, watching until it glided over the hill. It keened-a bright, sharp, winsome cry-just as it crested and flew out of sight. It wasn't a stunning experience in the way whale sightings are, but it was wonderful and electric in its own way: a subtle taste of nature in its element, raw and wild.
This is the real advantage of touring the San Juans by bicycle. Whether you are gliding down from Bailer Hill on San Juan Island's west side while soaking in the soaring view of Haro Strait, cruising through a grove of madronas down to Lime Kiln Point State Park on San Juan Island tooling past the oyster beds of a quiet bay on Orcas Island or rolling along the mellow farmlands of Lopez-wherever you are in the San Juans, you experience it fully on a bicycle: You breathe it, hear it, see it, smell it in ways that are simply not possible in a car.
Cyclists enjoy another practical advantage: a ride on the ferry is less expensive for bikes than cars, and you won't have to wait through multiple ferries as cars often do, especially during the summer months. More importantly, powering your own wheels causes less harm to the islands' increasingly fragile ecology; every bicycle is one less car on the road there. Resident islanders can sometimes grow impatient with cyclists (especially the inconsiderate ones) but the bikes, in the end, are more benefit than disadvantage.
The only real drawback comes with the logistics: figuring out your route, lodging, meals and how to carry all that gear (some of the islands' steeper hills are grueling enough-and become doubly so when you're fully loaded).
Several San Juan outfitters make it easy, however, providing fully supported tours of the islands with routes tailored to different skill levels and interests. "What we do is take care of all the details-take care of the planning, the lodging reservations, the restaurant reservations; we add in things like whale-watching tours, kayaking, things like that," says Julie Ubben, the assistant marketing manager for Bicycle Adventures, which offers a variety of San Juan tours. A guide rides with the group, and a support van follows for anyone who runs into trouble or is just out of energy. "It follows behind and then once an hour, it will zip ahead, pull over at a scenic spot, and then everybody can refill their Gatorade, grab a banana, hop in for a boost up a hill, whatever they want to do. And if anyone gets a flat, they sit down, wave their bike pump and the van pulls up and fixes it."
Riding with a group can also be a great way of meeting people and making new friends. Sharing the islands-the air, the sounds, the natural sights that come drifting over the hills-has a way of making a simple getaway trip something genuinely special. (Dave Neiwert)

If you go
Several San Juan outfitters provide fully supported tours of the islands with routes tailored to different skill levels and interests; Bicycle Adventures (800.443.6060; bicycleadventures.com) offers a variety of San Juan tours, from a four-day tour of several islands to an eight-day tour that includes Victoria, B.C. Prices for the all-inclusive trips vary depending on length of trip, type of accommodations and equipment rental, ranging from around $1,300-$2,800. Other outfitters offering San Juan bike trips include Backroads (800.462.2848; backroads.com; six-day trips, $2,098-$2,898) and Escape Adventures (800.596.2953; escapeadventures.com; four- to six-day trips, $990-$1,890).

Location: The San Juan Islands are in Puget Sound, north of Seattle, accessible via Washington State ferries leaving from Anacortes. Travel time from Seattle by car and ferry: three-four hours (depending on your island destination).

On the Road to Learning
The latest travel trend means a vacation may give you an education-but summer school never looked like this

Farming
Following food to its source at Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts
I hear the rooster crow and I open one eye. It's still dark outside, even in August, but the bunkhouse at Quillisascut Farm, a goat farm near the tiny eastern Washington town of Rice near Colville, is already buzzing with activity. I pull on jeans, boots and a jacket, and head to the barn where class is in session. In a small milking room, a few of us watch farmer Rick Misterly open a small door, revealing a very curious brown Alpine goat who peeks out at us. She tromps into the milking pen, a sort of chute where five goats at a time line up to be milked. Rick's wife, Lora Lea-they own the farm-shows us how to grip the goat's teat firmly but gently, and closes her fingers one at a time so the milk doesn't rise back into the udder. It looks simple, but when I try it, barely anything comes out, and I can immediately feel the milk rise up. Lucky we aren't being graded on this.
Yes, I am in school-the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts. Like the dozen or so other participants, I'm drawn by the lure of farm life. We're here for four days to learn where our food comes from and how a food system works: from how the seasons affect the taste of goat cheese to the process of composting and how to tell when fruits and vegetables are really ripe.
Each day brings something new. Seattle chef Kären Jurgensen, instructor of a food politics course at Seattle Central Community College, leads us through the day we experience farm life. Part of the group is responsible for planning meals and cooking dinner using only what can be picked from the garden or foraged in the fields; some have never seen how brussels sprouts grow or waded barefoot in an ice-cold stream to forage watercress. Today, we do this and much more: We make our own cheese, bake bread in an outdoor woodburning oven, explore the art of harvesting honey and learn to preserve the harvest in jams and sauces, just like our grandmothers did. "Much of the lure of these activities comes from a desire to connect," says Lora Lea. "People want to feel a part of something larger."
This is no more apparent than when Rick gives his class on butchering. Today, we butcher a goat raised for this purpose. The group is silent as Rick slits the animal's throat with a very sharp knife, and it dies quickly. Then he shows us how to skin the goat without damaging the meat. From that point onward, we watch and participate as Jurgensen breaks down the carcass and the goat becomes food. No one leaves unaffected by this experience. At dinner, the delicious sausage we've made from the goat means a little bit more, and we talk about how we'll look at the meat aisle in our local grocery store in a different way. Now, asking the butcher where his or her meat comes from doesn't seem like an odd question. After experiencing the process for ourselves, after getting dirt under our fingernails and cooking with the freshest food from the garden, it is hard not to ask. (Shannon Borg)

If you go
Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts (2409 Pleasant Valley Road, Rice; 509.738.2011; quillisascutcheese.com) offers multiday sessions throughout the summer, including Developing a Food Culture and Sense of Place (Aug. 2-5; $595) and Introduction to Small Acreage Sustainable Farming (Aug. 8-12; $495); customized sessions are available-create your own four-day retreat for 10-12 people. Price includes all meals and accommodations in the farm bunkhouse. There are sessions available for chefs, culinary students and the general public; check the Web site for a list of sessions.

Location: The farm is in the northeast corner of Washington state, about a half hour southwest of Colville. Travel time from Seattle by car: approximately 6.5 hours.

History
Soak in the past on a Columbia River cruise
The mood of the 62 passengers was decidedly upbeat in the Sea Lion's lounge as the 152-foot ship lazed along the Willamette River one fall evening before heading out at dusk into the much wider Columbia River. Red, green and white lights marked the barge and freighter traffic.
We were beginning a voyage, offered via Lindblad Expeditions, that traces the river from its mouth at Astoria to Clarkston-Lewiston on the Snake River, a Columbia tributary-about 450 miles away. Along the way, we would learn about the region's rich history, its explorers like Robert Gray and the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery, commercial fleets, salmon runs and dam building. A naturalist and historian-on deck daily-helped illuminate what we were seeing, augmenting casual exchanges during the day with formal talks in the ship's lounge on topics such as salmon and fish wheels, teeming bird populations, the orchards of Hood Valley, old stern-wheelers, Indian lore and river history. And during the cocktail hour they joined us, expanding on the day's experiences.
On the journey's second day, we enjoyed our first shore trip-a visit to Fort Clatsop at Astoria, where the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery spent a miserable, rainy winter in 1804-05. At Astoria's Columbia River Maritime Museum we learned about the harrowing tales of ship captains entering the river from the Pacific in stormy seas and later we probed that passage.
In the days that followed on this seven-day voyage, we traveled through the locks at Bonneville Dam, passed throug