Wildlife Viewing

Along the way to the Grays River Covered Bridge we saw this wildlife refuge. It said there were whitetail deer there and they had these nice little viewing areas where you could watch them without disturbing them.



I thought it was kind of cool, but we didn't get to see any wildlife. It was the wrong time of day. A nice couple got out to stretch there, also, and Becky asked them some questions about the ferry because we had just seen a sign for a ferry over to Oregon. It happens they were from Oregon and often take drives in that area for the weekends. We mentioned the bridge and they said they had seen the signs, but had never gone to it. They also mentioned that they had just come from a really nice little cafe near the bridge and that the food and service was excellent. They didn't know the name. After looking at the bridge and taking photos we headed back to the only cafe we had seen which was actually back in Skawakama. It didn't seem right. I remembered him saying something about stairs and there were none. We asked about the cinnamon rolls that he had mentioned and the girls there knew nothing about it. They were, however, able to direct us to the right place and took no offense that we were not eating at their establishment. (they had NO customers at all, so I felt bad leaving, but we really wanted to try the place that the gentleman had recommended.)
They directed us to the right place, a little place called the Grays River Cafe. If you get down that way, go there to eat. It is great home cooking. It is very delicious and nice sized portions. We got a cinnamon roll to go and ate it later with coffee from the only open coffee kiosk in Long Beach. It was yummy. Okay. I need to go get ready for work. But that is my blog for today!

Grays River

This is a painting I did in the early 70's of the oldest remaining covered bridge still being used in the state of Washington at the time. I gave this painting to my mother-in-law because she collected pictures of covered bridges. Michael and I eventually divorced and some years later his mother gave this back to me when she decided to redo things in her living room. I am going to give it to my youngest daughter, who lives in Maryland, as a memento of her grandmother and so that she has a piece of my artwork. I have to touch it up in a couple of spots because somehow along the way I got some paint on it that doesn't belong there.


Becky and I were chatting with a couple at the "cranberry pancake" breakfast they held during the Cranberry Harvest Festival. The breakfast did not really include cranberry pancakes which was a little disappointing to us. It did, however, result in a couple of good things.
1. I won the raffle for the quilt.
2. The couple sitting next to us were quite chatty and friendly and we ended up talking about the Gray's River Covered Bridge.
I did not get their names, but the man was telling us about the bridge and he mentioned that it had been rebuilt. (by this he meant the walls and top, not the base). He said that they used aluminum siding when they rebuilt it. I had a hard time picturing that. He also informed us that they were now holding yearly dinners in the bridge. We were very interested in that little piece of information. It sounded like it would be a fun thing to do. We figured we would check it out.

I decided to take a few days off from work this past weekend. My granddaughter was getting married and that was as good as an excuse as any. I called Becky and let her know and asked if maybe she wanted to go down and take a look at the bridge and then drive into Long Beach. I haven't been to Long Beach for more than 20 years and thought it might be a nice destination for us sometime next year to take a few days and rent a cabin or a yurt.
She agreed and we hit the road at 7am Sunday morning for a nice day of driving and looking around. I was totally relieved to find out that the man was wrong about the siding. The bridge has been redone, but it is beautiful wood and looks pretty much like it did when I did the painting. The only real difference is that the one side has not weathered yet. And I'm not sure about the top. It IS aluminum or metal of some kind and the original might have been wood. I will have to look that up.
Here are some pictures of how it looks now. I could not replicate the positioning that was used in the original photo that I used when I did the painting. Those trees grew up to be very big and there are even more than in the painting. There was simply no opening in which to take a picture from that angle.
The roads were dirt in the photo I used as my "model" for the painting. They are paved now. Maybe I will do another painting reflecting the new landscape.

As you can see the background hills are still covered in trees, although there are many more than before. The two trees directly behind the bridge at the left in the painting are still there. One grew bigger than the other and the leaves have fallen, but they are visible in this photo to the left of the group of bare trees along the banks. The big tree that casts its shadow and discolors the wood on the side of the bridge facing us is also still there!



This picture shows the brushy hill that is at the foreground of my painting.



This one shows the road that is now paved instead of dirt.



Here is a picture of the other, less weathered side.



If you look closely, you will see that we found evidence that the story of dinners in the bridge might be true, so we asked at the Gray's River Cafe when we ate there. They are true and we are thinking we might just try to attend one. It just sounds like fun.