A sea day on a river cruise?

Ever thought you'd see a sea day on a river cruise? The travel time it took for us to go from The Dalles to our next actual port of Richland, WA, required spending from 8AM until 12 midnight traveling through a long series of locks. It was nice to see that CD Rhiannon had planned ahead offering more than the usual activities since everyone would be remaining on board today.

Those who were feeling peppy this morning could join Rhiannon in the Sky Lounge at 8:30AM for a Sailaway & Rock the Lock Party. Dad and I chose to take advantage of the slower schedule and dine in the restaurant for breakfast. 

Checked out the view of our first lock as we finished getting ready in our cabin.

We joined a table already halfway full but had already met some of the passengers working together on a puzzle for most of the voyage. 

Apparently I wasn't too awake this morning because I neglected to take pictures of our food. I ordered the French Toast and sausage with a cup of fruit on the side. It tasted good but I would have preferred to pour my own syrup as the plate was swimming in this overly sweet maple syrup. Dad went with a standard cheese omelette and bacon.

After breakfast, I stepped outside to watch our ship maneuver more of the locks.

The rest of the morning was devoted to a Veterans Appreciation Ceremony and Doug's next presentation covering the history of The Astorians. 

We opted not to try lunch in the restaurant but here's the menu:

Instead I grabbed a quick pepperoni (this time not invisible) pizza from the cafe.

A real literal treat came after lunch with the next Rhiannon planned event of an ice cream social. Of course it was conveniently combined with the Hotel Officers being around ready to help you book that next cruise. Vanilla ice cream and a rainbow sherbert were offered scooped out by Rhiannon and her team while you had the ability to add your own toppings. There was a good variety of toppings ranging from chopped nuts to chocolate candies and gummy bears. There was also a few cans of Barq's Root Beer set aside for those who wanted a root beer float. The line of interested passengers looped around the room and it was funny to watch the crew try to get the flavored syrups and whipped cream containers to dispense when they'd been in cold storage. 

After the ice cream social, Dad and I split up so he could attend a bridge tournament (a handful of passengers who play together when they travel asked to hold one), and I went to the Culinary Demonstration put on by Executive Chef Ricardo Montalvan. Chef Montalvan chose to demonstrate how to make the Red Wine Demi Glace sauce that he'd be using on tonight's Prime Rib dinner entree. Small disposable spoons were provided for anyone who wished to come up and sample the sauce at the end of the demonstration. Chef Montalvan also took the time to answer questions about food prep, his training, and what it's like having to cook for so many passengers on a daily basis. Rhiannon passed around a piece of paper on a clipboard so anyone who wanted the recipe could write down their cabin number and get it slipped under their door later. 

Dad chose to attend Doug's afternoon presentation covering Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery's return home. I took some time to watch us travel past more locks and scenery.

Tonight's dinner menu:

Minestrone Soup Appetizer - nice medium sized bowl with plenty of identifiable ingredients

Oregon Salad Appetizer - Spinach, kale, frisee blend, Oregon hazelnuts, strawberries, red onion, goat cheese, and white balsamic vinaigrette. 

Garlic & Herb Infused Prime Rib Entree - Scalloped potatoes, honey glazed baby carrots, red wine demi glace sauce.

Chocolate Lava Cake Dessert 

After dinner, we headed to the River Lounge to hear Doug, Rhiannon, and Lindsay brief everyone on the next port of call and the excursion/onboard plans. Lindsay was ecstatic as she talked about how our chosen tour for tomorrow would include a special visit to a chocolate shop whose owners Lindsay has known for years. 

This was followed by our own passengers providing the evening entertainment by participating in a Not So Newlywed Game hosted by Rhiannon. As always, the unpredictability of the answers to leading questions had the whole audience cracking up. 

From locks and bridges to happy drawers - our day onboard in The Dalles

The main reason that we didn't arrive in The Dalles for our port day until 1PM was that we spent the morning traversing more locks. A balcony offers a great view for seeing the lock experience up close. But don't be tempted to stick any body parts out and touch unless you want to have the new nickname of Stumpy.

There's also the viewpoint of turning to the bridge cam channel on your cabin TV.

And the best part of the experience was the full rainbow that greeted us after we exited the locks.

For breakfast this morning, I ordered another breakfast sandwich. The crew member working the griddle apologized for not having any available sausage at the cafe. This was overheard by the company rep sailing with us and he not only ran to restock the cafe but brought me a plate full of extra sausage.

After team trivia this morning we attended Doug Crispin's presentation on Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the Snake. 

Today's lunch menu. We didn't dine in the restaurant for lunch.

Thankfully there was no issue after our excursion bus troubles returning to the ship too late to attend the earlier bridge tour time for which we had signed up. Cruise Director Rhiannon assured us that there was no problem joining the second tour time's group. While ocean cruise line bridge tours will often have you being led by a senior officer, river cruise bridge tours are a much more intimate experience where you get to meet and chat with the captain themselves. Our captain was Captain Lou Boone and he told us stories of his experiences visiting every continent and writing three books. He holds the world record for going the furthest south wind surfing in Antarctica and holds six state records in the U.S. Masters Swimming. He told us not to be surprised if we see him jump into the water when we're docked because he gets his swimming workouts in right there in the river. 

No worries passengers - this is called the happy drawer because it is full of candy - not that other kind of edibles.

Today's dinner menu:

Dad loves split pea soup and rarely gets it unless it's on a cruise menu so he was thrilled to see tonight's appetizer choice of Split Pea & Ham Soup. We joked around with our waitress about the comically small portions we've been given. She comes back with a cereal bowl sized portion of soup for Dad. 

I went with the second appetizer option of a Chopped Caprese Salad - Chopped heirloom tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, balsamic, and olive oil. Each component of this dish tasted very fresh and I loved the balance of the sharp balsamic with the creamy mozzarella. I liked how the chef chose to use sliced tomatoes versus the cherry tomatoes I often see used. 

Apple Cider Brined Beelers Farms Pork Chops - Sauteed green beans, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and apple relish. We don't usually have pork chops so this was a nice change of pace. I was a little surprised to see that the apple relish was really one slice of a cinnamon apple preparation cut in half and used as garnish. 

Weathervane Sea Scallops - Sweet potato risotto, sauteed spinach and parmesan, sun-dried tomato, and butter sauce. The scallops were a good size, tasted fresh, and had a wonderful caramelization to the edges. The creamy sauce in the middle was wonderful to drag all the other components through.

From the Dessert menu:

Lemon Meringue Pie:

This was Dad's choice. He found it enjoyable but he'd always prefer to have chocolate cake.

German Chocolate Cake: 

I wasn't a fan of this cake in a shot glass presentation as it made it much harder to avoid the chopped nuts that could have been brushed off if it was a slice of cake. It also made the nuts soggy.

After dinner we returned to the River Lounge to hear Doug Crispin give a presentation on the Historic Columbia River Highway. After the nightly rundown of the next day's events, we stayed for our evening entertainment, "Rain or Shine" with the Bylines. The singing duo performed songs with weather words in their titles. Those who wished to stay up could have joined Rhiannon for a 9:30PM's Night Owl's Club Karaoke. 

Time to dally around in The Dalles

We return to Oregon this day for our next port stop called The Dalles. Since we didn't arrive until 1PM, Cruise Director Rhiannon organized a morning stretch class, a "Bubbles, Berries, and Bookings" opportunity to imbibe while you were encouraged to book that next ACL cruise, and a team trivia game. Today we also had the unique port visit where we stayed docked until 8AM the next morning. We attended the latter and paired up with a couple on their first ACL cruise. Rhiannon brought several logo branded items plus a couple themed to the itinerary books in a branded tote bag and had each member of the winning team pick one item from the lot. 

There were four options for today's excursions. 

Bonneville Dam Experience (Four Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $40 per person/Moderate Activity Level)

Witness how nature, technology, and humans intersect on a self-guided exploration of the Bradford Island Visitor Center. Learn about the cultural history of the region, dam construction, the development of navigation along the Columbia River, and the life cycles of salmon and Pacific lamprey. Come enjoy seasonal views of migrating fish through underwater windows that allow you to peer into the fish ladder. A rooftop observation deck provides a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. After, visit the Oregon icon Herman, the sturgeon, the state's most famous fish, measuring approximately 10' long, 500 pounds and over 80 years old. There is a restroom on site. There is a lot of walking for this excursion.

Maryhill Winery Exploration and Tasting (Three Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $50 per person/Low Activity Level/Partial Wheelchair or Scooter Accessible)

Enjoy an exploration and tasting at the renowned Maryhill Winery, one of the largest wineries in Washington State. Begin on the terrace overlooking vineyard and the Columbia River, with the majestic Mt. Hood serving as a stunning backdrop. On a guided walk to the vineyard, learn about the history of the winery and the grapes that are used to make Maryhill varietals, as well as the fermentation process. Upon arrival, you will have a 30-minute, guided winery exploration followed by a wine tasting and cheese. After, you will have the opportunity to explore the grounds and visit the shop on site. The coach ride is about 30 minutes. 

Maryhill Museum of Art (Three Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $35 per person/Low Activity Level)

Visit the Maryhill Museum of Art featuring four floors of world-class collections ranging from American paintings and an extensive Native American collection, to early 20th-century European works. Examples would include the Theatre de la Mode French Fashion and Auguste Rodin who is considered to be the father of modern sculpture. Venture outside to explore the sculpture garden before enjoying a cup of coffee on the balcony of Loie's Cafe where you can view the scenic Columbia River framed by a backdrop of majestic mountains. Upon arrival, you will hear a brief introduction to the museum before exploring on your own. It is a 30-minute coach ride each way. 

The Dalles Local Loop (Continuous Loop Duration/Complementary Excursion/Low Activity Level)

This was the excursion we chose as we didn't feel compelled to visit the art museum and had no interest in the winery. The latter was as you might expect on a cruise line that counts daily cocktail hour as a selling point, the most popular excursion. Dad would have also liked to visit The Bonneville Dam with an interest from the engineering standpoint of it but most all of the excursions were in the same four hour afternoon time slot. 

The stops included on this loop were the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, Downtown, Fort Dalles Museum and Anderson Homestead, and the Neon Sign Museum. Approximate times and the order in which the stops fell on the route could be found amongst the information on the table outside the office. We chose to visit the latter two destinations. 

The Dalles Local Loop was basically another equivalent to the Hop On/Hop Off (HOHO) Bus city tour except it was solely using ACL buses and drivers. Our Excursions Director Lindsay had smartly arranged the bus departures so that they were staggered by around 30 minutes apart from each other leaving the ship. This plan would have worked great despite making the 2nd wave of passengers who had to board the 2nd bus wait a short while, because it would have meant one of the buses was always arriving back at the one of the four stops every 15-20 minutes. You could pick and choose what stops you wanted to visit and how long to stay at each one. The last bus was set to return to the ship at 5:05PM.

What Lindsay couldn't have anticipated was that bus driver #2 (we had arrived early enough to be on bus #1), would decide that he wasn't in the mood to wait, pulled out from behind bus #1, and sped off to the first stop. Our driver on bus #1 double checked and was told to go ahead and leave as scheduled. The town isn't very big so a lot of the stops were close to each other. 

The Fort Dalles Museum is housed in the former Surgeon's Quarters, the only remaining officer's quarters of the 1856 Fort Dalles military complex. The museum within the building first opened in 1905. Once we arrived, the caretakers gathered the latest small group in the main room to give a brief talk about the history of the building. After that, we were able to wander the museum and the nearby barns that held antique vehicles on our own. The Anderson Homestead is a short walk down and across the street from the museum. There is a ramp access up into the building's main level but the upper level's exhibits require walking up stairs.

The museum was full of tons of historical artifacts from the time period but the most recent addition was a sweet cat who lived on the grounds. In talking with one of the caretakers, we learned that this cat had been left behind by a couple owners before them and all the owners since have considered taking care of her as part of taking care of the property itself. We saw where she had a small outdoor shelter with fresh food and water always available. I may have spent just as much time sitting on the walkway snuggling her as I did wandering the museum. 

Old slot machine

Antique Vehicles a short walk away behind the museum:

One of the first hotel shuttles:

The most popular vehicle among our passengers was the hearse with the see through window on its side to view the casket.

As it was pretty close to the next bus' timed arrival, we opted not to walk down to the Anderson Homestead. Around 10-15 of us were waiting for the "next" bus to arrive as we sat by the fence surrounding the museum. When that 15 minute scheduled time became 30 minutes, one of the group called Lindsay to let her know that no bus was showing up. We got to hear Lindsay's side of the conversation and heard her tell the other passenger that she'd already heard from passengers at another stop and is trying to reach the drivers to find out where they are. After 40 minutes, bus driver #1 shows up and gripes to everyone not to blame him; he can't help being delayed as now he is the only driver. 

We next headed to the National Neon Sign Museum, a stop on this itinerary that tons of past passengers said was not to be missed. As we stepped off the bus, our driver warned that it could take an hour for him to return. He wanted us to know that before deciding whether to stay and visit the museum.

Our admission to the museum was included by ACL but it would otherwise have cost $10 per adult, $8 for seniors aged 65+, and $8 each for groups of 10+. The building was mostly accessible except for a large staircase to access the ballroom display of neon building fronts. Our tour was given by museum founder David Benko. 

We started off the tour watching a short video in a theater style room that covered an artist's process making a neon piece. 

Then David led us through the main level's exhibits showing some of the first neon pieces and explaining how the science was discovered and works to produce the colored lighting. 

The upstairs ballroom space made to look like a town:

In case you need a breather after climbing those stairs, Ronald McDonald is waiting to talk to you about your car's extended warranty:

Several of our current group at the museum opted not to climb the stairs. The few seats in the lobby quickly filled with our older and mobility challenged passengers. David suggested to many that if they were able and didn't want to wait, the ship was merely a few blocks walk away. Dad chose to wait as he didn't feel up for the walk. Even though our bus didn't arrive for another 20-30 minutes, we still made it back to the ship before those who had taken David's suggestion of walking back. 

As it turned out, which we didn't find out fully until we were back on board when Excursions Director Lindsay asked us how we liked the tour, she had dealt with the second bus driver while we were out and he was either relieved of duty or quit. She would only say to us that she'd heard about the trouble, spoke to the driver, "And now we're down to only one bus driver." This meant that only bus driver #1 was doing the shuttle service for the entire route and amount of passengers. I've been on trips in the past where there has been bus timing issues and the cruise line made alternate arrangements like calling for the next available taxi to take small groups at a time or at least those who couldn't make the walk. I'm sure with such late notice there wasn't going to be time for ACL to get another bus driver on site but the communication with passengers could have been a whole lot better.