Goldendale, WA

We took a lovely drive up US 97 across the Columbia River to spend time with decades-long friends, Anne and Jerry.  They are currently in the process of moving to Goldendale, Washington from Oregon.  Their town is little but its all about location.  They are in the middle of wonderful places to visit.


We observed Jerry B’s birthday a second time at The Glass Onion.  The restaurant is only a few years old and worthy of being in a major city.  This shrimp appetizer is a sample of the creativity of the chef.

We then did a little star gazing at the Goldendale Observatory, the largest US observatory that lets you look through an optical telescope.  This 24 inch reflecting telescope was built by four volunteers who gave it to the city.  First we saw sunspots and then prominances shooting 30 - 70 thousand miles out from the solar surface.

The next day we spent an afternoon at the Maryhill Museum of Art.  This museum is the result of friendships that started in the early 1900s.  The characters are Sam Hill who was an entrepreneur and promoter of the Good Roads Association (highways).   Alva de Bretteville Spreckels was the wife of the sugar magnate and a patron of the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  

 Queen Marie of Romania was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and of Tzar Alexander II.  In gratitude for her friends help reconstructing Romania following WWI, Queen Maria donated furniture, paintings and other objects of art from her palace to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.   Loie Fuller was a famed dancer and friend of August Rodin.

To make a long story short:  Hill started to build a mansion overlooking the Columbia River. 

Fuller persuaded him to turn the project into a museum and got Rodin to donate drawings, models and small statues.  Hill, who was also a supporter of the Palace of the Legion of Honor,  died before the museum was completed.  His friend Spreckels took over the project.  She completed Hill’s museum and donated art from her personal collection and also arranged for the Queen’s collection to be sent to Maryhill.

Now to some of the art:  Beyond paintings, collections include chess sets

and Native American Art and African Art.

Theatre de la Mode is a traveling exhibit with 1/3 human-size wire mannequins used by designers in post WWII France to establish the fashion industry.  Details include gloves, shoes, hats and umbrellas. 

The grounds are filled with a variety of sculptures. 

 Maryhill also has a winery and a reproduction of Stonehenge which we did not visit on this trip.