2023-09-17 Columbia River: September 22

Today we are docked at The Dalles. Our shore excursion today was another Hop-on-Hop-Off with the first stop being the Maryhill Museum. This is a lovely, regional museum with both natural history and exhibits about the local indigenous people.

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Displays included an ancient, cedar dugout canoe,

Maryhill-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--M9225283

a huge wooly mammoth (replica),

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and a “town” dating from the early/mid 1800’s. Lots of artifacts were displayed in the stores.

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Maryhill-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--M9225282

There was also a large exhibit of drawings by Audubon. Although, instead of birds (for which he is famous) these were of North American Mammals. How very interesting.

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Audubon-Prints--Maryhill-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--M9225276

Audubon-Prints--Maryhill-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--M9225277

Audubon-Prints--Maryhill-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--M9225285

From there the bus stopped at the National Neon Sign Museum. The owner/founder started collecting neon signs at a young age and now they are into the second generation of neon aficionados. The museum is housed in the old Elks Lodge, a beautiful, old building that dates from 1910. It included pre-electricity signs, old electrical signs as well as neon.

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The collection included information about the colors (based on the gas used – Neon or Argon) and how the tubes were made.

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Neon-Museum--The-Dalles--Oregon-2023--P9224010

This was a very fun stop…unlike the usual museum fare we commonly visit.

We then spent some time walking around the old historic district of The Dalles with many preserved period buildings.

The second Courthouse of Wasco County was built in 1883. It has a large clock tower and now houses a brew pub.

Old St. Peter’s Church (built in 1898).

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We also went in search of some of the numerous murals that can be found in this area. Some were almost a block long...extending from one end of a block long building to the other.