Hood River

The Hood River tourism board should write checks to our friends Julie and Karl (and their spouses and families) who live in this Colombia River city. After two nights in town we're ready to move here—or at least extend our visit. We arrive about 6:30pm Sept. 3 and eat pizza and salads and drink beers with Julie at Double Mountain Brewery downtown Hood River. The taproom uses local greens and meats, makes its salad dressings from scratch and brews year-round and seasonal beers. Try the Jersey Pie (with hot capicola, provolone and marinated peppers), the Buffy (crumbled goat cheese, kalamatas, pappadews and fresh basil) and the IRA, India Red Ale. Then we visit Patrick's friend Karl and his chickens. Karl has a wife, Jennifer, two kids and a third on the way, but they are all sleeping by the time we arrive so it's us and the birds. And the chickens aren't awake, either, but they still pose for a picture.

We stay at Christa and Morgan's Park Place house, a vacation rental with Gorge views from the wrap-around front porch, and it's walking distance to downtown.

Park Place is cozy and stylish and the comfy couches, Wi-Fi, full kitchen, shower and soft bed makes us soft, especially Ophie, who now demands her own room with a queen bed.

Julie shows us around Hood River: its downtown, a mix of eclectic boutiques (like the Enchanted Alpaca) and eateries, wine tasting shops and breweries; the marina and sand bar, a kite surfing hotspot where Julie works at The Sand Bar, a trailer turned restaurant serving good, affordable food (like the Gorge Burger with cheddar, grilled onions and sweet relish) and halibut fish and chips.

Julie also tours us around White Salmon, a quaint town on the Washington side of the Columbia River, and Lyle, where we stand-up paddle board on the Klickitat River. (We live in Santa Cruz for the past decade and don't try paddle boarding until we visit Washington?!)

We paddle around a few bends in the river while fish jump and egrets fly overhead. Ophie swims alongside the boards, until she gets tired, at which point she climbs/gets pulled onto the board, alternately stands on the nose and runs back and forth before diving back into the river and usually dumping the paddler off in the process. One dog doesn't seem challenging enough, so we take it to the next level, paddling with Ophie and Tug Boat, a 160-pound Newfoundland.