Washington, Oregon, and Us - Day Eight

It's all over.

The last day has come to a conclusion and our trip has come to an end.

The day started with a trip to The Old Church, where we finally had a chance to step inside. The church is beautiful and is nearly 130 years old. We also saw the Simon Benson House, which is located right across the Portland State University. Simon Benson installed running drinking fountains all around Portland because the city didn't have available water decades ago. The fountains still remain and provides people with running water every single second of the day. We recreated an old photograph of two people drinking from the fountain. We were leaving the area when we saw a fire truck for the Portland Fire Department, so we took a picture with some of the firefighters.

We went back into Vancouver afterward and had lunch at Dolce Gelato. We also walked to the Esther Short Park after lunch and had some gelato on a beautiful sunny day. We later stopped by Swoon and Not too Shabby to pick up some few things and said goodbye to its owners, who we first met when we first came to the city.

We stopped by Fort Vancouver, where we saw the Ulysses S. Grant house. The whole area was beautiful and historic, and is an entire block known as Officer's Row, where houses stand from the time period. We later went to the Vancouver Public Library because the building looked and was amazing. We decided to open up a library card as a keepsake. We did the same with the Portland Public Library, but they didn't give us a card because we're from out of town. We stopped by the Academy, which is right beside the library, but the historic chapel inside was closed. We glimpsed inside through the cracks of the door, though.

The next stop for us a small park right on the Columbia River Gorge. We sat down by the peaceful water and enjoyed the fresh air. We had dinner reservations for 9pm, so we decided to head back to the hotel to change, rest and charge our camera. We made our way back into Vancouver for one last stop at the Salmon Creek Brewery & Pub. The owner of the place (who carries a bat behind the bar) was very nice to us the first time we went in. So, we went back to have a beer before dinner and to say goodbye. We took a picture with her and her bat, and she asked us to send the picture to her when we get back into Los Angeles.

We had dinner at Salty's on the Columbia River, a beautiful restaurant with gorgeous views. Mary surprised me with a mini pre-birthday celebration. We had an amazing dinner and desert to conclude our final evening in Washington and Oregon. The evening came to an end shortly thereafter. We were both exhausted and drained, but neither one of us wanted the trip to end. We had some memorable moments, some amazing times in both states, and some very interesting adventures. We embarked on journeys neither one of us had ever thought or dreamt of doing, but like all good things, everything comes to an end.

The owner of the Salmon Creek Brewery & Pub was sad to see us go. We were walking out of the place when she said to us, "Keep loving each other." That's exactly what we'll do, whether we're in Washington, Oregon, or any of the other 48 states.