World's shortest river

As you drive south on Highway 101 in north Lincoln City, Oregon, a bridge sign proclaims the creek you're driving over is the world's shortest river. It empties Devil's Lake to the east into the Pacific Ocean to the west. The water way is maybe a hundred feet or so long and only a few feet wide at its widest point.

As a kid, I remember wading in the D River on the ocean side of the bridge. Though it's not very deep at that point, the water seems to be rushing out. Even today, I usually cross the D River where it's much slower and only a couple of inches deep.

I wonder what possessed people to call this stream a river, When I think of rivers, I think of the Mississippi, the Nile or the Pacific Northwest's own Columbia, which starts in Canada and divides Oregon and Washington on its journey to the sea.

Maybe it's called a river as a publicity stunt by coastal fathers. Just like some Montanans who cleaned up an old ditch, some 70 feet long, and then proclaimed it as the world's shortest river. Whatever. But the D River has held the title longer than the Montana water way.

Hood Park in Burbank, Washington

RV camping at Hood Park.

We're always looking for new places to ride our motor scooters to, and yesterday we found one: Hood Park. It's a place we've driven by many times on our way to Walla Walla or, if we turn left just after the Snake River Bridge, to Dayton for annual car shows.

Hood Park is a beautiful park on the shores of Lake Wallula (Snake River). It has giant shade trees and a wonderful sites for RV and tent camping. We were amazed to find a majority of the camp sites filled on a weekday. The park must be more well known than we thought.

While we just rode our scooters through the park yesterday, I want to go back and walk the nature trails. The park borders the McNary Wildlife Refuge.

You can read more about Hood Park here.

River of Fire

Fireworks along the Columbia River

Every Fourth of July the Columbia River in our area turns into the River of Fire. That's the name given to the annual fireworks show which has been taking place for 25 years now. The fireworks are generally set off from a barge in the river near Columbia Park in Kennewick.

When we're not on a camping trip to the Little Naches area in Wenatchee National Forest, we usually go to the fireworks display when starts when it's dark enough, usually about 10 p.m.  We usually like to watch from atop the hill at Canal Drive in Kennewick. Not only can you see these fireworks from this vantage point, but we also can see the fireworks at TRAC across the river in Pasco, as well as fireworks set off throughout the Pasco area by residents.

The main display usually lasts about 20 minutes, with the sky erupting into colorful streaks of fire, one right after the other.