On a cool June morning we decided to celebrate Fathers day with a fly in to Joseph, OR. It is a small town in eastern Oregon and a great meeting point for Grandpa and Kami to meet us for Fathers Day. The area is beautiful. The Wallowa Lake sits just north of the Wallowa Mountains. Its known as Oregon’s “Little Switzerland” for good reason.
Its about a 2:30 flight from our home base of S50, but we have the whole day and great summer weather. We have checked ahead on Airnav and it says they have 2 crew cars. It we are not able to get a car, the plan is to walk into town; its a bit over a mile and no sidewalks, so not ideal, but doable if needed.
We land and taxi to the transient parking. Near the parking is an older double wide trailer which is the Airport “FBO.” On the wall, there are 2 lock boxes that house the keys to the 2 cars, one car was already taken, and we took the 2nd a Silver Mercury Cougar. The borrow fee is $10 for 2 hours. The Car reminds me of a high school beater, but you cant ask much from a loaner crew car except to get you to town and back.
We all fit with the car seat in the middle and we went into town for lunch. The “town” is just a main street with restaurants. shops and a general/hardware/sports store. Its a very cute main street with statues and beautiful flowers blooming in their planters. We find a great selection of kids cowboy boots at the Sports Corral and The Little Dude gets a new pair for his upcoming birthday.
We decide on Embers Brewhouse for lunch since they have a lovely out door seating area. We all ordered sandwiches and had a really great lunch. We then decided to drive around Wallowa lake. Well, you cant really drive around the whole lake, but you can drive to the Wallowa state park at the end. Right next door to the state park is the Wallowa Lake Resort. The resort looked really fun. They had a bunch of different types of accommodations and activities. There was even a gondola ride close by. We took note of all there was to do and hope to come back for an over night.
The only downside to crew cars is you get them such a short time. The normal courtesy period is 2 hours. So after lunch, some town strolling and a short drive to the end of the lake we are out of time. We did a quick stop on the way back to the airport to see Old Chief Josephs grave site and were back to the airport. The Wallowa Lake Resort and the main street area are all within 15 minutes of the airport.
We did stop to put some gas in the car, also a normal courtesy, and it was comical because we couldn’t figure out how to open the gas door! In Oregon, there are attendants and you do not pump your own gas. We tried to push the door, looked inside, checked the key, and nothing. I even asked the attendant if he knew hoping he recognized the car and had put gas in it before. But no luck. We were about to give up and just put a bit of extra money in the car donation box when we found the button. It was inside the center console!
Such a fun time having Grandpa and Kami meet us for Fathers Day in Joseph, OR. We hope to go back soon and stay at the resort, in the summer of course.
j
