Oregon City - Confluence

This is not a traditional travel post, but as we have been exploring Oregon City, one of the interesting things has been where it is in relation to everything else.

This is not a new concept to us. The way we got to Sherwood when we were kids versus the way we get to Sherwood now doesn't seem to have any logic in it, but we've been over the roads, that's how they are. Some of the roads are new, but with most of them it is just that they are better-paved and with more lights.

For years we have seen the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on our way to Clackamas Town Center. We had in our minds that Clackamas and Oregon City were close to each other. 

However, it was only when I was writing about Roake's that I realized we had entered into Milwaukie. I have thought of Milwaukie as somewhere between Portland and Gresham. Well, kind of, but not quite that way.

It was when we were looking over some maps and saw Maddax Woods listed that we were really surprised. Without ever thinking about it, when we walked over the Arch Bridge, we had gotten to West Linn. We were not far into West Linn, but we were there.

(We also learned that the stand was for watching a large heron rookery, which is less obvious when you are there at night in winter.)

When we went on the Willamette Jet Boat excursion, we knew that at one point on the river we were passing Lake Oswego on the one side, and that eventually we got to having Oregon City on the other side, but we did not know that it was Oak Grove facing Lake Oswego, and West Linn facing Oregon City. That actually feels a lot more logical than some of the things that the map shows us.

So part of what is interesting about this is how it relates to places we have visited, but even more so how it relates to things we have not seen yet, and how we can combine excursions efficiently.

I am not saying everything is a convenient walk, but we can still do a lot in a day.