750. Hood River, Hood River County (OR04)

I like the courthouse; it’s a nice Art Deco throwback.  It also showed me that I’m starting to get good at this entire courthouse thing.  I could just tell it was a throwback, but I didn’t have any legit proof.  It could have been older but well maintained.  Further research revealed that this one was built in 1953, so maybe it’s what the 1950s remembered about Art Deco?  Or perhaps it’s an architectural movement that the 1950s spawned that I’m not aware of (which is easy because I know almost nothing about architecture)?  Either way, I wish I had more to say about the courthouse, but that’s alright because it does the job and no doubt fulfills the needs of a town in the middle of nowhere.  The town was a bit hip, catering to all the windsurfers on the river.  According to some sources, Hood River has become the windsurfing capital of the world.  I’m not entirely sure it would outdo somewhere like Maui or the California Coast, but all the sails I saw on the water while crossing the bridge here lend some credence to the supposition.  But that’s neither here nor there as far as I’m concerned.  To paraphrase/butcher that Shakespeare guy, the cache is the thing.

And that thing was under a lamp skirt by a mural, the proverbial park and also grab.  Again, I questioned whether it could be considered a small, but the cache description had it down as a small, and that was good enough for me.  It is possible that it could be an issue later down the line.  While one of Oregon’s county challenges is cache agnostic, the other only takes physical caches that are small or larger, and reserves the right to decide whether a cache qualifies as that size.  Technically, I’m documenting my crime against the second challenge here, but victory requires no explanation.  Especially when it comes to cache business.  And my business here was done.  I was back on the road to continue my eastward trek towards the bridge I was being sent to after Stevenson, but first, I pulled off into…