wildflowers, kiteboarders, sandcastles, ice cream

As a nearly lifelong Oregonian, I have been amazed in the last few weeks about local adventures I'm discovering for the first time. With just over a week left of workday freedom, we jumped in the car yesterday morning to head for Tom McCall Wildflower Preserve, a place I had heard about but have never been. Apparently it is most beautiful in the early Spring, and even though we could see the brown flowers and plants that used to be in bloom, early July was definitely not a disappointment.

When I told Lucy in the morning we were going on a hiking adventure, her eyes got wide: "I have to pack my bag!" She started packing her picnic basket but I suggested a backpack might be more comfortable, so she packed her little blue backpack instead, and throughout the actual trip she kept pulling out useful items: Oddie and her pacifier for napping in the car, her water bottle when she got thirsty. It's a small backpack, but I was pretty impressed with her packing foresight.

So we drove through Mosier (population: 430) and into the winding hills, passing signs for U-pick cherries and loaded up cherry trees. At the top we got to Rowena Crest with a beautiful view of the gorge and the mountains, plenty of wind, and two trailheads. We chose the plateau hike and headed out through a narrow trail among the remaining purple wildflowers, past a canyon and a marsh. When we found some shade, we set up our picnic with peanut butter and jelly (or sunbutter and honey) sandwiches, carrots, cheese, and pistachios, and we ate while Oscar napped. (Lucy, with her arms outstretched: "I'm inviting the whole world to our picnic!") Then Oscar ate while Lucy built a tent with his blanket.

We finished the trail and looked out over the Columbia river, then turned around and hiked back. I told Lucy she was doing an amazing job using her muscles, but she was too tired for compliments, so she said: "I'm not amazing. I'm just a tired skunk."

The tired skunk was all set for napping in the car on the way home, but we had another surprise in mind: the small beach at Hood River. When we asked her if she'd rather go swimming or go home, she hesitated, but when I told her there would be sand there was no question. "I love the beach!" Our first location attempt was thwarted by hundreds of kiteboarders, clearly alerted to the excellent wind conditions by some secret underground network, and turning up in droves even though it was a Monday. We slinked off to a side beach, but it was really a collection of rocks and broken glass. Lucy was undeterred and we were all ready to make a go of it anyway when a passing surf paddler asked us if we knew about the kids swimming beach about a quarter mile down the road.

We did not! But now we do, and we will go back often, because it is amazing. Lots of sand, a roped off cove for wading and swimming, and a park at the top with the most amazing park equipment I've ever seen in one place, including two rock-climbing walls, a bridge and tunnel, real drums made out of pipes, and a gigantic wooden xylophone.

We played on the beach for an hour, then decided we were having too much fun to leave before rush hour, so we should probably just stay for dinner as well. I hadn't brought a change of clothes for myself, so I dug around in our trunk and found some clothes slated for donation that hadn't quite made it there yet. I put them on and remembered why I was giving them away. But with my new trunk clothes I was able to sit in the sand and water and play with Lucy and get all dirtied up.

While we played, Oscar slept, ate, and sucked on his fingers. Way to go finding those fingers, Oscar!

Eventually we made our way up to the awesome park I mentioned, where Lucy tried out each of the offerings in turn. Then she discovered this thing:

After that, nothing else held any appeal. It was some kind of spinning off-kilter rope and and metal contraption for creating delight. And it worked! Sheer delight. And tired mom and dad muscles from pushing.

We ended the day with a trip to New York City Subs (highly recommended if you're in Hood River) and a trip to Mike's Ice Cream shop, then we headed back home. It was close to bed time so to discourage Lucy from taking a nap we spent the hour-long drive reciting all the poems we could think of and playing a modified game of "I spy" which involves me saying something like: "I spy . . . a yellow sign," and Lucy replying, "I spy a yellow sign!" and so on.

And with Oscar waking up 10 minutes before we reached our final destination, as usual. 

Family road trips! The best.

summer lovin'

And more maternity leave adventures! (Despite the post title, both of these things technically took place while it was still Spring.)

Swimming! Lucy loves it. And Nana got her a new life jacket that doesn't go around your neck, so now she likes to wear it all the time and uses it to "swim" in the deeper water where she can't touch. And the water slide! The Portland Parks department really has their stuff together.

Hiking and picnicking at Powell Butte Park. This is a 600-acre park on the outskirts of Portland surrounding a cinder cone. The park is covered with tall trees that make great shade; at first we had a bit of trouble finding a place that wasn't too cold to put down our picnic blanket. (We were planning a picnic at the top, but some of us were too hungry to wait by the time we got there.) After the picnic we thought we'd just hike up a bit of the way until Lu got tired, but some people on the way down mentioned horses at the top, and that plus mud-stomping along the way (she said she was doing it for the next people, so they wouldn't have to step in the mud) kept her energy up all the way to the top.

At the top is a meadow full of wildflowers ("more flowers than I ever dreamed of") where you can supposedly see three mountains at once; unfortunately that part is under construction right now so our lovely hike through the woods ended at the top with huge construction vehicles marching by. We had to stop to feed Oscar, and there at the top we heard his first gurgled laugh. Hooray! Lucy then started making faces to try to make him laugh again, while he looked on adoringly.

The sun was hot up at the top, and Lucy was by turns brave and frightened of the loud truck noises, and since the hike ran into naptime she was beginning to melt down by the time we turned around to go back down.

Luckily down is much faster than up, and we met some horses on the way that we had been looking for at the top, which gave Lucy a much-needed second wind.

gone fishin'

Is there something about the nice weather that makes me want to end my post titles in apostrophes? When summer is beautiful, who can be bothered to finish a gerund?

We continued our stretch of weekday summer adventures with boat fishing at Hagg Lake. Oscar managed his first stretch in a lifejacket and on a boat well, the same way he handle most things. Nana was a champ; as usual, doling out grandma love and snuggles with a lap and two arms.

The water was cold enough to make you take a few seconds to catch her breath, and though Lucy initiated the jumping in, when she did it herself she wasn't a fan. Titi, though, who generally avoids cold water in the bathtub, was having a ball.

There was a dearth of fish and therefore also a dearth of fish pictures, but Shaggy found an abandoned rope swing so the day and the sun were fully used.

We also still managed a minor fish fry with the yellow perch we caught. The adults were judicious, making sure there was enough to go around, but when Lucy came to the table she immediately grabbed a handful of the cornmeal crusted bites for her plate, she definitely has radar for the best food on the table.

We are going to have to get that girl a fishing pole.