Archive for August, 2012

Helping Daddy Run Too Far

Posted by julie on Monday, 20 August 2012, 0:04

Chris ran the Waldo 100K yesterday. It was more than 100K; you’ll have to ask him about it.

The kids and I supported him, but only a little. We really just wanted to get out of town and go swimming in a beautiful mountain lake. We succeeded.

We thought we might have missed Chris when we got to Charlton Lake, after some road construction and VERY slow trucks. Made it, though, with time to spare. I almost missed this photo, though.

Mostly cloudy, drizzly, with brightly-colored children

The Outdoor Program was out of rental kayaks and stand-up paddleboards on Friday, since the weather has been so utterly delectable. So, on a whim, I bought an inflatable kayak at REI. I hope it lives up to its great start. The kids and I took it to the island in the background, both kids inside and me pushing from behind.

By the time we'd found the Shadow Bay swim area on Waldo Lake and inflated the kayak, it was 80 degrees and sunny, perfect for boating or swimming in remarkably clear and cold water. This beach is great, because the water reached my chest only after I'd walked out 150 feet. Perfect for new paddlers.

Found this little amphibian swimming near shore

Had plenty of time at the finish line to ask repeatedly to ride the gondola, drink lemonade, eat veggie burgers, drink hot chocolate, and only watch about 15 runners come in (in 3 1/2 hours; 100Ks aren't really spectator sports)

"Who wears the pants in this relationship?" Or, perhaps, "How does he wear the pants?"

Posted in the categories Chris, Elena, Oregon, outdoors, Parents and Kids, Sylvan by julie on Monday, 20 August 2012, 0:04 | Comments Off on Helping Daddy Run Too Far

Beating the Heat

Posted by julie on Friday, 17 August 2012, 0:09

What a joke. It was supposed to be 100 degrees today; it turned out to be 93. When it was 90 yesterday, I said to someone, “It can’t be more than 85, right? It just doesn’t feel that hot.” That’s what two weeks on the east coast will get you. 80 degrees and humid there was, well, darn hot.

My squadron and I had a heat-beating plan in effect for today. After picking everbearing Albion strawberries in the morning (McKenzie River Farm still has lots of berries; go get your jam fixin’s), we headed upriver with our cooler of berries to the headwaters of the McKenzie: Clear Lake. Water doesn’t get any colder than that. We could barely wade in up to our knees before hopping out with numb legs. And the air temperature up there, at 3200 feet, certainly wasn’t in the 90s. Best of all, we didn’t even have to put on sunscreen, because both our wading spot and our picnic spot were shaded. It was lovely—not shivery and not sweaty.

 

"Mom, will you tell us a story?" I regaled them with memories from elementary school (I tried not to be too preachy; only some of my stories had morals).

 

Elena wanted to check out Fish Lake, 2 miles up the road. It was probably formed at the same time as Clear Lake, during a lava flow 3000 years ago that dammed them both. Fish Lake dries up every summer and becomes a meadow–a meadow where there are thumbprint-sized crawling frogs.

 

Posted in the categories Uncategorized by julie on Friday, 17 August 2012, 0:09 | 1 Comment »