The loss of the sunglasses, however, afforded me the opportunity to chat about kayaking with a couple of the guys working at Peak Sports while I tried on some new pairs. Apparently they had seen one other Greenland style paddle in the past 8 years. I attempted to demonstrate some greenland style kayak strokes inside the store (without a paddle), which really just resulted in an awkward solo dance.
Bridget and I stopped for a free slice of bread at Great Harvest before heading back to Bridget's house for showers/packing/lunch. We made a quick coffee run to a very hipster cafe, where we observed a man wearing leg-warmer-type leggings that started at his ankle and stopped just below the knee. Is this a thing? Spoiled by the 4 types of milk at Peet's coffee in Berkeley, I accidentally used an exorbitant amount of half-and-half, resulting in a rather unappetizing vat of iced half-and-half with coffee. Bridget and I sat in my car for another 30 minutes waiting for the rain to pass while we were on hold with the WA DOT ferry hotline to find out if having kayaks on our roofs would ramp up the cost of ferrying around the San Juans (it will, but only if it makes your car longer than 22' or taller than 7.5', yay!).
Kayaking Stats
Date: 7/22/2014
Distance: 2.3 miles
Duration: 2 hrs.......
Scroll past the map to see pictures of the rest of the <non-kayaking> day!
Day 4 continued! I arrived at Ju, Mike, and Simeon's house in Portland around 5pm. Ju and Mike both had busy days at work, so while I waited on their stoop I had a very productive planning call with Sara about our upcoming trip to the San Juan islands. We made the executive decision that having our own tents is fantastic, and that there is more than enough space in the car for this luxury. Mike arrived shortly after with Simeon (2-years-old and adorably bilingual). The last time I saw Simeon he was ~2 weeks old and had not yet acquired the dance moves, energy, and style that he has today. Juliette arrived shortly after (yay!) and we walked to a fusion/street-cart style Indian restaurant where I was impressed by Simeon's ability to tolerate some spicy food. Our dessert stomachs still empty, we made our next stop at a nearby ice cream shop. The walk home was punctuated by a painful-looking faceplant by Simeon. He could not be consoled by pointing out that he'd managed to save his ice cream cone in the process. At the house Simeon, Mike, and I played with Big Purple. He's a natural. We're planning to bring Big Purple with us to the Columbia River tomorrow night (where Mike and Ju store their boat) and take Simeon for a real ride in the kayak!: |
We wrapped up the evening with a dance show by Simeon and perusing Mike's fluvial restoration design drawings. Last week Mike wrapped up the design and construction of a fish passage project on Nettle Creek. | |