A Kayaking Adventure

One of my favorite Pacific Northwest adventures this month was kayaking on the Willamette River with my sister.

There were lots of things that made the adventure so enjoyable: the company was adventurous and funny (my sister is full of wit), the sky was blue, the sun was warm, the wind was cool, the river was full of poop.

Except really: the river was full of poop. It's just that it didn't add to the fun. The good news is human feces are no longer being pumped into the Willamette as the city is trying to clean up the river. The bad news is the geese seem to have taken it upon themselves to re-fill the river with poop. So if you go kayaking on the Willamette, just be sure not to swallow any of the water.

But aside from the geese poop, it was a glorious day.

I posted this picture on Instagram with a subtitle about the outset of our raging river kayak adventure, despite how very non-adventurous we look whilst sitting contentedly in our kayaks, on the dock:

"Joke's on us," my sister said as we laughed over the photo together. Don't worry, though: we did eventually try our hands at kayaking in the water.



But first, we enjoyed the view of the City. Portland sits on the edge of the Willamette, in all its artsy glory.

There was so much to see from our vantage point: the buildings, the bridges, the trees, the virtually-naked man sunbathing on the edge of the dock.

For your protection I have covered the naked man with a butterfly. I sure do wish he would have considered covering himself with a butterfly at the outset of his sunbathing experience.

Oh Portland, why are you so weird?

Once we had adjusted our kayaks to fit our bodies, we eased into the river and headed downstream.

We loved our kayaks. They were even named after us!

The first jaunt of our journey was a piece of cake: we cruised easily downstream in the spirit of Pocahontas. However, on the way back, we had the arduous task of kayaking up river, against the current, and into the wind. It was a meandering, tippy, strenuous affair void of painting with all the colors of the wind, but finally, we made it back to the dock where, thankfully, there was no longer a practically naked man sunbathing.

Life is just full of gracious gifts, isn't it?!


© by scj