Thursday, August 9th
Our day began with texts from Elliot: “Make me a breakfast sammich!” Over egg sammiches, we made plans for the day to go to “the river,” a Portlander term for any river surrounding the city. After making friends with Grace and Benji, we followed them to the Washougal River just over the Washington border. We were on I-5 for just a few minutes before taking a state road that led to the dusty, gravel Forest Service roads. Grace led us to a spot perfect for swimming and catching some sun, a place where the current slowed around the rocks scattered throughout the middle of the river. Just upriver was a large swimming hole surrounded by rock faces perfect for jumping. The sun dipped below the surrounding mountains in the mid-afternoon, so we moved from our secluded spot to Dougan Falls, a more populated spot but one that had better sun. Dougan Falls was a series of short waterfalls that you could swim under, climb up, and play around. Unfortunately, it was nearing time for Benji to go to work, so the whole crew returned to the city to drop him off.
Back in Portland, we made a stop for some groceries for a quick dinner at sunset overlooking the Coast Range from a beautiful apartment that Grace was housesitting. After dinner, we retreated to the complex’s pool and hot tub. We expected the river water to be cold, but even though the pool was relatively warm, it felt cold to us and we stayed in the hot tub.
At Elliot and Brad’s, we caught up on the day’s Olympic events. It has been interesting watching the Olympics while traveling; each day that we are able to hear Olympics news it is biased by our location. While driving through Canada we were listening to results of Canadian athletes, and we listened to some of the controversial Olympics moments involving Canadian teams. The Canadian badminton team (Bruce-Li, Michelle Bruce and Alexandra Li) was thrust into the international spotlight after a host of other teams were disqualified, while the Canadian women’s soccer team lost their semi-final to the US by a questioned call to the ref. Once we crossed the border these stories were never focused upon again, and this evening in particular the big story was that the US team had 40 athletes with Oregon ties (including Ashton Eaton, who had just won the gold in the decathlon). Overall, we haven’t been able to keep up with the Olympics as much as we would’ve liked, but the local flavor definitely has made it more interesting when we are able.
At Elliot and Brad’s, we caught up on the day’s Olympic events. It has been interesting watching the Olympics while traveling; each day that we are able to hear Olympics news it is biased by our location. While driving through Canada we were listening to results of Canadian athletes, and we listened to some of the controversial Olympics moments involving Canadian teams. The Canadian badminton team (Bruce-Li, Michelle Bruce and Alexandra Li) was thrust into the international spotlight after a host of other teams were disqualified, while the Canadian women’s soccer team lost their semi-final to the US by a questioned call to the ref. Once we crossed the border these stories were never focused upon again, and this evening in particular the big story was that the US team had 40 athletes with Oregon ties (including Ashton Eaton, who had just won the gold in the decathlon). Overall, we haven’t been able to keep up with the Olympics as much as we would’ve liked, but the local flavor definitely has made it more interesting when we are able.
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