Sunriver -- Day 2

My post to Facebook and Google + (yes, I have a Google+ account already...) went a little something like this:

"We're going white water rafting today. If I don't make it back, will someone please water my plants?"

I'd never been white water rafting. The one time Justin had gone, he'd been thrown out of the boat and got trapped underneath. He managed to escape, though.

This was the story I had to on to get excited about going down rapids so fierce they were white. I wasn't too nervous about it, it's just not something I'd ever really thought about doing before. Also, I'm not much of a fan of natural sources of water. It's really the ocean that's terrifying, what with it being filled with sharks and whales that people assume are friendly. How many more "accidental" trainer tragedies will we hear about before people realize that whales are monstrous killing machines...they're basically sharks without rows and rows of razor sharp teeth! Come on!

Have I told you about the time I nearly hyperventilated while kayaking on Hood Canal? No? Well, you're in for a treat...I'll try to be quick.

Justin and I were on a mini trip to Hood Canal. We rented a kayak and were tooling around off shore, enjoying a picnic I'd packed. All the sudden, a cute little seal pops his head up near our boat. We enjoy his theatrics for a while, then Justin tossed the little guy a chip. Mr. Seal ate the chip with much rejoicing and soon returned for another. This time he was closer to the boat.

Suddenly, I panicked. What if this seal tried to beach itself on our kayak? Were seals mean? We were going to be out of chips soon.

Then...the real panic set in. WHALES EAT SEALS. Whales sometimes make their way into the canal. I had it on good authority...my cousin Connie had seen one while kayaking on the canal herself. I suddenly had visions of a whale breaching and crashing down on our piddly little kayak.

"TURN US AROUND. STOP FEEDING THAT DAMN SEAL. THAT SEAL IS GOING TO GET US KILLED," I yelled, quite out of the blue and quite to Justin's surprise. 

"What? What are you talking about, woman," responded Justin, as I started paddling with all my might. It was then I unloaded a bunch of babble trying to explain:

"Whales get into the canal. Whales eat seals. A whale could be stalking the seal as its prey and we just invited that seal to our boat. That whale is going to try to get the seal, it's going to break our kayak and then mistake us for a seal. GET PADDLING NOW!"

"No, you're being crazy," replied Justin. "Stop paddling, we're just going in circles."

It took some time, but I calmed down. I shooed away the seal, scolding it for being so thoughtless about its proximity to our boat, and said my prayers. Eventually our rental time ran out and we had to go back. However...I'd like to leave you with this little tidbit to ponder: A few weeks later that summer, I joined my cousins, the Millers, at their cabin on Hood Canal. On the trip home, the local radio station ran a story about how a baby whale washed up on shore just a few miles south of the Millers' cabin. 

Moral of the story? Don't feed seals from your kayak on Hood Canal. 

It's been a while since I made a pictorial for a story. This picture, in my mind, is accurate.

So, on day II of our Sunriver adventure, we all hopped in the tour bus and went white water rafting on the Deschutes River. Guess what...we had a blast! It was a lot of fun!! We went down a set of three rapids, Justin and Curtis jumped in for a swim and we had a great guide who assigned Justin and Curtis code names, at Curtis' suggestion. Curtis = Mad Dog. Justin = Tropic Thunder, or TT for short, as I liked to call him.  

Rapids.

It doesn't look that bad, does it? Impressed? You can be proud, but I wouldn't say impressed. This is a white water area from another part of the river. I don't think anyone goes down that part in a boat. At least you won't catch me on that part anytime soon.

Here are actual pictures of us, taken by a riverbank photog:

I'm in the back...with the floppy hat. Stop laughing...I had a wedding to be in in just a few days and had worked hard on perfecting the even-ness of my fake-and-burn color. That, and the intensity of a sunburn, I've learned, doubles, if not triples, when I'm on the water.

 Approaching the first set of rapids. 

 I was a strong force in the rear.
 

The guide? I'm sure she's back there...at least I didn't realize she'd fallen overboard at one point in the journey.

The boys got a pretty good soaking. 

The weather was perfect, we got to see the lava beds along the river bank, Justin lost both his chapstick and sunglasses...only the chapstick was recoverable...and we made it back in one piece. It was so much fun!

When we got back to the resort, Karen and I went to the spa for massages (thanks, Karen!) while the boys men went on an epic 20 mile mountain bike ride into Bend. Here are some pics from their ride:

Check out that lava work. I think it's so neat to think about how that all came out as molten rock...from a volcano...and made this landscape. It's beautiful!

We met the men and my parents at the Deschutes Brewery in Bend for dinner and drinks and then headed back to our abodes for the night.

Not all excitement is created equal.

Stay tuned for Day III.

So, that was an earthquake

I just felt my first earthquake. I definitely felt a jolt while sitting in my chair and soon realized what had happened when my co-workers all quickly tried to decide what we should do if it continued to shake.

Thankfully it was just a jolt, not continuous shaking.

You can rest assured, though, that Team Thompson has a disaster kit and an emergency plan in place should something horrible happen. My friend Heather and I decided to get 'er done a few weeks ago and hit up Costco for some emergency supplies.

Too bad the kit is at my house...22 miles away from my current location. Smooth. We can only hope that both Justin and I are at home if that time comes.

This is me with my disaster kit. Classy, right?

According to the USGS, this earthquake was just a 3.8 magnitude, centered near Pacifica. I know this because a while back I decided I needed to terrify myself daily, so I download the Earthquakes app on my iPhone...it lists all earthquakes all over the world and will alert me to earthquakes over any certain magnitude around any certain radius I choose.

The green pin notes the epicenter of today's earthquake.

I don't advise downloading this app. It's given me gray hair. It was a bad idea, especially since Jesus says, "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." (Matthew 6:34). That's one command I certainly struggle daily to remember!

One last note. Today is the 105th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake that registered at 7.9 on the Richter scale, destroying much of the city of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000. Here's an article from the Mercury News reporting that a group gathered today in San Fran to commemorate the anniversary and to hold a moment of silence for those suffering from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.