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.

Comparison

So in just 2 days (yes, I program blogs to post in advance) the
watermelon pictured below nearly doubled in size.

Now we'll have a tennis ball to compare it to. The original is the
bigger of the 3 here.

Watermelon crawl...for real.

Remember this little guy?

 He was just an itty bitty little thing when we planted him.

When we came back from vacation, he had grown much.

 We were impressed.

Now, just 2 weeks later, he's grown and crawled and taken over the east end of the garden bed!

I even trimmed him up a bit so he couldn't choke out the sunflowers or lettuce.

Not only is he sprawling across the bed, he's busy making little watermelons. This one is about the size of a ping pong ball. 

If you live within the general vicinity, expect to find a watermelon with a bow on it on your front door step in a few weeks. There are a lot of watermelons on this vine.

Sunriver -- Day 1

We had a wonderful time on vacation in Oregon with the Thompsons as well as the Emersons who joined us for a few days in Bend.

Justin and I drove up to the Sunriver Resort on July 13 after I hit "send" on my newsletter at work. It took us all night, but the feeling you have when you're on vacation is fantastic, not matter how far away the destination may be.

We packed up everything but the kitchen sink.

One of the Buttes near Mt. Shasta in Northern California.  

Fire in the sky in Oregon, just beyond the border.

The Oregon scenery. I love all the colors the sun creates in this picture. Click picture for a larger image.

We stayed in one of the huge resort cabins with an awesome kitchen and every other amenity you may hope for. Plus, it was set back a ways from the busy resort area so it was more like a mountain lodge. We loved it!

 Lots of space and lots of windows. It was so fun to be in the same house with everyone instead of everyone parting ways to go to individual hotel rooms. Click picture for a larger image.

We hit the road running Thursday with a bike ride through the resort. We also stopped by the resort's nature museum and got lots of fresh air.

 

 Discussing route options -- many to choose from at Sunriver.

The Thompsons

 

The museum had lots of stuffed animals for us to say "hello" to during the tour. Say hello to Mr. Owl and Mr....well...we can't remember what this creature is. Ha!

Interest point #1 at the nature museum: one of the ponds surrounding an island that's home to one of the bald eagles. GO USA!

A grass land area that was once a lake scraped out as a result of the glaciers. This was one a popular cattle grazing ground. If I were a cow (well, I'd be a heifer), I'd want to graze here. Wouldn't you? Click picture for a larger image.

Justin and I could hear the Fred Meyer calling our name from Bend so we all took an afternoon drive into town to stock up on foods for the week. We enjoyed time on the deck in the evening, soaking up the (blinding...see exhibit A) sun.

Exhibit A. 

After dinner we headed back to the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory to visit the observatory and attend the star viewing program. I had done this once with my family years ago and have great memories from the night, so it was fun to go back. 

Picture from the observatory site.

There are several massive telescopes the staff points toward different night sky features, such as the moon, Saturn and Mars. There was also a slide show about meteors where we got to touch real chunks of rock/minerals from space.

Stay tuned for Day II.

Daily verse

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God
what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Phillipians 4-6.

--

It's so easy to fret over, well, anything, but it's important to come
back to this verse and be thankful for what Christ has done and will
do...whether or not we're fully aware of or understand what he has in
store for our lives.

We're told, after all, that those who trust in the Lord will renew
strength and will soar on wings like eagles.

And who doesn't find comfort in that?

Daily verse

Good message to remember:

SPIRIT: For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and
understanding. Proverbs 2:6

A day in Bend

More on our vacation soon, but here's one post to keep you entertained:

While Curtis and Lee headed out for a terrifying advanced mountain bike ride Saturday afternoon, Karen, Justin, my parents and I headed into Bend to see some of the sights.

We went to the top of Pilot Butte where you can see the the Deschutes River Valley and and the surrounding mountain peaks, including Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters, Broken Top and more, on a clear day.

 

Then we went to the downtown area where we took in Mirror Pond, an area on the Deschutes. It is, after all, the namesake of my husband's favorite brew!

 

Mom was so excited to be there, she couldn't keep her eyes open!

But the excitement was short-lived ;)

 A passerby made us giggle. It was probably something about the blinding whiteness of my legs.