Spring Break, April 2015

My Duck got a name, and other things in April ;'-)

Sally got a little wet and windblown

I have taken to adding a "head dress" atop my helmet, and for April I chose a duck. I had no name for it until I was stopped at the crosswalk during the ending of school and two young girls (maybe 14 year olds) admired my duck and asked its name. It doesn't have one I replied -- do you have one in mind? Without missing a beat the one girl loudly pronounced "Sally!". So -- Sally it became.

On the ride to meet up with Susan at her school to take off for Spring Break, Sally got caught in the wind and rain without a raincoat! She kept her good attititude and pleasant countenance.

It is so fun to see smiles and hear happy comments from people all along wherever I ride with whatever head dress I wear. I feel that I am spreading the joy, and who can be mean to someone with a duck on her head! And now Sally has been to High School...

Where we biked ... in the rain... to meet up with Susan

I was pleased to arrive to the van with hot tea and cookies waiting for me! And some pizza! There had been a sale of some sort at school and Susan thought of me. How nice. Well, she thought of both of us, but set these up early for my arrival.

We were soon on the road for a week of adventure. First leg was to drive to Yakima Canyon where Susan's Fly Fishing Club was hosting a fishing outing. Due to the rain, and now sun emerging, we were treated to a beautiful rainbow.

Rainbows make the rain worth it, said Sally

Arriving at the fishing area, we stopped at --- yes, yet another fly fishing shop. This one has a lodge attached to it. I immediately suggested checking to see if they had a room ;'-) available on this very (brrrr) cold and wet night. They did. We didn't take it right away, but drove to the campground where everyone was set up for the weekend. Once there, feeling the cold deep in our bones, we said hello to everyone, and good bye until tomorrow. We drove back to the lodge and were totally decadent in a beautiful, warm, dry, comfortable "condo" -- or so it seemed like.

A fireplace should warm up Sally quite nicely

Large kitchen and dining room, and two large bedrooms. Ahh, now THIS is fishing!

Our doorway to the outdoor pool and to the river

On our drive to the campground we came upon this...

Young, and/or female Big Horn Sheep

 

They were here every evening, and early mornings

Susan got to do quite a bit of fishing during the weekend, and a lot of fish stories around camp in the evening.

And I got to do my bicycling along the Canyon Road.

Blue sky, light traffic and wide shoulder. A cyclist's dream

Columns along the canyon wall

Well, not all of it was a dream -- I did have to climb that hill...

 

Roadside attraction

 

This tells its story, if a bit blurrily.

 

Yakima River

 

Babies -- it's April

Train tracks beside the river

I was able to bike both full days we were there, and Susan was successful in catching three fish!

It was time to move on to leg number two -- an overnight stop in Portland, OR.

We visited all the outdoors shops, the bike shop, the book store and any other place we did not want to miss.

In Nike World (we were not impressed)

Street food was abundant everywhere

Been here a while

 

Chinatown is no big thing in Portland

 

We did get an elephant photo in the park

Not much else for us in Portland, we traveled on to Eugene, OR. I love visiting the hippie town of Eugene. One task for us was to go to Bike Friday for some minor work and check over on our bikes. Then we would wander around town for a couple of days.

We stopped for lunch on the way to Eugen

 

We were sure to check our guns first

University of Oregon campus is a bicycling haven

THEN, on the way home, just a bit north of Eugene, we saw this...

On the lot at Camping World

I don't even know why we went to Camping World, but we left with this Camping Trailer.

Susan made sure he hooked it up correctly

 

We have parked it in Sarah's driveway and the grands needed some time in it

 

And grandma needed to spend a night with them in the trailer

The grands loved "camping" in their driveway with grandma, and were happy when the "bear" got scared away (Jeremy made growling noises as he was emptying the recycling bin).

We had a fine time over Spring break. And I had a fine whole month of April...

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