Walk #12

For walk #12, the 6.5 mile North Portland/Sauvie Island loop, we had a guest!

Not Paul Bunyan, although we did see his statue and than talk about who he was.  Davan had a vague idea.  Lena, unsurprisingly, had no idea.

While having an extra person along changed the dynamics of the walk a bit (nothing bad, just a little different and much that was better), many things remained the same, such as a dash to any nearby play equipment.

Ranger really wanted to run after them, but she was stuck with me.

Swinging on anything and everything also remained the same.

There was a lot of giggling and, perhaps a little less book reading.

We still had snacks.  Davan and I had gotten bagels for breakfast on the way to pick up Lena and we took the leftovers on the walk.

While we were going through a neighborhood, this cat came running out to play with Ranger.  It was the craziest thing.  Usually they run from her, not to her.  And then, when they run to her, like Licorice sometimes does, they scratch her.  So, here comes this cat running out to say hi like her best friend has come by and I have no idea what Ranger is going to do.

Turn out, Ranger thought playing was an excellent idea.  They romped for a bit, as well as they could with Ranger on the leash, then we walked on.  The cat followed us for nearly two blocks.  We were a little worried, but she finally turned back.

A section of the walk was along an overlook down to the Willamette.  It's pretty, but also pretty industry filled.

At this playground, the girls were trying to touch the leaves when they were swinging.

Back along the overlook.

We got to where we were supposed to head down the bluff along a trail only to find that the trail was closed for repairs.  Bummer.  The walk had us go down that trail, along the water on Sauvie Island, then back through a busy street with nothing to look at to the MAX station to ride back to the starting point.  As Ranger can't go on the MAX, the plan had been for me to ride back alone, leaving the girls and Ranger to wait for me to get them in the car.  The closed trail changed that plan.


Instead, I jogged back to the car with Ranger while the girls meandered their way back slowly, got the car, came back for them, drove down to Sauvie Island and then we just did the waterfront part of the walk before getting back in the car and heading off.


It was cold down by the water.  The girls, as you can see, felt the need to huddle together for warmth.

Until they found something to climb on, that is.

This was a nice part of the walk with the water and the views.

Ranger enjoyed the views, too.

We found these stairs that were partially submerged in the water.

Ranger wasn't totally sure what to make of the small waves.

The girls, though, had no problem with the situation and decided that it made a great opportunity to play.

Ranger waited patiently during the long exploration of the submerged stairs and photo shoot.

I finally dragged them away to see what other wonders awaited us along the path.  It didn't take long at all to find a wall for cartwheels.

And then to find a path down to a beach area.

I let Ranger off leash for a bit there and she promptly found some fish parts left over from a fisherman cleaning his fish.  Lovely.

Plus many other interesting smells.

Meanwhile, the girls were checking out this large piece of driftwood.

Then it was time to head out.  We had places to be.  They girls wanted to go to open gym at Naydenov's, so we grabbed Subway sandwiches and headed to Vancouver for open gym.  I have no pictures of that session because I spent the time running out to Beaverton to get something out of storage for my step dad.  Sadly, the item wasn't there and it was a bit of a wasted trip.

After Naydenov's, we went to Ft Vancouver to try to fit in another walk, even though we hadn't actually planned it that way, just because it seemed like we'd have time.  However, we'd only just gotten out of the car and looked at the gardens (which I, apparently, didn't take any pictures of) when the sky opened up and started pouring on us.  We didn't have time to wait it out and then go and it was really raining much to hard to be at all enjoyable.  So, we gave up that idea and headed home.  I had Poekoelan in the evening and Davan and Lena had open workout at Do Jump.  I went over and took some video of them at open workout, but that will be another post.

This walk, while not being what we'd thought it was going to be, was a good one.  We enjoyed the neighborhood, which is the same neighborhood where Davan was doing her theater class.  There was a small downtown-ish area, which was nice.  The overlook was fun to walk along.  And much fun was had at the waterfront, obviously.