Messing About on Rapture

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. (Wind in the Willows)

Last Friday was the day to begin our summer boating adventure: 26 days at the Portland Waterfront. We spend an extra 22 days down there all because we want to spend four days at the 4th of July Waterfront Blues Festival, but to get a spot at the public dock, it requires getting there a little early (like 22 days!). Since the cruise from our moorage on the Columbia River to the Willamette takes about 2-1/2 hours, we thought it would be fun to invite some friends to join us. Tory and Norm were available on short notice and are avid boaters themselves, so they joined us for the day. Tory came with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for us. . . .


. . . and one of her newly created charms! You can read about Tory's latest creation here (and you can read about the boat trip from Tory's eyes here).


We had a leisurely cruise down the river, even taking time for a diversion down the Multnomah Channel to see the new Sauvie's Island bridge.




Tory and I saw the cutest little floating cottages and we were calling dibs on which one we wanted for our studios.


I chose the pink one!


Tory and Norm were great to have along, but they needed to get back to Salem so Howard whipped them across the river in the dingy to a waiting car.


We spent the first two nights at the public dock on the Eastside Esplanade; it was a tad noisy, but a great jumping off point for downtown Portland. We BBQ'ed our first night: salmon for Howard and a portabella mushroom for me.





We went for a Saturday morning bike ride and some sightseeing along the Eastside Esplanade, crossing over the Hawthorne Bridge to the Westside Waterfront.





On Saturday afternoon, we had our own personal Portland Fire Boat show.




Howard has been helping our son-in-law Mike coach grandson Jackson's Little League team. Well, since Mike and family are out of town on vacation, Howard did the coaching. So onto his bike he went for the evening game.



On Sunday, we spent a lot of time just putzing around the Portland Waterfront (actually, we were waiting to get Rapture into her home berth for the Blues Festival). The Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat races were going on over the weekend, so there was lots to see.





We met up with fellow boaters Al and Kristi of the Viking Star and Dave and Susan of Winema to plan our strategy for moving into our places as soon as the Dragon boats departed!


Cruising down the Willamette River toward our spot at the Waterfront.



Helping Mike and Laura nestle their boat, Classic Lady, in front of ours.


We are all locked into place and ready to relax. But wait, two of our grandkids arrived on Sunday evening . . . . relaxing will begin on Wednesday!