River Trip- Day 2 Life In The Shipping Lanes

As with most of these trips, perfect days turn into nights. Water levels change, coyotes howl and the winds pick up. Last night was no exception. Waves crashed on the beach all night. The wind blew constantly. And the water, that was so low when we arrived came up much higher thanks to the tides.

So, when you get a crummy night's sleep, what do you do? You get up at 6:15 am. What do boys do when there's no tv or video games? Build a fire and dig a hole!

it got even BIGGER before we left!

Waking up to cloudy skies was somewhat discouraging. But forecasts were for sunny skies and a high of 83. So when the wind picked up, we were encouraged that it was simply to help blow off the cloud cover and the the sun would be out before we knew it. Well, it was only sort of encouraging. The wind never died down and the sun didn't make an appearance until late in the afternoon. But that didn't discourage the boys. Despite a daytime high of only 73, they spent the majority of the day swimming and working on digging to China. (They thought it would be fun to see the Olympics in person.)

the mosquitos were pretty bad

The boys and I went to pick up Chris after work at the boat landing, braving both the wind and the whitecaps. The glass-like surface of the day before now seemed like the stuff of legends.

After supper, a large container ship passed by on the way to the port. The river became a churning mass of waves. Passing ships displace a large amount of water, pulling it away from the shore than sending it rushing back higher than before after it passes. This time was different. The water washed back in huge powerful breakers from three different directions, coming together in tall white towers crashing onto the pilings and sending tall towers of water into the air and washing high on the beach! It was amazing to watch! In fact it was so amazing that we failed to get any pictures. :o(

By evening, the wind had died down a bit and we had chocolate chip brownie s'mores by the campfire while whittling crude wooden utensils and watching the stars slowly disappear.

cloudy days make for beautiful sunsets