Kayaking

Heat was oppressive over the weekend.  Broke record on Saturday - over 100.  Went kayaking on Sunday to try and escape.

We rented with Portland Kayak Company and took the afternoon Ross Island Tour.  There was a ton of boat traffic on the Willamette.  I tried to make the best of it and pretend that I was ocean kayaking over swells.  It was a fun outing.  Next time I go with Heidi we need to do the tandem so we're in the same boat, going the same speed.  She was lagging behind abit.  Also would like to work on my personal skills to do some whitewater and ocean kayaking myself... I could see this as a good hobby once we have more room to store stuff.

Everyone was a newbie so we got in the kayaks to get a feel for em on the dock.

Once in the water Heidi was looking good.

A little more peaceful down river away from the boaters.

Not bad for a first outing.  Done lots of canoeing, basically the same except a little closer to the water and even easier to tip over than a canoe.

Bicycling

Couple weeks ago I blogged about going to a class and building bike buckets.  I scanned the handouts into PDFs if you want to try building your own.  Get them here.

Also I dropped the mountain bike off to be worked on at Sellwood Cycles during the week.  In two weeks I have a weekend riding event in Oakridge.  No racing.  Just hanging out, riding trails, listening to music, drinking beer, and camping out.  Should be fun.  I'm pessimistic about them fixing the bike because it's been tried before, but I haven't seen them work yet and the owner is local pro mtn and cross bike racer Eric Tonkin.  The shop is pretty bare bones as they are mostly a repair shop and not a new bike retailer.  We shall see...

New House

We're in the process of looking to build a new house.  We love the location so we are planning to demolish this one and build another on top of it.  We've struggled with the rules and regulations and zoning around here... for example, we can't build a two car garage and the front door needs to physically be in front of the garage door.  With all the regulations we can't even find any housing plans on the market to use, we need to have custom ones made up.  We're in that process now...

July 4th Weekend

Going up to Seattle for pleasure for the first time.  I was up there a year ago for work but didn't see anything.  Heidi and I are taking the train up to Seattle this afternoon and are going to check out the town.

This time Heidi gets to be the tour guide since I was the Chicago tour guide.

I'm looking forward to the train ride and seeing the mountains, wildlife and Puget Sound.  I'm bringing the laptop so I should be able upload photo's and write abit.

That's all for now.

Later.