Anniversary Canoe Trip

Sunday the First was the day that Mark and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.   I can hardly believe that we've been together seventeen years.  I'm not even sure what that is in Gay Years.  We planned to eat dinner at the Local Nice Restaurant, and I suggested that we go for a morning's canoeing on a canal off of the Willamette.

The Child declined to join us on the canoe trip.  The last time we went canoeing on the canal was about three years ago.  This time it was just Mark (navigating in the back)  and me (rowing in the front); if I had been thinking ahead, I would have brought a picnic.  We started a little north of Alten-Baker Park in the Autzen Canal, followed it past the stadium and dog-park, past the Cuthbert Amphitheater, and continued along to the Patterson Slough.  At first, there were two osprey in the sky; one had a fish in its talons.   When we floated under bridges, we saw where swallows had plastered their adobe nests to the underside. 

There are many large mansions along the shore where the canal meets the slough.  I think Mark's favorite yard had the two fake coyotes glaring out over the water.  We couldn't decide if they were supposed to scare the geese (no goose poop here) or intimidate the raccoons or nutria.    

As we paddled upstream, we passed groups of ducks standing on their heads and geese preening on logs.   We had to port the canoe in two places, but managed to float underneath I-5 -- where there's a cool mural of canoeing Native Americans -- and all the way to the gate separating the slough from the Willamette.  We caught a quick sight of a heron before it flew up stream and out of sight.  

Floating back was nice (well, okay, there was that one probable meth-user under a bridge who was so obviously drug impaired that he couldn't figure out how to take off his shirt); I got to turn around and actually look at my husband as the lilies, maples, pines, and grasses passed by.  Small jeweled dragonflies like sapphires and emeralds flew along side us, and sometimes larger ones with clear windows in the middle of their wings.  

We saw more and more people on or along the water as we went on; in some ways it was too bad that the canoe rental doesn't start until 11 AM, because it would have been nice to be on the water during the cooler part of the day and have the it more to ourselves.  On the plus side, we saw three dogs with their owners on paddle-boards; so that was cool.