a midway bikelog

As mentioned in the last post, i spent a week or Oregon visiting my dad and stepmom, bringing the kids on their first visit to God’s Country (as the locals humbly call it).

It was a really fun trip. We ran on the beach, hiked the dunes, chased sanderlings in the surf and collected shells, and that just was the first day.

Sunday was the bike race in Eugene. It was a damp day in the mid-30s, and the girls were happy to have a nice warm gym to play in while i flailed away for 45 minutes. I had a lot of fun racing, and i was happy to change into warm pants and socks after 7 laps through the 33° creek.

The next day, we took a trip down the coast a bit to see the light house at Haceta Head and had a lovely hike there. On the way home, we stopped at Strawberry Hill and hiked down to the beach and saw a couple of dozen seals resting on the rocks just before sunset.

The rest of the week, we fished in the lake, visited great-grandma Connell (94 years!) a couple of times, visited old town Florence, watched river otters from the kitchen window, and on the last full day, a trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. That was a lot of fun. Fiona kept wanting to see the sharks, right up until we got to the shark tank, then she was ready to go back to the touching pool.

The flights out and back were mostly fine, just one fairly well-contained urping on the way out and a 2-hour sit for hydraulic repair on the way back, but the girls were good travelers overall. As soon as we were on the plane they were both asking to stay longer, and when we’d be going back. Soon, i hope, and longer next time, and in the summer.

Lots more pictures in the main photo gallery for the trip.