NW Summer - Life on the River

We arrived back from Mexico in late May – this year we were on the road and the ocean for 7 months. It was high time to enjoy our floating home on the Columbia. 
In late April, we closed up shop on our newly bottom painted Pura Vida, all buttoned up, left at the same dock with the same guy to watch over her @ Marina Mazatlán. We chose the 12 hour bus ride from Mazatlán, Sinaloa to Guaymas, Sonora from 9PM to 9AM, with 2 stops along the way for bus cleaning and military inspection, and thankfully a safe arrival in the AM – just in time to pick up our two large boxes of boat stuff from DHL (maybe the delivery van passed us on the highway?), then race off to the dentist.

Two weeks in Guaymas for Mike’s dental work, seeing friends and visiting our usual haunts, we headed north toward Oregon. Two more weeks of wandering later, we arrived in Portland, unpacked and did a high-5. 

After staying with three sets of friends on our way north who were all doing remodeling projects, their influence hit us, and we jumped immediately into doing some updating of our own. With the help of a neighbor, we found a place that offered a limited but excellent selection of stone. We are loving the white quartz countertops that truly brighten our kitchen and office spaces! And our interior walls now sport our selection of three bright cheerful colors. One update leads to another, so more changes ensued, all enhancements to our small but cherished 658 sq ft. 

We accomplished these changes in the flurry of exactly one month. That was amazing in itself, to find two vendors that quickly quoted, showed up and completed their work as planned! I’ll hasten to add that we were anything but slackers during that month. Then, it was time to kick back and enjoy. During the 4 days of interior painting, we were very fortunate to stay with friends.

While Mike power washed the house and deck and set up the patio, I immediately planted our garden. Now mid-July, we are already on Round 2 of lettuce, kale and arugula. It’s been great having the troughs for small space planting, and we purchased two more to replace rotted wooden barrels. Now I am painting flowers on the troughs to cover the company logos.

We hosted 10 neighbors on Memorial Day for a memorable happy hour party – seating a dozen people in our living room is a feat. Let’s just say we were cozy but it was still too chilly to be outside. It was a  great tribute to our buds here in the moorage.

In June, a highlight upon our return was the long planned 20-year reunion party for Stormwater Management, the company I worked at from 2004 – 6. Cal, Lanz and I started organizing the event in January. 50+ guests descended upon Cal’s house on the Willamette River. Everyone had a great time! It was so fun to see friends and coworkers and catch up on their lives.

I’m on a couple of committees for our floating home community - glad to be able to help. It’s a great moorage with plenty of thoughtful neighbors and, as with any neighborhood, there’s a cast of characters. We belong to the Tomahawk Island Yacht Club where we’ve made new friends. Although we only have a dinghy at our dock, other club members offer us boat rides to events. We always enjoy our time on the water whether kayaking, paddling or cruising in our dinghy.

400 yr old oak at Ridgefield Wildlife Sanctuary

We’ve also gone boating with a few friends – sailing and powerboats, slow and fast. Last weekend, we were even picked up at our dock for a fabulous day motoring on the Columbia and the Willamette.

Great outdoor concert with friends

Missing our girl already