Friday, September 02, 2011
Central Oregon Redux
Last year, I went ALL BY MYSELF to Palisades Cove Park near Redmond, and to Smith Rock. This year, in order to find some warm summer weather, I thought I'd do it again, but bring people with me. Bob and Soren wanted to come. And we brought Stephen and Sam (fitting 3 teenage hulking monsters in the back of the car).
The good part is they kept each other entertained. The bad part is - stop poking me! He's hitting me! Get off, you idiot! Are we there yet? How much longer do I have to put up with these morons? Can we leave XXX by the side of the road and pick him up on the way home? All this is pretty entertaining, when they're not your kids and you don't have to be involved.
We had planned the trip so we would be able to kayak in the afternoon (2-6) when it would be hot, and the next day go rock climbing in the morning when it would be cool. This is a picture of the lake from the brochure made by the Marina.

The afternoon kayaking started out fine - but clouds started to gather. The wind picked up. The clouds got darker and darker. The wind got stronger and stronger. I turned around after about 90 minutes, but Bob and the boys didn't. (Apparently, they were just about 5 minutes behind me, though).
By the time I got back near the marina, it was really raining and blowing. I pulled into the dock, because there were significant waves, and thought I'd wait and then go on kayaking. But it kept being stormy, so I decided to just turn the kayak back in and wait for the others. Before I got out of the boat, here comes Soren. Brought in by the Sheriff.
What had he done now?
Soon, along comes another sheriff, bringing Bob. And the first one went back to get Sam and Stephen.
All of them had gotten to the park just upstream. The boys were standing on the dock, reveling in the storm. (but not going kayaking any more, too much wind). Bob had been blown out of his kayak (losing his hat!) and dumped into the water.
Much excitement. Stephen and Soren said it was the best part of the trip! Cool! Let's do it again!