Biking on Sauvie Island

Yesterday, after church, Justin and I explored Sauive Island, which is North of us, along the Willamette River.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect!  It was a sunny 75*/80* day with a constant light breeze.

As a side note…just after I posted my grumpy “Cold” post, it got really nice here   For the last week it has been sunny and high temperatures…just what I like!!  Does that mean I should complain more often? 

Our total millage for our bike ride was 32 miles!!  Can you believe that!?  I was pretty impressed with ourselves.  We followed a main car route all the way to Sauvie Island Bridge (10 miles each way) and then explored the island on a loop road (12 miles).

The Island was so beautiful!!  There were fields after fields of tree farms, hay, strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry patches and great views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.  One of our stops along the island was at a berry and pumpkin farm.  I had a yummy raspberry sundae and Justin had a root beer float!  At the end of the loop we found another GREAT farm that also holds concerts there every Thursday over the summer!  Which means…we’ll be back soon!

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Biking

Yesterday Justin and I went shopping for a vacuum and a bike for me.  We narrowed our vacuum search down to knowing that we wanted a Miele.  We had heard from lots of people that they were great vacuums and knew that Justin’s Mom has had hers for about 10 years.  In vacuum years that’s incredible!

We went to the Miele dealer and sure enough, they sucked…I mean didn’t suck   The man threw down all sorts of sand and rubbed in this nasty hair all over the rug and guess what?  I vacuumed it up, no problem.  I know, it was just on the surface but I even mashed it in with my heal and still i could get it up.  Miele’s different models have one color each.  Therefore, just by a glance you know what model it is.  Well, the model we liked was a 60′s powdery green/mint color.  Justin and I were turned off by the color at first but by the time it was loaded in the backseat of the car, it had grown on us already.  “It has character” we decided.

Later on that day, we shopped for a bike for me.  We picked a great location downtown where within a 5 block radius there were 6 bike shops!  Only in Portland. I was at first confused and unable to distinguish between the bikes I was trying out.  They all had all the qualities I had previously looked for in a bike.  The parts all worked fairly well and there was no rust.  I had never been asked “How does the seat feel?”  My answer was always, “It hurts!” Or “How does your seating position feel?”  It took me a while to really pay attention to how my body was fitting each bike.

After trying out a handful of bikes in a slew of different places we found one I felt most comfortable on.  I got a Gary Fisher black bike with thumb gear shifts, kick stand (I love kick stands…we had them put one on), drink holder, a neat little rack on the back and a new helmet.

The only way to bring the bike home was to have me ride it home because we didn’t have the bike rack with us.  So, Justin showed me the map on his phone and sent me off on my way.  Bad idea!  If any of you know me, you know that I can get lost anywhere!!  I’m surprised I don’t get lost in my own apartment sometimes.  So of course, like clockwork, I find myself lost!  Not only lost but on my way onto a highway!

I quickly call Justin and get directions again.  This happens several more times along my trip.  It was supposed to be a clear shot home, only 2-3 miles!  I obviously had some deep need for adventure and made my trip a whirly close to 6 mile trip.  I’m not sure exactly how long it was because I still don’t know where I was!  After being honked at and nearly run off the road on a non-bike friendly part of town, I arrived safely at home before reminding Justin again that directions are not my strong point!

That night Justin and I went out for a lovely dinner at a brew pub we had never been to before and got to bed early!

Today my butt is so sore I can’t sit down without a moan.  Although, I did get to see a lot of the city that I hadn’t explored before.  I could never get back to those places, but they were neat to see once.  I’m sure I’ll stumble across them again sometime.  On with the exploring.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom…and all Mom’s out there!  –As a side note, during our cross country trip, my Mom made me a slew of little raspberry pies.  After riding in the car for that long, you start not feeling like the regular old food that you brought along, so having those raspberry pies to munch on was great.  Who DOESN’T always feel like a raspberry pie?!  Yumm.   Thanks Mom!  Does she know me or what?

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