Columbia River – Riveted

A Visit to the Nordic Tug Factory

Laura Domela — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 13:33:00 +0000

A couple months back while we were looking at boats and trying to zero in on which might be right for us, one of the things we did was get a tour of the Nordic Tug factory in Burlington, Washington. These are very well-made boats (as are the American Tugs, made in nearby LaConner, Washington — our runner up) and you couldn't go wrong with either boat. It was great to see the process, and we're very happy with our choice.

I didn't show you these earlier, because, well, it was a surprise (and we hadn't decided yet)!

Early on Tuesday morning we'll be heading north to close on the sale of our boat, and then starting right in with a few days of on-the-water training. We want to learn as much as we can (while there's someone right there to answer questions) before we strike out on our own (where we have to look things up on the internet).

After the 29th, we'll be having a few upgrades done to the boat, and once those are finished we'll probably explore the San Juans a little bit (if the weather's still decent) before bringing Airship back to Portland for some Columbia River time.

Morning at Cap Sante Marina, Anacortes:

I've already purchased a couple of the things from my Airship Decor post yesterday and I'm excited to see how they look on the boat. (I just want to be ON the boat already!) I'll wait to decide what else we want/need until after we've actually lived on the thing for a little bit. The boat is coming to us already outfitted with so many things we won't need to buy (fantastic!) but we know we're going to want to personalize the look and feel with our own bedding, throw pillows, towels, etc.

That pillow with the woodblock print of the giant octopus attacking the boat? Yeah. I got two of those.

Bike Ride Along the Columbia River

Laura Domela — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 21:44:30 +0000

We took our tandem out the other day and rode the path parallel to Marine Drive along the Columbia River. We only did about 10 miles, but it was a gorgeous 10 miles. (At home we have a shiny aluminum Santana Sovereign tandem that we sometimes ride…)

The nice thing about riding in the stoker position on a tandem (also known as "the back") is that I can whip out my camera (or iPhone, in this case) and take photos while pedaling.

There's an RV park out there that I know some of you have stayed at when in Portland, and if you go back and want a nice bike ride from the park, this is it. You'll even get the occasional great view of a huge plane flying overhead! (We saw a few hawks and herons, as well.)

We've decided to replace our Dahon folding bikes with some custom-made Bike Friday folding bikes that we test rode down in Eugene a couple weeks ago. We're going with the Bike Friday Silk … they are SO smooth (belt drive) and they ride much more like a regular full-size bicycle than our present folders do. We didn't skimp much on the Dahons when we bought them (seems we paid 600-700 bucks each for them about 5 or more years ago, using the $1000 I won on penny slots with $20 in Vegas). We get a lot of use out of them when we're on the road but they're a fairly basic folding bike.

The way we're outfitting the Bike Friday Silks is not at all basic. We're going totally high tech bike with vintage old school styling and they're gonna be SO cool. I'm going glossy white with darker leather saddle and accessories, and Kevin's going black with honey leather accessories. Here, I'll even be geeky enough to show you the super nerdy mood board I've been making while adding links to the "things I might want for my new bike" Pinterest board (which you can see here if you're into geeky stylish bike stuff):

I'm so happy to finally have found the bell that was on my bike in Holland, too!! The Crane sakura springy bell…this bell has the best tactile bell action! Remember when you were a kid, laying on the floor in your room, doinging that little thing behind the door that kept the door from hitting the wall…over and over again so it made that sound and you got to feel that springy action?

It's like that, only smaller. And it makes a nice clear "ding" sound to alert those on the path ahead of you. (I'm hoping I can limit myself to using it only when necessary so I don't drive Kevin insane OMG enough with the bell already!!!)

Crane Bell Co. makes these bells, and they come in spring versions and lever versions (but why bother with a boring lever, really?)

So there you go. Update on the Airstream's folding bikes!

Leaving Skamokawa

Laura Domela — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:08:24 +0000

Last night after dinner (clams!!) we went for a walk down on the beach. It's not a very long beach when the tide is high, so last night's walk was a little short. When we came back to the Airstream it had gotten dark enough for all the solar lights to come on so I snapped a few twilight photos with my iPhone.

I'm glad this area of the campground is dry camping. It's so beautiful and uncrowded. The rest of the campground is nice too, but over there you can't see the ships from your office like we can here.

We're leaving this morning and heading to Champoeg for the week.

More Ship Chasing in the Columbia River

Laura Domela — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 20:30:00 +0000

Kevin got some nice footage yesterday morning (with the large hexacopter and the Sony NEX 5N) of a ship on its way into Portland. The water was glassy and the light was great.

This is the Ansac Splendor, coming from Japan carrying (or picking up?) soda ash:

Our Festive Campsite at Skamokawa

Laura Domela — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 17:12:42 +0000

Here's our festive little campsite at Skamokawa. Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we made for breakfast one of her favorites (and ours): crab cake benedict (modified, on a bed of wilted spinach instead of an english muffin) with sliced apples and fresh orange juice. It was sunny and warm most of the day and in the afternoon I took my mom and her friend Judi out to the Two Islands Farmers Market on Puget Island. This is a great little farmers market and yesterday it was even busier and more populated than it was the first time we went. They have a great selection of veggies, fresh eggs and meats, baked goods, a guitar player, someone making hot pizza and some beer tasting. I came home with some wasabi peas, a small block of quince jam, a jar of fresh made caraway sauerkraut, and a small basket of raspberries.

We just hung out and visited (and watched ships) for the rest of the afternoon, and I made one of my mom's favorite recipes for dinner: Shrimp Longhi. We've had it at Longhi's restaurant in Maui, and thankfully they publish the recipe so we can continue to love it at home occasionally. Kevin did some asparagus on the Traeger and we popped open a bottle of champagne for the birthday toast.

After dinner: more campfire and more marshmallows. Kevin roasted one of his perfectly puffed marshmallows and we stuck it on top of a chocolate chip cookie and put a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to my mom. Well, we tried to sing happy birthday to my mom. The wind kept blowing out the candle so we kept pausing in the middle of the song to relight the candle.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday…

relight the candle

…to…

relight the candle

you. Happy…

relight the candle

…Birthday dear Betty. Hap…

relight the candle

…py Birthd…

relight the candle

…ay… to you.

Whew!! (We had to relight it one final time so she could blow it out, but we got it done.)

The sunsets the last two nights here have been so beautiful.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Ship Watching at Skamokawa

Laura Domela — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 13:52:05 +0000

We're meeting up with my mom and her friend Judi today out at Skamokawa Vista Park for some ship watching and some campfires! This is one of our favorite close-ish to home spots, and we're looking forward to it!

Columbia River Gorge Camping

Laura Domela — Wed, 29 May 2013 20:43:24 +0000

We're camping out in the Columbia River Gorge this week. We successfully installed our ProPride hitch yesterday afternoon (with only one trip to an auto parts store to get a couple of shorter bolts) and all seems solid there. The Airstream tows great and hitching and unhitching is fairly easy. I'm sure as we get even more familiar with it we'll be as fast or faster than we were with our old hitch.

It rained the whole way out here and just as we were getting parked it stopped, so I quick set up the tiki torches in case they're able to absorb some of this sunlight that's shining here for the moment. Our spot is super wooded and green and gorgeous, and I think the weather is only going to improve. Lucky us! I'll wait until I know for sure though before I put the chairs out so they don't just get immediately soaked.

Crossing the Bridge of the Gods in Stevenson, WA:

We're at Timberlake RV Park and Campground and so far, it's lovely. Good AT&T cell service and campground Wi-Fi.

Chasing Ships in the Columbia River with the Hexacopter

Laura Domela — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:44:56 +0000

Here are three of Kevin's "Chasing Ships" videos from out at Skamokawa, WA:

This is where he takes off from our campsite with the hexacopter and a Sony 5n camera and then heads out over the middle of the Columbia River and the hexacopter becomes a teeny tiny little dot (a dot that would be over $2K to replace at this point, were it to fall into the river). He's getting some gorgeous footage of these HUGE ships. He's flying through a video feed on the hexacopter that transmits into a pair of FPV googles (FPV, for first person view), while I play the role of the "spotter" trying to keep track of the little bugger as he gets further and further away. (Basically all this means is that I stand there saying "You're getting really faaaaarrrrr. You're just a tiny dot now. I can barely see you. You're gaining/losing altitude." Super helpful stuff, really.)

If you like these, his YouTube channel is here if you wanna check out more of his stuff.

Today’s Mish Mash of Events

Laura Domela — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:07:47 +0000

Here's what we did today.

We had breakfast (fresh farm eggs from the farm market yesterday on top of steamed spinach, bacon, and a sprinkle of pecorino). And here's another ship, of course:

We drove into Cathlamet to have lunch and stop by the market. Here's an osprey and nest on top of a bridge on the way:

Passion flower outside the cafe where we ate:

A cool little free library kiosk in Cathlamet:

Then we put on the wetsuits and dry jackets and went for a sail. We started out so calmly…meandering back through Steamboat Slough with just a little bit of wind in the sails, kickin' back quietly watching osprey, heron, eagle. And then, soon as we rounded the tip of that island all hell broke loose as we headed back to camp. HUGE swells, TONS of wind (around 18mph). The Hobie handled (and Kevin handled the Hobie) very well in all that craziness. See here where it looks like just a straight line back to the Airstream? Heh, yeah. It's a bit misleading.

Sure was fun though!

This afternoon’s sail track

Laura Domela — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:44:23 +0000

Distance:		16.6 miles
Elapsed Time:		3:34:31
Avg Speed:		4.6 mph
Max Speed:		8.7 mph

We made ourselves a little figure eight around Welsh Island and Tenasillahe Island this afternoon. Fun! We saw plenty of ospreys, several herons, and one very large bald eagle. This is the southern tip of Tenasillahe Island:

This little cabin is in Red Slough (the slough that divides the two islands, where there is basically nothing else…) Kevin and I always just call it the Deliverance Cabin: