White Shepherd Stories

Happy Birthday Journey - One year old today!

Birthday swim party.                                                        Journey, Quest & Pirate

Skamokawa Camping Trip

 

 Quest, Pirate & Journey

We spent a few days at one of our favorite river camping spots, about a week ago. Skamokawa is close to home and such a nice place to enjoy the outdoors and the Columbia River.   My daughter and her husband were staying a week.  They invited us to join them and I decided to go for a few days.  

Kevin's daughter, Larra recently graduated from Columbia Law School in New York, and then she took the Bar exam in July.   She won't know the results for a while, but we already know she did well.  It seems to be impossible for her to do anything that is not first rate.  She and her husband came back to Portland for a well earned vacation.   

They were all staying in my daughter and her husband's new Air Stream.  My dogs and I had the spot next door to them, and we were camping in our RV.  It is a 21' Coachmen. We travel a lot in our RV.  I could never do all the things that we do if I did not have it.  It is our home away from home.  For those who are not familiar with RV's, ours is called a C- Class.  (Don't ask me what that stands for.)  It is just the right size for us and I would not want one any larger.  It is relatively easy to drive and park.  It has a double bed in the back; a bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet.  It has a hanging closet, a small pantry; and a kitchen area.  The kitchen is equipped with a double, stainless sink, a microwave, several cabinets for dishes, pots and pans. There is a drawer for utensils and a spice rack.  It has a three burner propane stove with an oven.  A hot water tank provides plenty of water for showers, and  dish washing..  We also have a good sized refrigerator that operates on either electricity or propane. The freezer even keeps ice cream nicely.. There is a dinnette that converts to a large single or cozy double bed.  There are about four roomy cabinets over the table and the extra little bench.  In front of that is the truck cab.  Above the cab is a Queen size bed with some storage, reading lights and windows on the front and either end.  The manual says it will sleep six.

We have had our RV since 2000.  It is a lot of fun.  I keep it stocked with everything but perishables and that makes it easy to get away with very little notice.  

  

Our campground at Skamokawa is sand and grass.  The table has a covered wind break which would be great if it rained.  For this trip it helped shelter us from the sun.   

My daughter, Laura

We spend most of our time over at my daughter's campsite.  She is an excellent cook and with her husband, Kevin's help on the Traeger Wood Pellet grill, they do an incredible job. Our dinner on the first night was soooo good!

Pizza waiting to go on the barbecue

Traeger grill

"Boy, that smells good.  I hope they let us have some."

Laura made three different types of pizza and Kevin cooked them on the grill stone in the Traeger.  It was hard to choose a favorite, but I think it may have been the one with mozzarella cheese, chicken/apple Italian sausage,  sliced apples, pine nuts and fresh basil.  

 Kevin & Laura's daughter, Larra

One of the most interesting things about Skamokawa is watching the ships pass by on their way to Portland, or out to sea.   They pass almost silently and it is always a little bit of a shock to look up and see something that large passing by so close, without any warning.  The one in the following picture is carrying Honda automobiles, on it's way to Portland.  

They come so close to shore we need to be very alert if we are on the little sailboat, or if the dogs are in the water.  I only let them go in if I am down at the edge of the river watching for any river traffic.  The ships can look so far away, but it is deceptive and they move much faster than it appears.  They pull a tremendous amount of water as they pass. We normally check the river traffic schedule when we are sailing.  

This picture is from the Hobie brochure and I think it may be smaller than the one Kevin & Laura have. I don't see the second seat or the net between the outriggers.  Anyway, it is a lot of fun to sail.

The trimaran seats two.  It is a wonderful sailing boat , but if by chance there is not enough wind, (it does not take much to move it) there is always the option of pedals. Both sailers can pedal and it is surprising how easy it is and how fast you can go.  

We spend our days taking turns sailing, going for hikes and just sitting around camp.

  Quest

Pirate 

Journey

Quest

Laura and Larra at table.  Journey & Pirate with Quest in back watching the river.

Skamokawa is on the Washington side of the Columbia river.  The river is the state line. In the photo above you can see the mountains of the coastal range , in Oregon.  Below is a large lawn area in the campground, that is rather dry right now.  Summer is finally here. This is about as dry as it gets.  The rest of the year it is very green.  

Happy Hour!

Fresh salmon ready for the grill.

Dinner was wonderful as usual.  I made a diced avacado & orange salad, sprinkled with grated blue cheese.  Dessert?  what else ... marshmallows toasted over the campfire.  All three of the dogs love them.  

 "Look at the ship!"   Pirate, Journey & Quest

Headed out to sea, following the sun.  

Such a nice few days.  My photograph highlight was when I gave Pirate a cookie and he took it in his mouth and stepped up on the dinnette bench, where he placed the cookie on the table to eat it.  He is quite civilized, even when camping.  

It was a beautiful drive home, along the river.  Next was the countdown - wash three dogs; repack the RV and refill the dog food tote, the water tank, etc.  One day until we leave for the UKC Dog Show in Madras, Oregon. 

If you would like to see more pictures of this camping trip or others, my daughter's blog site is http://www.riveted-blog.com/   Be warned though, if you are on a diet, get a grip on your willpower as her pictures of the food are amazing.  

The Swimming Team

All three of my boys are super swimmers now.  It did not take long for Journey to figure it out.  He started in, a step at a time.  I let him work into it himself until he was on the last step.  At that point I took a hold of his collar and just pulled slightly ... and then suddently he was swimming.   

At first he just did little semi-circles.  He passed toys on his way, but seemed to prefer to keep all his concentration on just swimming for the first couple circles.   Then I sat down and just let him handle it.   Sure enough, within a minute he was walking down the stairs and into the water all on his own.  He kept venturing out further from the stairs each time and it was easy to see he was really enjoying it.   

"I can hardly believe I did that!"

Both Quest and Pirate nuzzled Journey when he came out to catch his breath. while he just seemed to think about it for a minute.  We all watched him and then he went back in the pool as if he had always been doing it.    

Next I threw some toys in the water for him.  I had to throw a few at a time so Pirate could stay busy and give Journey a chance to get a toy.   Journey did not care which toy he got. Pirate is sometimes bossy and takes toys away  from Journey unless I get after him.   He is funny though.  He always gives Journey another toy - one that he wants Journey to have.  This time I think he understood that he needed to let Journey work too.  

 Journey warming up.

"OMG I got it"

Journey's first retrieve.

One of the cutest things was watching Journey learn to navigate in the water which is a little different than on land.   I saw him begin to use his back legs and tail, like rudders, when he wanted to turn.   As he is first learning it is very exaggerated.   It has been a few years since Pirate learned and I don't even remember when Quest learned, except that he learned in the ocean.   I have always thought about using an underwater camera and getting shots of their legs moving under the water.  It looks so pretty.  I remember enjoying the underwater shots of The Black Stallion swimming, in the  movie.  It was gorgeous.

Excellent turn employing left leg rudder.

"Maybe mom will throw this Jolly Ball for me before Pirate sees that I took it."

"Oh no, here comes Pirate"

'Quest the Lifeguard' (watching the kids in the pool, just as Spirit taught him)

 I noticed that when Pirate would swim up along side of Journey, Journey's normally smooth strokes changed to almost a bucking motion.  About the only way I can describe it is that it looked as if he was galloping in the water.    I realized that he did this when he was attempting to race.   It was actually a galloping type stroke.  It reminds me of the Butterfly stroke.  Of course he is not moving both front legs together, but he is using tremendous effort to move out.   I don't know if it increases his speed or not, but it is not for lack of trying.  

Quest is a very smooth and powerful swimmer.   He used to match me lap for lap, swimming alongside me.   By the time we moved here Spirit was a little older and he did not swim as fast as Quest.  Both of them liked having me swim with them.  Pirate is the star.  He is very fast and adding to that, he dives from the edge.  I had taught both Spirit and Quest to use the stairs to enter the pool.  (I wanted to be certain they knew where to get out, in case of a problem)    I think Journey will be diving shortly.  He seems to be impatient as he heads for the stairs to enter the pool.  

Quest, Pirate & Journey

 Pirate has devised a new game.  He sometimes throws a toy in the pool and then dives after it.  Now he has begun throwing a toy in the pool and watching Journey get it.  The cutest part is that Journey then returns the toy to Pirate.  Well I guess why not, Pirate is the one who threw it!

Journey - looking so grown up!