Today was a very hot day.  We spent part of the morning at Darin and Devon’s house, supervising the installation of their garden boxes. Living close to them means we can help with things like that. Thankfully their deck was in shade and there was a breeze. As the sun moved over the deck, I went inside and sat with the dogs in front of the fan. Dale left for a while and came back around 1:00 to take me for lunch. He came in the convertible and the black leather seats were almost too hot to sit on. After lunch we did a few chores and walked to the Farmers’ Market to buy some produce. Then we changed into our swimsuits and rode our bikes to the river.

There was nobody in the park when we rode through it, the playing fields were empty. However there were a few people walking on the trails and we could hear people splashing down in the river. We rode along the trail, away from downtown, hoping to find a spot on the river we could easily get to on our bikes. The river runs faster and has deeper parts further upstream as well.  It wasn’t long before we found a perfect spot.

A short, manageable trail led down to the river. There was a shady spot on the bank to park our bikes. And out in the river there was a spot about three feet deep where we could place our chairs.  A small log provided a perfect backing. There was a shallow part just upstream from us where the water ran cheerfully over the rocks. We wandered out, placed our chairs and sat down. It was heaven! We could feel our temperatures and our tempers returning to normal. The sound and the movement of the water over the shallows in front of us was as mesmerizing as a campfire. There were people a bit upstream from us but we couldn’t hear them. We slid down further in our chairs to get more of our bodies in the water. Later we abandoned the chairs and just sat in the river, up to our necks. Dale dunked his head in the water but I didn’t. My hair takes forever to dry, although maybe I should have, when it’s this hot it might not take so long!

It was so peaceful and enjoyable in our little spot. We watched as a mother loon herded her brood upstream. I wondered aloud what baby loons were called. It made sense to me that they were loonlings, like ducklings and goslings. The mother loon was quite unconcerned that her loonlings were swimming all over the river. We couldn’t hear any of her calls over the sound of the riffling water but she must have called them because several times they all popped up and swam over to her. We counted nine loonlings. Eventually they floated down the river past us. (A quick google search tells me that baby loons are called chicks and that a typical clutch is two or three eggs. But based on the pictures on the web, what we saw wasn’t a loon, it was probably a merganser, so never mind.)

After about an hour of sitting and chilling (literally!), we took our last dunks and pulled our chairs out of the water. We pushed our bikes up the path and rode home. I took a quick shower and Dale made fried egg sandwiches. Today was our first day riding down to the river to cool off, but it definitely won’t be our last.