Bend is the hottest Pacific Northwest city right now.

At least that's what I overheard one jogger say to another.  I haven't been to any others I can think of, so I'll buy it.

Anyhoo, yesterday Chuck did a mt. bike ride, so the boys & I took Ellie to the park.  They have several parks next to the river (on both sides) and they're connected by trails, so I think technically we took her to two parks.  One of them had an off-leash park which she played in for a few minutes.  Then we noticed there was an off-leash area on the river, so we went there.  There was only one other dog there, another Golden who wasn't really swimming.

Ellie is not in this pic, but there were a lot more dogs retrieving things today!

It wasn't a beach, it was a bunch of rocks (see above).  She eased herself in immediately (for those of you who don't know, Ellie doesn't jump into water like normal dogs) and started swimming off downriver.  Well, I wasn't really dressed for going in after her, so I started calling her back.  She was just doggy paddling away against the current and finally came out so I hooked the leash on her and got out of there fast!

Today we went back to the river (sans Ellie) to do some floatin'.  Chuck & Zack decided they wanted to do standup paddleboards and Ben & I rented tubes.  We had to split up because they want the paddleboarders to go upriver first and then back.  People float on all kinds of stuff here.  I saw more than one air mattress, which probably would've been pretty comfy.

Pretty sure he chose this so as not to have to get in the cold, cold water

Chillaxin'

There is a spillway in the river that you have to get out and go around or you might die.  I was definitely worried about getting us out.  Especially since the last time Ben was on a tube in a river with his friend Hudson, they missed the take out spot and had to be rescued (thanks again, John Rigsbee!) So, even before we reached the warning buoys, I started paddling as hard as I could to the left.  After 3 boys literally ran across in front of us, I realized the water was about a foot deep.  We kept ending up in the vegetation (I didn't mean us to be THAT far left), so I would jump off and walk us over.  Well, Ben got stuck on a log and we got separated just before the take out, so I jumped off my tube and went in up to my hat before I grabbed onto my tube!  How did it get so deep all of a sudden? I then had to swim back holding my tube to free him and then swim all the way to the takeout spot.  Did I mention the water was really, really cold?

Certain death