Last week, The Barry arrived and we exercised our typical influence on the weather, guaranteeing that any plans we made would be annihilated by meteorological nastiness. The up side of this has always been that we get to do a lot more sitting around at trailheads in the van, drinking beer, and talking about other times that we almost did something cool. We also re-proved our axiom that the random trip is usually better than the planned when when, in an effort to drive all the way BACK across Oregon, we stopped at Angel Creek and got to hike into some of the prettiest scenery I've seen since I've been here. They were releasing salmon from the fish hatchery and we hiked upstream until even the heartiest floppers and swishers couldn't surmount the increasing waterfalls. We were also privileged to get a tour of Portland from Barry's architect friend Scott. The only thing cooler than seeing a building with the guy that designed it was hanging out on his sail boat and watching Stella try to toddle against the gentle roll of the water.