good good oregon summer

Oregon may not be the best when it comes to weather most of the year. Because most of the year it's rain and drear, grey and drizzle, soggy and damp.

Except for summer.

Oregon is the best place I've been for summer. It's green green green, and hot, but not TOO hot. It's regularly in the 90s, but it's not humid. The evenings are cool, the air is clear, and all's right with the world.

Oregon in the summer is all about adventures. Camping, forest tramps, blackberries, gardens. Picnics in the park. It's too cold to swim at the coast, so you can dip your toes in the icy cold like we did at Haystack Rock, famous Goonies location. It's not too cold, though, to swim in the numerous rivers that run all over Oregon, and which are full-to-bursting with swimmin' holes, replete with kids yahoo- ing as they jump from high rocks into the clear clear water. One such place is Eagle Creek, where Tyler took me hiking and then swimmin' at Punchbowl Falls, where we had a gorgeous enclosed pool all to ourselves just below the falls. If you're not sure where the nearest sweet spot is, check out my friend Brook's dad Relan Colley's book, Oregon Swimming Holes. (Looks like it's out of print and will run you $300 - maybe with enough demand the publisher will reprint.)

Oregon summer is strawberries and roadside stands, t-shirts and haybales, all the doors open and lounging on the floorboards to keep cool, like a cat.

In the Oregon vs. Japan summer competition, Oregon, hands down, TKO, is the champion.