After having experienced another prolonged bout of record breaking rain with WIND, Mike & I ventured forth late this afternoon into a welcomed "sun break" to walk the park pathway alongside the swollen Willamette River at Salem's Waterfront Park. We had earlier attempted so see if we could go to Dallas and give Darc a much needed break from the tedium of George's 14 hour days as the state budget is being "wrapped up", but, sigh, their 2, too sick kids eliminated that possibility. SOO not to lose the beauty of the day, off we went and what a blessed time we had!
- Enroute, we ended up driving through a short "one cloud rain fall", when Mike spotted a HUGE BRIGHT complete DOUBLE rainbow! Oh the beauty but of COURSE, no camera, sigh!
- Eventually we pulled ourselves away to continue walking, stopping to gaze at the lovely serenity of the reflected fall foliage at a bend called the Willamette Slough. After a time, I began to more closely observe what had initially appeared to be a GOOD sized "log" floating down river, about 75 yds away. I finally gathered my "courage" and pointed it out to Mike, commenting that I thought it looked like a BEAVER! (Well, afterall, there ARE several trees along the river bank at Waterfront Park which have had to be wrapped with chicken wire to protect them from further gnawing!) BUT, after a few moments of study, he proclaimed "NAW its Mrs. Sorensen" - a log. (SIGH - I DO have a reputation to "live down", I'll agree!) BUT my curiosity continued until I reluctantly began to agree, THEN "Mrs. Sorensen" DOVE deeply, RIGHT before our incredulous eyes, leaving circular rings in "her" wake!!!! Talk about EXCITED!! We continued to watch, trying to determine how long "she" might remain submerged, then as suddenly as "she" disappeared, she breached the surface, floated further downriver for a few seconds then dove again! This time, after "she" reappeared, she turned and swam upriver out of our sight nearing a bank whose reflections so heavily mirrored the foliage, that we couldn't see her anymore excepting ONE more huge ringed ripple of goodbye!
WHAT a blessing and awesome afternoon! - And we'd have missed it all had we been "pushing" ourselves! :-) OH how I wished we could have pulled our Grands out of "thin air" to share it with them! NOW whenever we walk there, we'll ALL know to keep our eyes open for "Mrs. Sorensen"! mc
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4 comments:
I don't think I've ever seen a beaver in real life. That would be a treat!
No one we've talked to has ever seen one in the wild, either! Once or twice maybe, we've seen a Beaver dam, in Calif of all places ;-), but that's been it! The clerk at the nearby Carousel (park) store said it had been a looong time since anyone had reported actually seeing a Beaver in the area. It was indeed a Blessing! mc
Windy and I saw a couple of beavers in Telluride. Freaked us out when the one went scurrying off in front of us.
Never seen a beaver either - though we have seen some real impressive beaver ponds and expected to see lots any minute in a particular Sierra hike. But they were all no-shows!
Hope to see one some day.
Sounds like you had a special day!
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