Dude it was 3.0 where were you? That's kind of an inside joke among of few of my friends - when you wanna rub it in that somebody missed big day!

And boy last Sunday was one of those epic days on the (Columbia) river that I live for: 40 mph winds, huge rollers. The blowing child advisories were up and the 70 mile drive out to Arlington takes maybe 20 minutes because the tailwind's blowing you half way to Idaho in a hurry.

Ah - yes this is the life.

I love days like this. When I got there there around 1pm were about 20 people out sailing. When our group at 6:30pm left there was nobody left - we were the only people left on the water for the last hour and a half with the wind really kicking into high gear late in the afternoon.

The windmeter at Arlington was *averaging* 40 mph with gusts into the 50's. The river was kicking up steady overhead high swell with occasional 10 ft plus sets going through. Some of them like the one in the picture actually were full breaking like an ocean wave.

I was having way too much fun - I stayed out for 4 hours straight. But there's punishment for that as well - I'm getting too old for that kind of marathon <s>. Not only that though: After four hours on the water hanging on to a quarter inch pipe my hands have developed - Holes! Ouch. Luckily it doesn't effect any typing periphials <s>.

The worst  part though is the damn allergies. The river is so full of shit these days (farm runoff and who knows what) I could barely breathe for the next couple of days.

Totally worth it though!!!

There are more pictures from that day here.