4th of July float down the Willamette

Yesterday Jason, Chris Holm, Urva,
Niloo, Karen, Mac, Brendan and Tory floated down the Willamette River into town
for the 4^th of July. Everyone
met at my
place around 1pm and proceeded with the long process of blowing up
all the inflatable tubes in our living room while having a few beers. We loaded up all the tubes in my truck and
headed several miles out of town. After
shuttling the vehicles we jumped into the river around 2pm for the 2 hour slow
float into town. Some of us were in
inflatable donuts, Jason and I were in small inflatable boats, the girls were
in pool floaties, and Brendan & Mac were the lovely couple on a giant King
Size
inflatable mattress! Depending on
the current and where we were we all floated down the river at different
rates. I tied the suitcase
of beer we
had to my raft and let it float in the cool water to stay cold while randomly
tossing cans to everyone as they were requested. It was a great river float and many of us
were plenty drunk after the ride. Nobody
will forget Mac’s stagefright peeing off the side of the mattress for nearly a
quarter of the trip!

After the float everyone went home to change
and shower before heading over to Kristin Splinter’s apartment for the annual 4^th
of July BBQ there. All the summer
undergrad students went and I’m pretty sure that all the graduate students
still here for the summer went as well. There was plenty of food to go around and everyone had a terrific
time. At the end everyone walked
downtown or to the top of Winiger to watch the local fireworks. I went home to chat with Jason and ended up
walking downtown with him and McKenzie to see the (incredibly weak) fireworks
show. It ended up being the first 4^th
of July in 3 years that I haven’t been either pulled over or arrested by the
cops (see post of last 4^th of July)!