Avery Park

Avery Park is one of my favorite parks in Corvallis. I suppose that's because it is the first park I discovered and regularly visited in 1998. It was a hard time for me because I was alone, too shy to make friends and missing my family. We visited the park today, sometimes I take the short-cut through there on my way to Finley and figured it would be nice to go today. It was warm enough to swim in Mary's River. I'd never actually been to the river before, just looked at it from the bridge. It's quite amazing. The banks and "shelves" are made of red clay and gravel, they almost look like cement! They extend into the river from both sides and then it just drops off. This led to some amusing "Moose moments." Moose doesn't like to swim. He'll get in the water and play but if he can't reach it scares him. Several times he just walked off the edge, went fully underwater and then beat a hasty retreat back to shore. Freyja on the other hand thought she was in heaven! We have a 20 foot rope that we use at the beach, while hiking and in other natural areas, so she can be a dog while we have security that she won't escape. Anyway, she swam almost continually for a good half-hour, spending much of that time playing on a log. I've decided that next time we go I should wear swim trunks, so I can see what the river is like for swimming in (there were a lot of people downstream from us). Sometimes I think I don't ever want to leave the Willamette Valley, its so nice here!