Portland was so much fun

It was over 100 degrees two days we were there, but I didn't allow that to dim my enthusiasm. After all, competing in the USMS National Swimming Championships at the Mt. Hood Community College Aquatic Center, I was in the pool most of the time anyway - warming up, racing, then cooling down and repeating that same pattern again and again for three consecutive days. I wore a full body suit in every race (which took way too long to get on and tired me out more than any of my races) and dropped all of my times, placing 2nd in the 45-49 age group in the 100 and 200 breast and 3rd in the 50 breast and getting 5th in a 200 free relay with my awesome teammates; Jason Sixkiller, Laura Smith and Ted Hammond. Arizona Masters took 3rd overall in the meet, out of 148 total teams. All I have to say about my Arizona teammates is you people really know how to move through that water! I look forward to swimming with you again soon.

I'd like to thank the many amazing people I met at the meet for really making the meet a memorable experience for me. At the social dinners and at the meet, I met swimmers of all ages from Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, California, and Florida as well as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Portland is so beautiful- everywhere there are evergreens, flowers and ferns and the city overall is so clean and well-organized and you can take public transportation almost anywhere. From the airport, the snow-capped volcanic cone of Mt. Hood could be seen in the distance and only miles from our Gresham hotel was the Columbia River, along which there were dozens of hiking trails. Hiking Multnomah Falls on Monday was an experience I'll never forget. It was quite a way to break my two week taper, hiking up 20 or so high-angle switchbacks in high humidity surrounded by towering pines. At the top, my legs trembled as I peered over the edge of the precipice where the waterfall tumbled into a pool hundreds of feet below. Heights definitely aren't my thing so don't expect to find me hanggliding or rappelling down waterfalls anytime soon. Even when people stepped on the platform and it jiggled, it gave me the willies. It felt good to stand on solid ground again, but not so good to say goodbye to the Portland area later that day.