Schooner on Hayden Island, OR

Just off I-5, a sleepy community of houseboats, yachts, and sailboats rocks against the shore of Hayden Island between the Columbia River and the North Portland Harbor channel.  There are two fabulous cafes on the island.  One is the Island Cafe, floating on the dock along the channel.  On a hot summer evening, as you eat a shrimp salad, you can watch all sorts of pleasure boats float past; some even pulling up to the cafe, tossing a line, and clambering onto the dock for a meal.

The other, Hidden Bay Cafe, is not as crowded, and overlooks the marina tucked into a small bay along the Columbia River.  I met my daughter there after work a few days ago.  While I waited, I watched several sailboats out on the Columbia.  Is it me, or is one of them sailing backwards?

Used to the pleasure craft seen on the south side of the island along the harbor channel, I forgot the north side would provide a view of the heavy traffic along the Columbia.  While filming a sailboat, a Tidewater barge completely upstaged it.

I have a particular fondness for Hayden Island because a group of islanders were doing an annual clean-up along the shorelines when they came across a little kitten and his mom, half starved, and cowering in the brush.  They rescued them, found a home for the mom, and posted a picture of the baby at a Hayden Island fundraiser I attended.

Who can resist a pwecious widdle kiddy in need of a home?

Schooner as a baby

Schooner

That is how Schooner came to share the house with me.