Cascadia Coastal Cup

After the disaster of the Bend tournament (smoke, heat, cancellation), Liesl's soccer team signed up to play in the Cascadia Coastal Cup, in Astoria (on the coast). They brought in some girls from the 2009 team, and played up a year, which meant a bigger field, bigger goals, bigger ball, and 11v11 (instead of 9v9). Liesl was super excited to have the chance to hang out with her teammates again.

After the first game on Saturday morning (tied 1-1), we met up at the beach house of one girl's grandparents, near Seaside, for some beach time and play. It was not warm, but the girls changed into bathing suits and jumped into the frigid water. Jasper was in heaven to be surrounded by playmates, and romped with them.

When we originally decided to go to this tournament, Steve had a midnight Friday filing deadline, and was leaving early Monday for a work retreat in Mexico, so it was just going to be me and Liesl. She and I decided to share a room with Mieke and Elia, which thrilled the girls. (As it turned out, Steve's case was dismissed and his work retreat cancelled, so he came too and stayed separately.) They swam in the hotel pool, and ate far too much at the hotel buffet, and were in general inseparable and happy.

So that was all good. Unfortunately, Liesl hurt her foot during Friday practice - strained the arch with a case of plantar fasciitis. So she wasn't able to play in any of the four soccer games during the weekend. She was completely set on being there with her teammates, supporting them from the sidelines, and cheering, and Steve was still interested in assistant coaching, so we decided to stick with the plan and spend the weekend in Astoria anyway. (Seb opted to sleep over at Cason's house on Saturday night instead of joining us at the coast.)

We watched both Saturday games, but on Sunday morning we left Liesl in the care of her teammates and went exploring together. We had a takeout brunch picnic at Shipley Park in Astoria, then went to Ft. Stevens State Park. We walked on the beach and ran/biked on the network of trails in the park - we hadn't been there before and it was great. I can't wait to go back with Seb and Liesl.

Liesl's team ended up winning the championship of the tournament -- they tied 1-1, won 7-0, won 2-0, and then won the final 4-0. The coach let Liesl go out as team captain for the final game, in recognition of her team spirit, which was very sweet. And she got a medal. :)

Women's Intl Soccer Cup

We went to Providence Park Saturday night to watch a soccer doubleheader - the consolation and championship games of the Women's International Championship Cup. There were four teams invited to play: the Houston Dash and Portland Thorns, and FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais. The teams played US vs US and Euro vs Euro on Wednesday night, as a semifinal matchip; the Thorns and Lyonnais won and were thus meeting in the final game. 

We arrived at halftime of the consolation match and watched the Dash and Barca battle it out. It was a little surreal to be at an actual game with FC Barcelona logos and jersey out in front of us on the field.

And then it was on to the main event, and the crowd swelled in size and volume. The Thorns army of supporters have flags and drums and songs and are really fun to watch (from a distance... too loud for us on a sustained basis).

The game was really exciting, and the Thorns controlled the ball for a lot of the second half, but the score remained 0-0 until the 87th minute when the Thorns scored to go ahead. The crowd went wild. We jumped and cheered too, and then they hung on for a few more minutes to win it. Such a fabulous night; so fun to be part of a cheering crowd watching a live sporting event.

Seb adventures

Sebastian had two adventures with friends this week -- on Wednesday, he went to Cannon Beach with Graeme's family, and on Friday, he went with Max, Josh, and Wyatt to swim at a local pool.

He's had a really good summer full of friends and outdoor play, along with Fortnite and books and movies. For the most part, this has been the summer of bike exploration for him, venturing farther afield. He's been riding multiple days every week with Nick, and very occasionally other friends, around the Cedar Mill neighborhood just west of us. He and Nick meet up at 9:45 and head down to Mill Pond, then Cedar Mill Elementary (where they sometimes stop to play baseball), down Cornell Rd on the sidewalks until an offroad trail begins at Foege Park, and then winding around to Market of Choice. They sometimes stop in and get drinks and snacks, or even lunch, and then head up Barnes Rd. to St. Pius. From there, they either head further west on Cornell, over to Terra Linda park, or loop back towards Forest Heights using the back route of cut-throughs by Lost Park. They have nicknames for various streets along the route: Easter basket hill, Bark-o path, NBA neighborhood, #2 hill, Death section, cranky K's house. It's about 6 miles, more if they make it to Terra Linda, but the hills are intensely steep. There are days he and Nick are out for three hours, riding, snacking, playing baseball, and it's terrific -- shades of old-fashioned childhoods. 

No photos of the biking -- but a couple from his beach day with Graeme.

paddle-boarding the Willamette

Liesl and I went for an adventure on Wednesday in the late afternoon -- paddleboarding on the Willamette River in Portland! We were disappointed that we didn't get paddle during our smoky trip to Bend and decided to check out our river closer to home. It was a gorgeous afternoon, mid-70s and sunny, and there was plenty of company on and in the river. We parked at Willamette Park, where there's a boat launch, and paddled south, past Oaks Amusement Park and the Riverview natural area, to Waverley golf club. We got out of the boat and played on the rocks for a bit before returning. It was very different than paddling on a quiet lake; there were motorboats and skidoos that created wakes for us to bob over, and that was a little scary. But it was also really fun to see Portland from the water, from a different perspective, and it was peaceful along the shores. We'll definitely do it again.

boba tea

Steve and Liesl have been on a boba tea kick this summer. Liesl is particularly fond of the taro root boba tea from Ding Tea, which is purple and sweet and very yummy, but the two of them have ranged far and wide across Portland and Beaverton in their quest to sample bobas. (I have a horror of tapioca in general and boba in particular, and have not joined them.) But then Steve made the enormous mistake of investigating just went into commercially made boba tea (sugar, sugar, more sugar, preservatives), and that combined with the cringe-inducing plastic waste made him determined to re-create iced boba tea at home.

It was extremely successful, but also somewhat time consuming; making two cups of iced boba tea took literally hours. So it was a fun experiment, and very tasty, but probably will not be replacing the occasional run for boba tea at one of the many Portland tea shops.

Making the boba (tapioca pearls) from brown sugar and tapioca flour. Make the dough, roll it out, cut it, shape into little balls, cook for 20 minutes, cool for an hour. Meanwhile, make brown sugar syrup.

Boba, syrup, ice, milk.... 

More sugar needed? Undercooked boba (because the boba were made too big)? Weird chai tea flavor? Further experimentation clearly needed!