Some things really are better.

102 degrees, about 25 degrees above my ideal temperature.
It was a good day anyway. We took several of our grandchildren to cool off down at the river - the Willamette River. I grew up in Portland and we never went down to the Willamette River to cool off. I raised my children in the same area and never took them down to the River either although I know that as they became teenagers they did venture down to the river with friends. My family did not have a tradition of playing in the water of the Willamette so I did not even think about the fact that my children were growing up within walking distance and I never took them there.
When I was a child my parents took us to the Sandy River or to the Columbia by Rooster Rock. There were a few times when we went to a picnic site near the Clackamas but it was rare if we got in the water because the Clackamas River was deemed "too cold and too unstable" because of dams up river. This was just the way I was brought up to think about the rivers.
It is really perplexing considering how much my children and grandchildren enjoy the rivers today - unless of course, I stop to think about how polluted the Willamette River was in the time when my children were growing up. No one went there unless they were too poor to go anywhere else. Being in the Willamette was just not something one did or even thought about. Even when I was a child the river was considered more of a working river with its steam plants and industries nearby than it was a river for people to enjoy.
But things have changed. The River is clean and it is a place to enjoy and protect. Portland's Big Pipe sewer project took 20 years to complete creating many impatient people as the project slowly progressed through neighborhoods and along major pipe routes where streets and sewers had to be dug up and replaced. But it was finished, and the project very successfully stopped sewage overflow into the river during heavy rainstorms.
Once, about 20 years ago I remember a particularly heavy Portland rain that overfilled the sewers and caused water to geyser up out of the street sewers in the areas of inner southeast Portland close to the river. In fact, in the church where I worked there was water coming up out of the basement toilets... disgusting. But today the Big Pipe Project has ended such events leaving the tellers of such stories to be questioned for our ability to really remember... yes! those are true events. I even kept waders in my office in case I had to help bail out the basement!    
Today the Willamette River is filled with happy leisure time river people in boats, kayaks and canoes, swimming, wake boarding and just floating along. We humans are mostly water in our physical makeup and the need for clean water and access to the river ways is fundamental to who we are.
I am grateful for all who put their energy into cleaning up the Willamette, to the Columbia River Keepers who keep an eye on the Big River and all who keep the waterways in mind as they work to keep the river clean for the future. We don't need to go backward with coal or oil terminals. Some things really are better. Let's rejoice in good progress - but maintain our vigilance.