When Sanjuana Royal set out to beat Saturday’s heat with her three kids in tow, the group had one mission.
“We don’t have much of a plan except to find the water,” she said.
Royal and her children — Hakim, Isone and Mikah — stopped at North Portland’s Peninsula Park so the youngsters could traipse around in the Rose Garden Fountain before making their way to Cathedral Park for a stroll under the St. Johns Bridge.
The family was enjoying the warm spring afternoon — the last of the season — before summer hits and temperatures rise.
Sunday marks the official beginning of summer as the Earth’s orbit around the sun reaches its zenith and the Northern Hemisphere sees its longest day of the year.
The season will begin with two consecutive days in the 90s, as National Weather Service forecasters predict highs of 92 and 96 on Sunday and Monday.
For the Royal clan, the warmer days will mean more outings like the one they embarked on Saturday. They weren’t the only Portlanders basking in the sun, either.
For Nicole Hill’s vaccinated family, the warm sun meant a day of pre-pandemic normalcy. She spread three quilts and a few chairs under a shady tree in Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Mikah Royal wades in the water at the Rose Garden Fountain in Peninsula Park. The Boise-Eliot-Humboldt Elementary School student spent the last day of spring seeking aquatic opportunities with her family.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff
“It’s so nice to just sit here and see so many different people walking around,” she said. “With the pandemic, we took quarantine seriously because my daughter is immune-compromised so we never went out of the house. It’s so nice to see people finally.”
Hill packed enough water for a full day of lounging in the breezy shade. She stared out at the Willamette River to catch a glimpse of a single boat speeding by every so often. Her kids ran back and forth between their picnic spot and a splash fountain.
The fountain attracted nearly 20 kids who screeched as they ran through the chilly water, clad in a rainbow of bathing suits.
A few small puppies joined. A dad yelled to his son not to drink the water. And while everyone clambered to share in the excitement, one child insisted he would not be joining the fun as he ate a sprinkle-covered popsicle on the sidelines.
The sprawling grass that abutted the fountain was dotted with other picnickers, and nearly half of the groups had a pink Voodoo Doughnut box sitting on their blanket.
The warm spring day brought reunions for many.
Eliza MacClarr, a high school student who just started her summer vacation, was gulping down a smoothie purchased at the Portland Saturday Market with an out-of-state friend she hadn’t seen since before the pandemic began.
“This is the first time we have seen each other in forever,” she exclaimed.
Sisters Natalie and Caroline Glausi decided to spend the last day of spring in Portland before celebrating Father's Day with their family in West Linn.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff
Her friend, Isabel Kirby, said the warm weather meant the start of a long summer camping trip with her family up and down the West Coast, starting in Oregon. But she also hoped the summer will bring more lazy Saturday afternoons hanging out with friends.
That was the case for sisters Natalie and Caroline Glausi, who spent a chunk of Saturday afternoon sunbathing on the Eastbank Esplanade docks.
The two spent much of last summer embarking on outdoor expeditions either alone or with each other. They tread carefully because of how little was known at that point about how COVID-19 spreads.
Now fully vaccinated, the West Linn sisters are ready for a summer that appears more normal. They decided to spend their Saturday in Portland ahead of a Father’s Day gathering at home that night.
On Sunday, the Glausi sisters will drive three hours north to attend the Washington Midsummer Festival in Bonney Lake.
This summer, they’re looking forward to larger gatherings than last year, particularly with relatives they haven’t seen in ages — such as their brother-in-law.
“Wow, I don’t think we’ve seen him since, what, Christmas 2019?” Natalie said to Caroline.
From left to right: Mark, Jason and Mike, houseless fellows who spent Saturday afternoon under the Hawthorne Bridge, decided to sell water for $1 a bottle when they saw the weekend's forecast.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff
About a stone’s throw away from the Glausi sisters, Mike, Mark and Jason — men experiencing homelessness who only offered their first names — sat beneath a tree next to the Portland Fire & Rescue Station 21.
Where most Portlanders saw a chance to recreate, the three men realized there was an opportunity for entrepreneurship.
Mike, sitting in a camping chair, said he took one look at the weekend forecast and decided to sell water for $1 a bottle.
“This year, for some reason, I got a wild hare up my butt and I went and got myself a cooler,” Mike said. “I figured I’d sell some water.”
They set up shop around noon and had sold six bottles by 4 p.m. Two of the bottles, Mike said, were the result of one sale.
OK, so they weren’t exactly making the big bucks.
“Yeah, you could say this is more of a public service,” Mike said.
--Eder Campuzano and Nicole Hayden
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