Oxbow Regional Park

The wonderful thing about Oxbow Regional Park is the Sandy River.  Trails wind through the trees and keep coming back to the river, and each time you find something new there.  Sometimes you find soft sand, and sometimes you find smooth rocks.  Sometimes you find great places to swim, and sometimes you find quiet banks with peaceful places to sit and watch the river roll by.  Sometimes you find the tracks of mysterious creatures.  

Oxbow has a lovely campground, which is open all year.  In the  summer they have a series of programs for overnight campers, featuring live music, storytelling, and nature talks.  They advertised them this summer as only for campers, but we discovered that  noncampers are welcome to come as long as the rangers are informed that someone will need to open the gate after the program.  Otherwise the gate is closed.   We came to see "The Green Bird", with the Oregon Shadow Theatre.  Their shows are lushly orchestrated, with gorgeous puppets, sophisticated music and sound effects, and lots of humor.  The show was a big hit!  And seeing it outside in the dark was amazing.  "The Green Bird" tells the story of a hapless youth who is changed first into a green fortunetelling bird, then into a fighting bull with a telltale green tail, by an evil magician.  He is finally rescued by his lovely and heroic lady, with the assistance of some peculiar characters.  I can't resist sharing some pictures from their show.  More about Oxbow here:  http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=150  and the Oregon Shadow Theatre here: http://www.oregonshadowtheatre.com/