Getting a hip replaced - the process so far

Note: This is going to be a bit dense, probably in all senses of the word, since I have few pictures and am by far not an expert on any of this. This is just to talk about what I went through mostly so I can remember some of the details later. Additionally, I'm going to work really hard to avoid trying to cram in a bunch of hip-related puns and jokes, even if they practically write themselves.

Back in July of 2024, I had arthroscopic meniscus surgery on my left knee, with the goal of making it not hurt as much as I ran my 5Ks. That went well and seemed to work - I had a lot less pain in that knee.

My knee surgery is done! My crutches are huge!

Somewhere around July of 2025, I started having pain in that knee again, as well as a bit of pain in the left hip. I figured I had pulled a hip muscle or something like that, so I started taking it easy to let it heal.

It didn't heal, and the knee seemed to get worse. 

Even just walking around could make it hurt, although it did seem to get better after it got warmed up a bit. This knee pain didn't feel like the partially torn meniscus issue I had had previously - wearing a knee brace didn't seem to help much, for example. I did try using a foam roller on the hip, with mixed results; sometimes it would feel better when I was done and other times it didn't feel any different. At least it never felt worse.

After hobbling through the Brazen Racing New Year's Day 5K (the hills, mild as they are for that course, really ate me up), Mrs Notthat was able to talk me into seeing my knee doctor to try to work out what the issue was. (As a complete surprise, it turns out I can be stubborn and keep putting off what obviously needs to be done. I have no idea where I keep my big boy pants.)

At the doctor, I was still focused on the knee, and was given a cortisone shot to see if that might help (it didn't). As the doctor watched me climb up and down from the table, he noticed me grimacing when I really shouldn't have been, and the idea was hatched that possibly my knee pain was just being referred by a hip issue, which could be the root of the issue.

Look, I'm not a doctor and I understand little about how the body works, but it seemed a bit of stretch that a hip issue could make my knee hurt like that. Fortunately, I listened to him and scheduled a hip x-ray along with the MRI for the knee. 

When I came back for the x-ray and MRI, the x-ray was first. The doctor all but giggled when he saw the hip x-ray - it was a classic case of an arthritic hip causing all sorts of chaos. The knee MRI was cancelled and I was referred to Dr Bonner, a hip replacement specialist at SAH Orthopedics. An interesting thing that also happened at this point was that I was issued a Disabled Parking placard.

At first I felt like an imposter using this, but as the hip degraded, this became a lifesaver. Granted, about half the time I tried to use it, the spaces were filled.

A "my best guess" thing: While my left hip was in awful shape, my right hip was in really good shape. Why just the left hip is a pretty good question. I never thought to ask any of the doctors, but here's my guess. When I first started doing races sixteen years ago, my right knee had a partially torn meniscus. I found that if I wore a knee brace, the knee largely was not much of an issue. My guess is that it really was still an issue, and I was compensating a bit. Doing that for a bit more than 450 races (5K to 100K) meant that even a little bit of compensation would gradually add up.

I started using a cane a lot - there is an astonishing place in San Carlos called MELP (Medical Equipment Loan Program) where I was able to pick one out for free. (I ended up needing a number of things, like a walker, a shower chair, and an elevated toilet seat - these I was able to get from a friend.)

In early March I met with Dr Bonner at his Washington Health office in Fremont and he concurred - the hip was wildly sub-optimal. Shortly afterwards I received a binder full of hip replacement information (I was getting an anterior approach total hip replacement) which started to lay out what exactly lay ahead of me.

It was a lot.

Surprise dental thing: I never had any idea how dangerous dental cleanings were! I was not allowed to have my teeth cleaned or have any kind of dental work done for two weeks prior to surgery and for three months after the surgery. Bigger surprise - I have to take antibiotics before any dental cleaning or dental work from now on. Wow!

At the end of March I had my pre-op visit with Dr Bonner and I was all set - the surgery would be in late April, and it would be outpatient surgery (assuming all went well - spoiler alert; it turns out one should never assume).  

This is not an x-ray of my hip, but does give a good idea of all the bonus hardware that's going to be installed (and how much existing bone is going to be removed).

Between then and the operation, I had a wedding to attend, a long-planned river cruise to survive, and I would get to prepay Mrs Notthat for the care she would be giving me by giving her care for a shoulder surgery she needed done between the wedding and cruise. Then, since things weren't exciting enough, our exterior house painting, which was scheduled for mid-to-late May, was moved up to mid-to-late April - right around my surgery. 

(Honestly, moving the house painting forward was likely a good thing since, while I was pretty hobbled, I could still do most of the work I needed to do to prep the house for painting. I would not have been able to do any of that with the original dates since I would be post-surgery with all kinds of limitations.)

The wedding went well, Mrs Notthat's surgery went well, and the cruise went well, although I had to skip some of the excursions since they required more walking than I could manage by this point. We got home from the cruise, and I spent the next day readying the house for the painters (taking down lighting, cameras, aggressive shrubs, and stuff like that).

Enough - let's get to the surgery

On Friday, the morning of the surgery, we had to arrive by 5:30 AM. I had to shower the night before using a special scrubbing sponge with special soap ("do NOT get it in your eyes"), then get up early Friday and do it again. It was an astonishingly early morning. I was not to eat anything, but I could drink plain black tea, so I did that.

That tea was a mistake.

On the way to Washington Health, I started to get a bit queasy (I'm a small bit prone to carsickness, but mostly my stomach can be unhappy with caffeine when it's empty). About a quarter mile from the hospital, it got to be too much - Mrs Notthat pulled into a parking lot and I opened to door and, well, got rid of the tea.

Just great.

After that tummy reset though, I was fine. We checked in, I went into pre-op, and Mrs Notthat was left to her own devices for a long few hours. 

I don't remember much useful about the pre-op period - a number of people made marks using a purple pen on various parts of my body (most importantly to mark up the hip that was to be worked on). 

I brought a book to read since I guessed that I would spend a lot of time just sitting and waiting for things to happen (I had left my phone with Mrs). I think I may have read a whole page. One person after the other would come in, ask my name and birthdate, why I was there, and whether I thought the Giants would make the World Series. Seriously - I lost count of how many times I was asked my name and birthdate. More marks would be made on body. 

Eventually I was rolled into the operating room. The coolest thing was that Hey Jude was playing. That was followed by a song I didn't recognize, probably because it was from this century. The anesthesiologist gave me an epidural (my first ever!), then something else, and that was it. I remember nothing else from that room.

In the recovery room, I woke up and was surprised it was all done. They kept an eye on me for an hour or so. (Another first that I can go a lifetime without having to experience again was having a catheter threaded up my private part into my bladder to drain it. Who was the first person this was tried on? Yikes!) (Oh, and spoiler alert, I did not get to go a lifetime without having to experience this again.)

A "nurses don't get paid nearly enough" thing: How special are the people that unflinchingly will do something like shoving a catheter tube up some random guy's junk? I've got to believe they all have some stories to tell. I tried very hard to act like this was no big deal - it happens all the time - but they had to know that I was extremely anxious about this process (my heart rate had to have spiked a bit). 

Eventually they were satisfied that I was doing OK and they rolled me into a more normal hospital room, and finally, Mrs Notthat could join me. It was still morning, and there was a chance I could get released shortly after noon, but not before I got to eat an official hospital lunch! (Another first for me!) Shortly after the lunch, I was able to get dressed, putting back on what I had worn into the hospital that morning.

In my room, all dressed, hanging out in a recliner that was wildly fussy.

I was in surprisingly little pain. I was using a walker to get around a bit, including a few walks up and down the hallway, but mostly to go sit on the toilet to try to urinate - this is a big test you have to pass before they will let you go home. 

It turned out to be a test that I failed for a very long time.

One affect of the epidural is to make the bladder stop working. If your bladder isn't working, bad things can happen, so they won't let you go until you can prove it's working. We ended up spending all afternoon waiting for the bladder to start working. I drank all manner of fluids to try to encourage it to work (which in the end may have been a bad idea). It was really getting frustrating. 

Questions I thought to ask the Dr: Which weighs more - the bone bits you removed from me or the shiny new bits you installed? In other words, will I lose or gain weight? (The answer was that I would gain a small amount of weight, maybe a pound or so.) The second question was whether people ever ask to keep the chunk of bone that was removed? (The answer was yes, all the time. And no, you can't have it.)

I had an official hospital dinner, although the shine had long since worn off the novelty of that. By 8 PM or so, it was becoming evident that there was a good chance I was going to have to spend the night. Both Mrs Notthat and I were exhausted, having gotten up so early, and so we decided that she should go home and try to get a good night's sleep and I would hang out, continuing to try to get the bladder functioning. 

So there was another first for me - I had never spent the night in a hospital (as a patient - and I'm not counting when I was born). I had not come prepared for staying the night - I didn't bring any pajamas or a second set of clothes; just what I had worn in that morning, which fortunately, worked out OK for pretend pajamas. 

I've always heard that trying to sleep in a hospital is nearly impossible. I had these things on my calves that would periodically inflate, then deflate, I had an IV, and a monitor or two all connected to me (if I rested my hand relatively high for very long, that would set off an alarm). Lots of lights, lots of beeping things, and my calves getting squeezed every few minutes made sure I was not sleeping. At 10 PM it sounded like an addition was being worked on across the hall. Just after midnight, a new nurse, perky as can be, came in and said good morning. They needed to do some tests. Always with the tests. 

By 1 AM or so, it was decided that they needed to empty my bladder using a catheter again. Sheesh. After that though, I was left alone for nearly three hours, and I was actually able to get a bit of sleep. Not good sleep, but I was up for whatever I could get. (Note that this actually included being able to lay on the side with the incision!)

A little after 4 AM the nurse came back in and something amazing happened - I felt a reasonably urgent need to urinate! I waddled into the toilet and peed into a container. It. Was. Glorious! (Another thing that happened at about this point was that I could suddenly feel a bit of pain. The epidural had indeed worn off finally - this was more like what I had expected.)

I dozed off again then was woken up for a blood test and more of the normal checks. And I peed again!

Breakfast was brought in, Mrs Notthat was able to show up again, and it was looking rosy for me to get to escape. They wanted me to pick out my lunch sandwiches (they were going to let Mrs Notthat have one too!), but I thought it was a waste of time since I doubted I would be there long enough to get them. (I thought wrong on so many things!)

The new issue was that, yes, I was peeing, but the bladder was still quite full. They did not want to release me until the bladder was at a safe level. I was continuing to pee, and was even getting better at larger volumes, but there was still concern. 

It was starting to get frustrating again. The sandwich boxes were delivered and we ate them. Finally, a bit before noon, it was decided that it would be safe to let me go. A physical therapist talked me through some exercises I would have to do and showed me how to get in and out of bed. Finally, I was loaded onto a wheelchair and rolled out the front door, where I was shown how to get into a car safely.

And we headed home. About 24 hours later than we had expected.

At the house

That first day home, Saturday, and the next, were mostly spent with me on significant pain pills, icing the hip, elevating my legs, wearing a compression sock on my left leg (this was a challenge to get off and on), doing the various exercises, and getting used to using the walker and raised toilet. I did fine getting in and out of bed. On Sunday I even took a shower, sitting down style.

I added a "trunk" to the front of the walker (a frunk?) to help with carrying things around. Mrs Notthat was not impressed. True story - Princess tried to take the tennis balls off the walker legs.

One wild card was going to be our dog. Princess is an elderly, neurotic, surprisingly energetic little thing. We have had to have a baby gate blocking her access to the back half of the house since she has a knack for getting into the kitty litter box and a reputation for peeing in very unacceptable places. The walker was not compatible with the baby gate, which meant the gate had to go (we used it to block off her access to the kitty litter box) - Princess, for the first time ever, had nearly full access to the house. 

She loved it once she got used to it. We have a tall bed, so she had to learn how to get up on it (which bugged the cat since he thought only he should have that skill). Princess did OK other than often waking up too early and whining that we were not also awake. 

Princess and Mango hanging out with me on the bed.

On Monday my home health physical therapist came by. He explained a lot about what I was going to have to do post-surgery (lots of exercises and rest), and what not to do (well, just about anything else that I might want to do). He came by three more times over the next two weeks, adding more exercises, retiring a few, and mostly just telling me that I was doing great.

A reminder thing: The outside of the house was still in the middle of being painted. When I showed up from the hospital, they were still doing repairs and prep work. And then it started raining. They lost two whole days to a storm that was supposed to be minor but decided to be moderate. It was really frustrating to be in the house and not be able to go out and see how it was going (which was likely a good thing for them).

Two weeks after the surgery, we went back over to see the Dr and get fresh x-rays done. He was thrilled with my progress - everything looked great. The fun thing was that I no longer had to wear that compression sock on my left leg (Mrs Notthat cheered), I could start icing only when needed, and I could start ignoring a few of the exercises (don't worry, more would be added). 

I had started gradually reducing the amount of hydrocodone I was taking during the middle of that first week, and was completely off of it by early in the second week. At this point I was relying only on ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and even that was winding down by a lot. The only real pain issue I was having was when sleeping, and I eventually figured out that none of those drugs did much to help me with the aches I would feel while trying to sleep - I'm just lousy at sleeping.

The scar at three weeks - it's just under four inches long. There were no stitches or staples - apparently just some glue. 

My next appointment is at the six-week point after the operation (which is amazingly next week). I've put the walker away but still use the cane most of the time, although I do catch myself getting up and forgetting to grab it. I'm at the point where I have to be very careful not to overdo things, but at the same time, I do still need to gradually start doing more. Several times I've done something that I thought was not a big deal only to find myself exhausted. 

But it's all getting better. We went to a movie. I waddled out to the start line of the Sunnyvale Bay Trail parkrun (a case where I may have done a bit too much, mostly due to all the standing around I did there). I made a quick trip to the grocery store.

The best thing is that, while my hip is still a bit sore from the surgery, my knee no longer has any pain! I am still a bit dumbfounded by that. I'm told that long term, I should be able to walk normally and as much as I want to, but I should not entertain notions of running as that, and a few other activities, can prematurely wear out the fake hip bits, which could lead to having to do this all over again.

I'm more than OK with that.

That's it - move along (using a cane if need be)…

PS: One thing that'll be new is that from now on I will likely have to get a bonus security check whenever the TSA are involved. They already seem to target me anyway. 

For the river cruise curious

For the first time, Mrs Notthat and I took a river cruise. We chose the American Cruise Lines seven day/six night Columbia River cruise that (sort of) starts in Portland, Oregon. Two other couples Mrs Notthat knows were also on the cruise, which was nice since we would get together and go over the day's adventures.

Executive Summary

Since this is going to be long, I thought I'd start with a section explaining what makes river cruises different than ocean cruises. (Note that this all applies to American Cruise Lines - I assume most of their river cruises are similar, but it's likely that other companies, particularly those river cruises in Europe, are very different.)

Boat size

The boats (or ships - we had a fierce discussion about what the difference is, and it seemed to stall on "ships can carry a boat," which frankly is very unsatisfying) on river cruises are WAY smaller. You won't find water slides, swimming pools, massive buffets, or casinos on them (there was a fitness center though, and several places to lay out in the sun if that was your thing). Ours had a capacity of 180 guests (and likely around 40 or so support people). That's fewer people than is on one floor of an ocean cruise.

I loved the smaller size. Nothing feels overwhelming and you do tend to see the same people a lot, which is generally a good thing. One thing that surprised me a little bit is that you are pretty unlikely to see any kids on board. There was one person I saw that might have been under 21 - the vast majority were retired like us. There were a fair number of canes, walkers, and a few wheelchairs. (Note that this boat had elevators - there were six floors, and not having elevators would have made this a dealbreaker for many, including me at this point. If that's a dealbreaker for you, be sure to check what your boat has since not all have elevators.)

We were on the 4th deck, which turned out to be conveniently located close to the two lounges.

I'm prone to motion sickness, especially on boats, but when I took an ocean cruise many years ago, I had no issues. But since this was a smaller boat, I was a bit worried that I might have issues, but again, there were none. There were times that the water was pretty rough, but the boat always stayed calm.

No massive buffets? How do you eat?

Actually, you eat very well. There is a proper sit-down dining area that covers the three main meals and a cafe that has quicker, simpler options (burgers, hot dogs, breakfast sandwiches, and such) for breakfast and lunch. And there are two lounges that at happy hour have snack type foods, one of which has quick breakfast options and a small fridge with sodas and such and a couple small racks with snack type items (chips, trail mix, and that sort of thing) that are available 24 hours. 

The dining area has open seating and a menu. There are waitstaff that take your order and are wildly polite and patient. The menu options for lunch and dinner usually involved three or four main course options (one was often vegetarian) and two or three dessert options (including a variety of ice cream flavors). For dinner, there were also options for appetizers - a soup and a salad of some sort.

The food was almost always very good. The portions were not huge, but generally were just right. And if you wanted a bit more, you just had to ask. It was actually surprising how you could request special items and customize your meal. It wouldn't always turn out quite correct, but most of the time it worked out well.

Happy hour? How expensive is alcohol on these things?

Sit down. If you've been on an ocean cruise, this is likely going to be a huge surprise - all alcohol is free (well, included in the price). For lunch, dinner, happy hour, and just about any other time, you can choose from a wide variety of adult beverage options. I was a bit shocked - I expected there to be pretty specific locations and times where you could get a drink, but you could almost always get what you wanted. 

What about entertainment?

There were a number of onboard lectures and such. There was a couple, Llib and Arual (not their real names), who both provided happy hour music and gave several lectures on cruise related bits, including the Lewis and Clark expedition, and local history and town orientation. 

Every night at 8:30 there was some form of entertainment, and the entertainment was always, well, very entertaining. For the first and second nights, we had Oiram (not his real name) who was ridiculously good at playing the piano and throwing in a lot of humor.

Oiram playing the piano with one hand and a trumpet with the other. At one other point, he put a cover on the piano and played a pretty complicated song with the keys all hidden. Pretty wild!

The third night was a guy in a cowboy hat and a guitar who played lots of shortened country songs and was also very funny. The fourth night was another guy with a guitar (no cowboy hat) who was also very entertaining and funny. The fifth (and last) night, we had a guy, Kram (not his real name), doing lots of physical things (juggling and such) while making us laugh. 

The entertainment was all very good and a perfect way to end the day. 

Ah, but river cruises are a lot more expensive, right?

I don't have enough experience to do a deep dive into this, but the simple answer is "sort of."

The upfront cost is significantly higher for a river cruise, which makes it seem like a bad deal, but once you factor in that just about everything is included in that price, like drinks, onboard wifi, transfers, and tips, it evens out a bit. Maybe even works out to about the same cost. On the one ocean cruise I took, the cost for these "extra" things was pretty shocking. I personally prefer just having all that stuff included.

The only extras were some of the excursions. There were always some included excursions that gave you free entry into a variety of museums and such. We bought a couple of the bonus excursions and enjoyed them (details later). 

The only other thing to mention is that they do try to get you to sign up for another cruise, offering you a discount (15% in our case). You can easily ignore these attempts - they were not like a high-pressure timeshare sale - so it wasn't a big deal. (Mrs Notthat is not one to miss a deal though, so we are now signed up for an Alaska cruise next summer.)

And now for the details about our trip

Map showing the various important bits of the cruise. (You should be able to double-tap or double-click the map to see it larger.)

One thing I found a bit odd, but is likely normal for these sorts of things, is that the first night of the cruise was actually at an Embassy Suites near Portland's airport. You were on your own for dinner that first night (there was a happy hour with a lot of finger food, but you had to buy your drinks, although we were all given coupons for two free drinks) and breakfast the next day was the standard hotel included breakfast, which was plenty good. 

Doing it this way makes it easy to deal with people flying in from all over. We arrived at the hotel by about 2 PM and were able to check in to our room early. We then grabbed lunch - there wasn't much to do in that immediate area, so we just hung out and met up with the others.

Note: Due to the current airport chaos, we considered driving to Portland, but we had already booked our flights long ago, and it would have meant having to pay for parking the whole time. It turned out the airports worked out fine and flying was the best way to do this, but man - I hate flying so I would have been happy to do the 10-12 hour drive and figure out the parking.

The next morning, we loaded up in busses to go to the boat, with a stop along the way to see Multnomah Falls. (The actual embarkation/debarkation point was in Stevenson, Washington, which is about 40 miles upriver from the airport and, importantly, on the other side of Bonneville Dam, which I'll talk about later). 

Multnomah Falls - if you look VERY hard you can see Mrs Notthat on that bridge. I would have loved to join her, but my hip was not having it.

Once we got on the boat, we got to see our room, and it was very nice. There was a nice balcony with a table and chairs (sadly it was almost always too cold to sit out there), a king size bed, and a functional bathroom. 

Getting onto the boat for the first time.

We then had our first meal on the boat then sat through a safety presentation (which was mostly just telling us about the various options on the boat - I don't remember seeing any lifeboats, but we did have life vests in our room). At around 2:30 PM, we left the dock and headed upriver to The Dalles (where we arrived at around 7:00 PM).

Looking out our sliding door onto our balcony and the view.

The Dalles

First of all, that really is the name of the town, including the "The." It was a very interesting place, and we would have happily spent the day exploring its various museums and such (not to be missed was the National Neon Museum - I missed it but Mrs Notthat loved it). 

Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the e-bike excursion in the afternoon. It turned out there was only one other couple that had singed up, and they were pretty nervous about the e-bike concept. (Mrs and I had no previous e-bike experience, but learned the basics pretty fast and had a blast. One of the other two really struggled with there being two modes of getting power, and I was really afraid she was going to bail on the trip, but she stuck it out and seemed to eventually work out how the bike worked. It didn't help that the bikes would turn themselves off when we paused for a view.) 

Much of the trail was shaded. It was loosely along the Columbia river, with lots of amazing views.

An example of the view. 

Heading into the tunnel bit.

For those of you that want to know more about the specific area we rode.

The paved trail we were on was five miles of an old highway, including a few tunnels and some hills, that we went out and back on. On a normal bike, my hip would have been very unhappy, but man, the e-bikes made this a breeze. 

We left The Dalles (man that's still weird to type) at 5:30 PM to head to Kalama - we went from the cruise's furthest upstream point to the furthest downstream point over night. And at about 10:00 PM, we started the process of going through the Bonneville Dam lock.

The Bonneville Dam lock

There are a number of dams across the Columbia River. These provide electrical power, flood control, and a bit unexpectedly (to me), a way to deal with rapids and small waterfalls by basically just drowning them, making much more of the river navigable than would otherwise be available. If a goal is to let relatively large boats through, you needed to provide a way to go around the dam, and that's done with locks that're similar to those in the Panama Canal.

Shortly after the night's entertainment wrapped up, many of us went out on the front deck to watch as we navigated the lock. It was pretty great that this happened at night at a time we could watch it.

As we got close, two large spotlights came on.

The lock lane is getting closer. We are going pretty slow at this point.

Getting closer to the lock's "dam."

At this point, we are tied up to the side of the lock. At the top of the photo, you can see the lights from the river level side of the lock. We are basically sitting on an elevator made of water that will lower us about 70 feet.

Mrs Notthat supervising the process.

The water is being drained from the lock and we are dropping!

We are now at river level, and the gates are opening.

Open wide!

And we are off! The whole process took about 45 minutes (including the slow crawl in and out of the lock). 

We actually went through this lock again a couple nights later, on our way from Kalama to Hood River. This time, it would be at about 2:00 AM, and even though it would be the opposite process - raising the boat to lake level - there was no way we were going to stay up for that.

Kalama - gateway to Mt St Helens

We arrived at Kalama at about 4:00 AM. This was the first night that the boat was moving as we slept. I think most slept well, but some of us struggled a bit. You could hear the muffled sound of the engines, and if they had been a constant drone, it would have been fine. However, once in a while there would be a surge of noise and a bit of vibration. This was all pretty minor and most slept through it, but I struggled a bit. 

At one point we went past Portland. I was awoken by what felt like strobe lights. When we closed our blackout curtain, there was a small slit left and the lights of Portland managed to squeeze through just briefly, but Portland has a lot of lights, so it was like flash bulbs going off.

At Kalama, Mrs Notthat and I had singed up for a "dot painting" class. In the afternoon, there was a free Mt St Helens tour that was an hour bus ride to some interesting sounding visitor centers and such, but we were a bit tired, especially after staying up for Lockapalooza, so we stayed on the boat for the afternoon. 

Dot painting? Seriously?

Just off the dock at Kalama was a small mall of sorts, called the Mountain Timber Market, with a number of restaurants, breweries, gift shops, and other things. One of those other things was something called the Dot Painting Gallery, where they hold classes primarily aimed at the cruise ships. (I believe American River Cruises has around six boats running up and down this river - some go further than others, but each of these towns has areas that cater to the passengers.)

There were eight of us in the dot painting class, and you will likely not be surprised to learn I was the only guy there. I'm pretty sure some in the back row expected me to start eating the paint before we got very far. Our instructor, Anitsirhc (not her real name, but she is apparently internet famous), nervously kept her eye on me, just in case.

Our tools and starting canvas. The web-like pattern is to provide a guide to help us stay symmetrical - once you are done you can wash the pattern off after the paint dries. 

We were creating a geometric design called a "mandala" (Canadian for "lines are boring"). The tools included several different sizes of glass rods and several smaller tools with different size balls on their ends. By the end, that nice white napkin on the left became quite a mess.

My start. We were given prompts on what colors to use (which a lot of us ignored) and which tool would produce the best results (which most of us paid attention to, at least in the beginning).

By now it's really starting to look like something. We learned to "walk the dot" (making those progressively smaller dot trails) and to "drag the dot" (making those small teardrop shaped things - this was a skill that I really struggle with).

My final result, after the lines have been washed off. There was a point where we were told to go for it and add whatever elements we wanted. The instructor can't be blamed for this result.

Mrs Notthat's final result. We were all using the same colors, but she decided to completely ignore the red. I really thought they both came out very nice!

Mrs Notthat bought me a kit to play with during my upcoming surgery recuperation. And yes, Princess the Wonder Dog should be a bit worried that I might decide to see how she would look with dots all over. 

Wrapping up Kalama

We spent a bit of time looking at the totem poles near the dock - there was a very large one that could no longer safely stand, so they decided to lay it down, floating above the center of the mall where we did the dot painting.

A very big totem pole laying down in the mall. 

A couple of still standing totem poles. There should have been more, but they were out being reconditioned.

I stayed in the boat for the afternoon while the others headed out to explore the town. 

At 10:00 PM, the boat left the dock and headed back up river to our next stop, Hood River. This was going to be an all night trip involving going back through the lock.

Hood River

After the previous night of trying to sleep while the boat was cruising, I was a bit worried about doing that again the next night, especially since this would mean going past Portland's lights again and going through the lock. In the end, we upped our curtain closing game, so the lights were no issue, and the assorted cruising noises, including the lock transition, did not keep me awake at all - I got a very welcome good night's sleep. The boat arrived in Hood River at about 7:30 AM.

There were a number of fun sounding excursions out of Hood River (including the chance to feed and pet an alpaca and another shot at the e-bike thing), but it was not very nice out in the morning. Not a heavy rain, but a drizzle. 

Fun thing - we found out while riding the bus to downtown that there had been a 5K that morning, which explained why there were so many cars in the harbor's lot so early. If we had known about this, Mrs Notthat would have likely ran it, although as it turned out, the actual course was on the paved trail that we had previously done the e-bike ride on, so there would have been a shuttle bus ride to/from the start/finish. And it likely would have been a bit moist out. So maybe it was better that we hadn't known about it.

After going to downtown on the local loop bus (the cruise often had a bus or two that would loop around two or three stops so that we could jump on and off to see a variety of things that would be too far to walk to), Mrs and I spent the afternoon walking out to a museum near the dock. 

The boat stayed put overnight, 

Off to our last stop, back where we started in Stevenson

At 12:30 in the afternoon, we started the short trip from Hood River, OR to Stevenson, WA. Once there, several went off to check out the shopping opportunities. 

The three shoppers returning from downtown Stevenson.

The next morning was going to be pretty early since it was debarkation day. We were told they had 2.5 hours to get the boat ready to head out that afternoon with a whole new bunch of passengers. The rules were we had to set our luggage out in the hallway before going to bed and be out of our room by 7:30 AM at the latest. 

We woke up early on that last day to rain. It had felt like a minor miracle that we had so few issues with rain given the time of year, so having some on that last day was not an issue at all. 

It was about a 60 minute mostly scenic (so many waterfalls!) bus ride from Stevenson to the Portland airport, with a bit of rush hour traffic as we got close, but we still ended up at the airport about five hours before our flight. We could not check our bags into the airline though until four hours before our flight. This gave us a bit of time to do some last minute optimization of the packing. 

The was no Global Entry there (as there had been in San Francisco), so Mrs Notthat was forced to use the same TSA lines as me. And again, as had happened on the way out, I had to go through a pat down. (On the way out, I had left my watch on, but they were sure I had something in my pocket. I didn't.) This time they thought I had something at the bottom of my pants zipper. Weirdly, they said they would be happy if I took my shoes off so they could X-ray them. 

I swear they are just making this stuff up half the time. (They made me collapse my cane both times so it could go through the X-ray machine. Fun thing, when getting to my seat on the plane I asked what I should do with my cane and they said it had to go in the overhead bin unless I had the window seat, which I did. In that case, just put it out of the way next to the window.)

And in conclusion…

This was a fun trip! It would have been a lot more fun if I had a non-cranky hip - there were several excursions we would have taken if I had been able to manage the required exertion. (We booked this cruise long before I knew I had a hip issue that was going to require surgery a week after we got back.) 

I think doing the trip a bit later in the year would be better since it would be warmer and we could better take advantage of our balcony and the sun deck. (The trade off likely would be needing to fight off the bugs though.)

I think a river cruise is not for everybody, but it is perfect for someone like me that doesn't want all the hoopla and wildness of those huge mega-ships. For you runners, maybe you could compare this to running a local 10K vs. the Boston Marathon - two different experiences that attract very different people.

Give me the local 10K any day.

That's it - move along…

PS: I really didn't stress enough how great the crew was on this trip. They all were astonishingly good at what they were doing, and were desperate for us to be having a great time. From the tour of the pilothouse to the dining room to the entertainment - it was rare that we had any doubts about what was going on or what our options were. And I forgot to mention that I got a distant second place in a quiz about the Masters golf tournament!

PPS: One thing I had forgotten - when we arrived at baggage claim in Portland, we knew we were to go out and take the hotel shuttle. But there was a person there holding up an American Cruise Lines sign. I said "hi" to her and she looked at her clipboard and said "Welcome Mr Notthat (not your real name) to Portland! Once you have your bags I'll take you to where your shuttle will pick you up!" This was totally unnecessary, but it really made us feel like the cruise was already starting, kind of. A very nice touch.

Brazen Racing Almost New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

On January 1 in 2010, Brazen Racing held their first New Year's Day event. I ran the 10K that year, my first Brazen race, first trail race, and first 10K (I had walked a Marathon a few months earlier, so this was my second race of any kind). At the end of 2011, they added the Almost New Year's Eve event (and actually, that year it really was on New Year's Eve), pairing it up with their NYD event to make a fun way to kick out the old year and bring in the new one. 

Since then, I'd run that pair of races 10 times, missing the NYE event the last three years since it's always on a Saturday, and I was always booked that day with Byxbee parkrun. However, I'd never missed the NYD event, and had run it 14 times. (Note that both events were cancelled once due to COVID and the NYD event was cancelled in 2023 due to an epic storm that closed the park.)

With the Baylands parkrun shut down this year, I finally had the chance to run both events again, so Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the 5K for both events.

The NYE event started at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley (same place as the NYD event), was switched to Quarry Lakes in Fremont for a few years, then moved back to Lake Chabot. For the 5K, the Lake Chabot course is completely paved mostly out-and-back with some rolling hills, lots of trees, and wonderful lake views. (The 10K is a mostly out-and-back with The Bridge of Death and a challenging climb, while the Half Marathon goes around the lake, counter-clockwise on NYE and clockwise on NYD.)

What's all this about Streakers?

At the end of 2010, Brazen realized that three runners had run all 15 of their events that year, and decided to honor those three runners by giving them a permanent bib number, a couple shirts with that number on them, and a framed display with the medals from all of that year's events. (Actual streaker goodies have changed throughout the years.)

It was astonishingly cool. 

Little did Brazen know that they were starting something that would grow to be an epic undertaking, both on the runner's part and on their part. The next year, 18 people ran (or volunteered) at all 21 of that year's events. The NYE event has become known as Streaker Graduation Day - in 2017, Mrs Notthat and I graduated in a class of 52 new streakers, along with 38 returning streakers, all having participated in all 27 of their events that year. Yes, 90 people participated in all 27 Brazen events that year - astonishing!

Mrs Notthat and I on the red streaker carpet!

Our streaker shadow box (we opted for a combined one). We supplied the medals, and the bits around the edge are taken from the medal ribbons. (They no longer do these boxes.)

This year 36 people struck. Streaking is much harder than it looks like it should be. You really have to work hard to avoid having a vacation or some other event derail you. We found it challenging, and only did it one year - many have done it multiple years - several have done it ten or more times! There have now been 335 individual streakers that have struck (streaked?) a total of 645 times!

The Almost New Year's Eve event for 2025

It was a beautiful morning. Sadly, we failed to arrive in time to watch the graduation or get in on the annual streaker photo, but we got to wear our streaker shirts!

Mrs Notthat and I just before the start.

It was fun seeing so many people that we hadn't seen in a very long time. (My last Brazen race was 2025 NYD - Mrs Notthat's was Western Pacific in 2024.)

Mildly interesting, at least to me

To nobody's surprise, I have a spreadsheet that tracks a lot of things about the races we've participated in. There are also a few bonus spreadsheets that I've let get a bit out of date. 

One of those tracks how many Brazen races we've participated in, either as a runner or volunteer. I hadn't updated this one since mid-2022, so I decided it was time. Once I was done, I realized that when I ran the 2025 NYD race, that was the 200th Brazen race I had participated in! I would have bragged about that so much if I had known! (For the record, that was 182 races run and 18 volunteered at. This also counts 6 DNFs.)

All of that is to say that this was the 201st Brazen race I've participated in. For Mrs Notthat, it was her 168th.

Back to the NYE race

The actual race was uneventful. Most of the course is drenched in tree shade, but occasionally you would break out into a sunny section, which felt very nice.

The Canadian in the shade but also showing off the sunny lake view.

As I was pulling into the aid station, Ekim, not his real name, was really hoping to see some soda-can action (IYKYK) involving The Endorphin Dude (who is the one holding a "platter" of drinks). Amazingly, sodas did not come up at all!

Egroeg, not his real name, at the 5K turnaround. Note the conflicting arrows on the signs. Many teeth were gnashed.

After the turnaround, you get to head back through the aid station!

And that's about it for this race. There were 224 5K finishers (517 across all distances). Mrs Notthat came in 4th out of 8 in her age group while I was 11th out of 11 (I walked the 5K).

The New Year's Day event for 2026

Remember when I typed how beautiful the morning had been for the NYE event? The NYD event chose to make up for that. It was decidedly moist. Not a downpour, and no meaningful wind, but a steady rain made me very happy that the 5K course was entirely paved. (There was a time when I would have loved attacking a muddy trail in the rain, but man, that time was a decade or so ago.)

As opposed to the NYE event, the various awnings were very popular for postponing the inevitable drenching that you were facing.

 

Standing under a tree was almost as effective as standing under an awning.

Water Dumper was a fun volunteer position!

There are always great lake views, but there is something special about those views on a rainy day.

This waterfall was nearly dry at the NYE event.

The aid station volunteers were wildly enthusiastic - rain did not dampen their cheers, which could be heard a half mile away!

The 5K turnaround - note the synchronized arrows! No gnashing teeth today!

Nats, not his real name, loves flat and fast courses. He ran the 10K which, not only is NOT flat or fast, but in the rain, partially becomes a slip 'n slide. (Not to mention the Bridge of Death he had to cross twice!) Nats now has an epic trail race adventure to brag about for years to come, and ended up bringing a significant chunk of the trail home with him as proof.

The rain stopped just long enough for my traditional NYD photo with The Canadian. I've worn that thing on my head at this event 14 times now. 

There were 198 5K finishers (444 across all distances). Mrs Notthat ended up 2nd out of 10 in her age group! I ended up 5th out of 5 (again, I walked, but this time stopped to take a lot more pictures, even though wet touchscreens make taking pictures with a phone an adventure, and took nearly five minutes longer to finish than on NYE).

Let's wrap this up

We did it! Mrs Notthat and I finished our NYE/NYD events in glorious, if a bit soggy, style. My 15th NYD and 11th time running both events!

My medals, bibs, and pretty worn out NYD headgear.

As Brazen does at several paired up events each year, there is a bonus middle medal if you do both of the events.

It was so much fun catching up with so many of the Brazen regulars. It was also fun experiencing the Brazen race day experience - they create such a fun atmosphere, even in a steady rain! A huge thanks to Brazen Racing and all the amazing volunteers that made these events such a blast!

That's it - move along…