Summer trip ideas offered to residents on campus

Staying on campus for the summer does not have to be as boring as it may seem. Students just have to know where to find the fun.

It is no secret that there are boundless opportunities for outdoor adventures in the Forest Grove area.

One of the adventures you could take this summer is taking advantage of the warm weather and enjoy cooling off in a river or lake. Hagg Lake is only a 20 minute drive from campus, and in addition to beautiful views, offers opportunities for hiking, swimming, boating and stand-up paddle boarding. Paddle boards, canoes, kayaks, row boats and fishing boats are available for rent at Mad Jack’s BBQ, Bait and Boat, located on the lake.

In addition, Lee Falls on the Tualatin River is renowned as one of the best and most beautiful swimming holes in Oregon and is only an hour from Forest Grove.

Aside from all of the outdoor activity, there are plenty of fun summer things to do in the area. Starting July 1 and running through August, free outdoor summer concerts will be held every Friday night in Tualatin. Concerts on the Commons, as they are called, start at 6:30 p.m. and are held at the plaza on the Lake of Commons, only 45 minutes from campus.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI, is a fun and fascinating place to spend an afternoon in Portland.

Visitors can create their own chemistry experiments and watersheds, play with dinosaur fossils and 3-D printers, go inside a solar panel, control a wind turbine and an entire power-grid, watch a film on OMSI’s towering Imax screen, and that’s only the beginning. OMSI is in downtown Portland, only 40 minutes from Forest Grove.

For those willing to take a day trip to the beach, the Oregon Coast Aquarium is a must-see. One of the coolest parts of the aquarium is Passages of the Deep, a glass tunnel cutting right through the shark tank. Observers can watch sharks, stingrays, and eels swim over, under and to the sides of them.

This is only a small sample of the fun and fascinating things to do in the area. Those staying in Forest Grove this summer will have a hard time saying “There is nothing to do around here” as an excuse for a boring summer.