Wednesday, June 16

Today was largely spent at Crater Lake. I know that it's not on the Pacific Coast Hwy, but all year in Vancouver, people kept telling us how important it was not to miss Crater Lake - and so we worked it into our road trip. Anyhow, the day started out beautifully but as we began the ascent to the lake, it started snowing. Now, it wasn't dumping snow, just light flurries, but with the snow was tons of fog (or maybe it was clouds, we were up pretty high) which obscured our views of the lake.

After a while, we went in search of a visitor's center, and we were much less impressed with the information given at Crater Lake than we were at Olympic National Park. Maybe it was because Crater Lake is one of the more visited National Parks (like the Grand Canyon) and so most people just get out of their car, snap a few pictures, and then move on. At Olympic, there were tons of Park Rangers ready to give us lots of information about hiking, camping, and where to visit, but at Crater Lake there were just lots and lots of gift shops.

After the Visitor Center (gift shop) we had our lunch and then headed back out to see some of the overlooks again. It was clearing up and we were better able to take in the beauty and uniqueness of the landscape. All in all, I'm glad we visited, but if you ever go, wait until August when there are trails open to hike and more educational programs given by the Park Rangers.

Tomorrow we're off to the Redwoods to see some huge trees! I can't wait!

Tuesday, June 15

We set out relatively early from Cape Lookout to start our trip down the Oregon Coast, continuing our path on Hwy 101.  Our first stop of the day was the Otis Cafe which, according to our guidebook, served legendary breakfasts.  Our guidebook was definitely right, but could have reminded us that in small towns, $6 buys much more food than you could possibly eat.  Paul and I each ended up putting about half of what we ordered into the cooler to eat later.

From Otis (that is the name of the town as well as the cafe) we headed down the coast to Cape Foulweather, so named by Captain James Cook (yes, THE Captain Cook). Lucky for us, the weather was beautiful when we were there.  The cape offered us some wonderful views of the coast to the north and to the south, as well as out to sea.  Next we headed down to the Devil's Punchbowl, an unusual formation that, at high tide, looks like a separate "bowl" of water from the ocean.  At low tide, it was much less impressive.

Perhaps the most specacular views of the day came when we visited Cape Perpetua, where a point on the cape offers a view of about 70 miles of coast.  Along the short walk, a rain shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of the New Deal marks what has been popularly considered to be the best coastal view in Oregon.  Paul and I sure enjoyed the view as we had an afternoon snack (no lunch for us, Otis's was much too filling!)

For me, the highlight of the day was when we stopped just north of Florence at an overlook where we were able to look down and see at least 40 Sea Lions on a rock along the coast.  There were full-grown ones as well as small ones and they were a sight to see.  I don't think I've ever seen so many Sea Lions in one place, not even in a zoo.

After the Sea Lions, we headed in to Eugene, where we had dinner at the Bier Stein, which had been heartily recommended to us many times by fellow beer-geeks in Portland.  Neither the food nor the beer disappointed. The paninis were delicious, as was the soup and the beer selection was excellent.

Thursday, June 3 - Thursday, June 10

Holden Village!  My favorite place in the world.  Incredibly peaceful and relaxing!  Unfortunately, I didn't take great notes while we were there as to what we were doing, so let me summarize some of the high points of the trip.

• Uplake boat trip - the weather was gorgeous as we took the trip uplake, and it was wonderful to experience this with Paul for the first time.  Actually, many of the highlights from the week were re-experiencing things that were familiar to me but sharing them with Paul for the first time.  The scenery was beautiful as always!
• Chalet 2 - we definitely got lucky with our rooming situation.  Because we came in just as a wedding party was leaving and before the lodges were open for the summer, we ended up staying in Chalet 2 Room 10 which is widely considered to be the nicest room in the village.  We had our own seating area, bathroom, and small balcony looking out at the mountains.  The chalet also had a great living room, where we spent much time reading during the two days that it rained while we were there.
• Reading - Paul read 5 books in the week we were at Holden and I read two.  I blame my lack of reading on my knitting project, which brings me to...
• Crafts - I knit, knit, knit all week long.  I'm working on my first entrelac project ever.  It's from a book that Gracie gave me for Christmas of reproductions from the Vesterheim museum in Decorah, Iowa.  All of the projects are copies of Norwegian heirlooms they have in the museum.  My entrelac project is a stuffed sheep.  He is very cute and blue and yellow!  The entrelac was really difficult to master, but now that I have it figured out, it is going really well!  Paul also did some weaving while we were there.  He made a very beautiful rug.  It is green, yellow, and red and will be showcased in our apartment this fall. You'll have to come visit us so you can see it.
• Hiking - we took a hike out to Monkey Bear falls one day that was wonderful.  It had been a long time since I had taken a long (by my standards) hike, and I enjoyed the beautiful falls, the streams, the wildlife, and the peacefulness of the trip.  The highlight was seeing a baby deer on our return trip.  It was tiny!  His body was about the size of a dachshund, but his legs were much longer.  He couldn't even run yet.
• Bible Studies - Fred Niedner, from Valparaiso, was the Bible Study leader the week we were there, and I greatly enjoyed his discussions on the promises of God from the Hebrew Bible.  We talked about Noah, Abraham, and I greatly enjoyed being a member of the bible studies - and not the leader!
• Worship - these times were as precious as always for me.  We had Holden Evening Prayer, Prayer around the cross, and all of the wonderful Holden favorites.  It was wonderful to celebrate Sunday Eucharist without any of the anxiety and hecticness of a Sunday morning at St. Andrew.  I simply came with a calm and open heart, ready to discover God's presence and promises in my life.  It was truly a blessing.
• People - it was fun to reconnect with fellow Oles who are serving as volunteers at Holden as well as make new friends!  We met two other couples who were there as part of the Partners in Ministry program.  Hearing about their experiences in ministry, their sabbaticals and sharing some of my internship experiences with them was a great opportunity to debrief a little bit for me.

All in all, a wonderful week of relaxation.  We spent much time enjoying creation, in quiet relaxation, and in conversation with others.  

Wednesday, June 2

Finally we visited the Olympic Sculpture Park!  It wasn't as wonderful as I anticipated, but I did enjoy that Seattle obviously wanted this art to be public and accessible to people.  I enjoyed the setting of the sculptures, especially how the terraced paths led down toward the Sound.  The sculptures were hit and miss for me.

After the sculpture park we visited what I think was Paul's favorite part of the day.  Gas Works Park, located north of downtown, is the former site of a Gas company that the city turned into a park.  The remnants of the facility - now fenced off and left to rust - are strangely beautiful in a post-industrial kind of way.

Once we finished at the park, we were off to Chelan!  The drive was beautiful, especially the mountain passes, but the rain was aggravating and at times torrential.  Next stop: Holden Village for a week of true vacationing - or as Paul puts it, "Doing as little as possible for a week."

Tuesday, June 1

My one objective for today was going to the Olympic Sculpture Park, and that didn't happen... but we did do a lot of other fun stuff.  

We started our day by walking up to the Seattle Center (where the space needle is), where we went to the Experiencing Music Project / Science Fiction Museum.  I went to the EMP with my dad many years ago when we visited Seattle and I liked it a lot then, and I enjoyed both the Science Fiction museum and the EMP more than I expected.  The Sci-Fi museum actually had some interesting exhibits - Utopias/Dystopias in Science Fiction, etc.

The huge tower of instruments at the EMP was pretty fun to look at. They also had an exhibit on the history of electric guitars that was pretty interesting.  I'd never thought about how electric guitars were first used in Hawaiian music and then adopted by other genres.  It was interesting to see how the solid body electric guitar developed and how the major guitar makers in the US competed in the market.

After the museums we took the bus up to the Fremont neighborhood to check out Paseo, a Caribbean sandwich place that a friend in Portland told us about.  We were not disappointed!  The sandwiches were delicious - the roast pork was as good as our friend had told us.  After lunch we wandered around the neighborhood, including stopping by the (apparently famous) statue of a troll under an underpass nearby.  The weather was surprisingly good, and it was nice to just enjoy it.

We met David and Hannah at Brouwers for an early dinner before we headed to the Twins game.  They were crushed by the Mariners, which made for a painful game to watch, but one plus was that we got to see Safeco with the roof on, which was new to us.

Hopefully tomorrow we really will get to the Olympic Sculpture Park before we head over to Chelan.  We take the Ferry up to Holden on Thursday morning and will be there for a week.  I'm not sure what our internet availability will be tomorrow night in Chelan, but I'll try to write another entry tomorrow before we head uplake for a week.

Monday, May 31

My first 24 hours of unemployment have been spectacular!  I had a nice going-away party at St. Andrew yesterday, and our get together with Portland friends was much fun.  Our plan was to leave Vancouver at 9am, and we were out by 9:45, so I consider that a great success!

Paul came up with the idea of detouring to Mount St. Helens on our way to Seattle, which turned out to be a great success.  We stopped at the visitor center, where a park ranger gave a great introduction to the St. Helens and the eruption that was both informative and very accessible.  From there we took the 57 mile drive up to Johnston Ridge, which is the closest you can get to the northern side of the mountain, which is the side that blew off when it erupted.

Our first stop on our drive up was unsuccessful - it poured rain on us as we walked up the short path to the scenic overlook.  We decided to keep going up even though the weather wasn't really cooperating.

Part way to Johnston ridge there is a US Forest Service information center.  We pulled off because the weather was clear (for that moment).  It was actually really interesting, because you could see how when St. Helens erupted, the mud flows filled up the valleys where the rivers flowed.  Today there are streams through the mud that are constantly changing routes.

We got back on the road, hoping to beat the clouds that were following us.  We were lucky to get up to Johnston ridge just before the bad weather.  We got a few good views and pictures before we were enveloped in a huge rain cloud.  I guess that that's typical of the pacific northwest.

When we reached the ridge, the clouds were just high enough that we could see the base of the crater on the north side of the mountain where the volcano erupted sideways.  Although I'd learned about the different kinds of volcanoes in school, I didn't remember that Mount St. Helens erupted sideways, spewing rocks at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour into the trees around the mountain.  One of the eeriest things about the area around the volcano is that on the ridges around the mountain the sides that face the mountain are completely bare, or just starting to grow new trees while the other sides of the ridges are still covered with trees that survived the blast because of their location.

Just after we took our pictures, the clouds that had been following us up to the mountains arrived and it started to rain.  The limited visibility that we had was completely gone.  Turns out our timing was just right!

After St. Helens we headed up to Seattle, where we're staying in a very nice hostel.  I'm happy to report that it is both quiet and clean.  Pretty much as soon as we arrived we changed into our Twins jerseys and headed down to Safeco field, which is only about 2 miles from us.  The Twins-Mariners game was a fun one to watch - there were quite a few hits but it still managed to move quickly.  Safeco is a great park.  We were toward the front of the upper level behind home plate and it still felt like we were very close to the action.  There were a lot of Twins fans nearby us, and it's always fun to see your team win!

Tomorrow we're planning to check out the Olympic Sculpture Park and see another Twins game tomorrow night!