Thanks for everything...

This past holiday weekend was spent exploring the Oregon coast–a place that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to be anything BUT thankful. For everything.

We left for the coast around 4:30pm the day before Thanksgiving. Popped in a new mix and made the three-hour drive in the dark and intermittent rain from Hood River to our first stop, Oceanside. Early night.

Around eight the next morning, we left our coffee perch (comfy room with a big oceanfront window) at the historic Anchor Inn at Oceanside to head south down the coast. After a short drive, we hiked five-miles to the edge of Cape Lookout. The rain was pretty much turned off the entire two hours, but the wind at the lookout took my breath away like riding with your head out the car sunroof.

After Cape Lookout, we went south in search of some Thanksgiving Dinner. We enjoyed giant helpings of all the the turkey day essentials at the Pelican in Pacific City. After filling to the gills and ordering a growler to go, we continued our journey south.

At many of our stops, we hiked down to the beach to get closer to the water.

It's hard to believe what you see out of your car window.

That's why you have to get up close and personal.

These shots were taken on a very beautiful section of the Oregon coast–the fifty mile stretch just north of the Oregon/California border.


Hello rock friend. He came home with us.
On our third day, we crossed into California and spent some time in Redwood National Park. Besides Kauai, Washington, Oregon and California are the places where you wouldn't be surprised to turn a corner and run into a dinosaur.

These trees are B I G.

Tom and God on the Damnation Creek Trail–an enjoyable hike through old-growth redwoods that ends with rugged coastline.

There was a really cool bridge on the trail that reminded me of that bridge on Sesame Street with all the geometric shapes and the bridgekeeper wizard guy.

We spent our last night at Wild Spring. Incredible. I've never felt so relaxed at a place in my life. A beautiful place to get lost and find yourself, or just enjoy a great tea selection, a hot tub overlooking the pacific and make-your-own sundaes.

The placement of each object at Wild Spring made the environment very homey and welcoming–the antiques lending an air of tradition, which balanced perfectly with the luxury of the service and accomodations. Wild Spring feels like the kind of place where any living thing could find peace.

We were lucky to enjoy a few days of wonderful sunshine, including a spectacular sunset right on the water. A great way to spend a holiday weekend.

Mid-November Hikes

How's month two going? Amazingly, everyday is better. I can't resist the temptation to constantly explore!


Yesterday afternoon, we spent some time hiking around Starvation Creek State Park. The trail was damaged in spots from the crazy rain, but still enjoyable. We hiked to some waterfalls and a lookout point with sweeping views of the gorge.

Hiking along Starvation Ridge, we watched the misty clouds roll over the mountains. We had a birds-eye view of Highway 84. And as we gulped the fresh air, a big freight train zoomed by right below our feet.


The trail passed through some open areas that combine every green color you could possibly imagine.


On the way out of the trail, we passed some leaves that were hanging onto a barbed wire fence for dear life. The falling part of fall is coming to an end in the gorge.


The greatest thing about my new home in the Columbia River Gorge, beyond the extraordinary beauty, is the welcoming and adventurous people we've been spending time with! :)

This morning, Tom and I hiked Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls with some friends. I invited a bunch of people from work, and got 3 takers–a great little group of people. :) The trail runs along Eagle Creek for 13 miles to Wahtum Lake, but we opted for a 12-mile out and back day hike. The first waterfall of note is Punchbowl Falls.


Tom and I swam in there in July during our first visit to Oregon! The water was so cold that my ass actually HURT. But, swimming on your back and looking up at the mossy rock bowl surrounding you with that waterfall is like nothing else.

Andrea, Gerry and Tom admire the creek view.


And what a view...


Andrea shimmies across the slippy log.


The Eagle Creek trail is cut into the cliff-side and has sporadic waterfalls that drizzle on your head.


There are about six bridges that cross over the creek as the trail winds.


The great thing about these bridges is that they vary in height from the creek, so you get to experience a variety of perspectives.


Tunnel Falls is quite impressive.


Karl and Andrea walk the cliff-side trail nearing the tunnel that is actually cut through the rock wall behind the fall. They admire the power of the waterfall while modeling their matching blue raincoats. ;)


Our Sunday morning hiking crew–Tom, Karl, Andrea and Gerry–and me behind the camera, of course. :)


My IT bands, knees and hips are CRYING, but it was a GREAT day out. :)

Ode to My Buddies

It's been a while since I kept up with editing and sharing all of my photographs. This morning I sat down and started going through everything and I was so happy to find a whole bunch of pictures I took whilst adventuring with my buddies–aka, my niece and nephew. Sierra and Damian are my sister's spuds and they are SO AWESOME. :) We had a great summer together before I moved to Oregon. So, here's an Ode to My Buddies.


I saved itty bitty shampoo, conditioner and lotion bottles from my travels over the past four years so we could make secret potions. Sierra turned me into a chicken dog. We woke mommy up with all the racket.


This September, we hiked the Falls Trail at Rickett's Glen–one of my favorite state parks in Pennsylvania. Lush, old-growth forest of giant pine, hemlock and oak, some 500-900 years old! The Falls Trail is rated difficult, mainly due to the steep, rocky terrain, but that's what makes it so fun! Plus, my buddies are tough, so I knew they would enjoy it. My mom and I used to go hiking at RG a lot because there are more than twenty-two waterfalls in about a 4-mile loop. The trail loops through two gorges–Ganoga Glen and Glen Leigh. I like to end with Ganoga Glen because it is more scenic.


We didn't let the rain stop our adventure in the woods. It's the best time to hike a waterfall trail! Plus most people are at home curled up watching TV or eating "mash-uh-puh-tate-uhs" as Damian calls them, so, you pretty much have the place to yourself! I wouldn't be caught dead here on a sunny summer saturday. It's like a zoo.


Sierra is five. Recently, she learned how to spell PIZZA and MOM and memorized her phone number. This is very useful, since now she can call and order a P-I-Z-Z-A, give her call-back number and tell them to bill it to her M-O-M. ;)


Damian is four. He loves anything with wheels, especially trains and he also squeaks a lot. A cool dude for sure.


Sierra went to kindergarten this fall. Damian didn't start school til the following week.


He didn't seem to mind at all. Of course, we were playing at Knoebel's. I caught the brass ring for the first time in my whole life of riding this carousel! :)

I heart my buddies. O yeah, my sister is really rockin' too. :)

Elowah Falls

Early this morning I went exploring a new waterfall hike in the Gorge. The drive down "the ditch" was awesome–the shroud of clouds constantly revealing the gigantic tree-covered walls towering above me. I drove about 20 miles west towards Portland on 84 to the trailhead for Elowah Falls. Part of the trail system here is a section of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Before heading to Elowah Falls, I followed a spur trail of steep swichbacks about a mile up to Upper McCord Creek Falls. Pretty cool, right?


























After exploring Upper McCord Creek a bit, I hiked to the base of Elowah Falls.


















































This waterfall is AMAZING! It's so forceful that it creates giant waves in the pool below and a constant, soaking cloud of mist that literally drenched me in thirty seconds flat. It felt like standing in a crazy carwash. A great breath of fresh air on a Sunday morning. On my way out, I passed the only two people I saw on the trail. They said, "how is it down there?" and i replied, with water dripping down my nose, "WET." The guy said, "really?"– sounding a little concerned while shooting his wife a dirty look – since they were sans raingear. i laughed.

Last weekend, we went to Lost Lake, which boasts an incredible view of Mount Hood on clear days. The plan was to go there with some watercolors to draw and paint the mountain. It rained like crazy, but we decided to go anyway. You can never go wrong in Oregon, rain or shine. I'm really glad we went.


























It was a little chilly at Lost Lake and it actually snowed on us at one point!
There's a really cool trail that circles the whole lake.


At many spots around the lake, there are great places for picknicking right on the water. I'll be back to bbq in the summers for sure.


Two weekends ago, we went to Willamette National Forest for the weekend to bike the McKenzie River Trail. We hitchhiked 24 miles with our bikes to pick up the trail at Clear Lake. This lake is so cold that there is a forest preserved under water!


It was chilly willy. Frost and all.


























Clear Lake is big with fishermen.


























And a fun place to take photographs. :)
I heart national parks AND national forests.
Hope you liked the quickie of a few of the places we've been in the past month.

Black mummy and the mechanic

Tom says, "I don't look anything like a black mummy. More like a really retarded ninja. :("

haha.

I had a really fun halloween. I left all my wigs and capes in Pennsylvania, so I had to get creative this year.
A guy I work with, Karl and his wife, Andrea (who is from maryland and lived in philly for 6 years) have a band called "More Powerful Astronaut" and they were playing at one of the local bars in Hood River for halloween. Admission was $6 with a costume and $12 without, so it was good motivation to come up with a costume. When i got home from work that night, Tom and I spent 3 hours figuring out what we were going to be. I considered being a granny or a catholic school girl, but I decided I would wear my dark green dickies jumpsuit and a hat and smear grease all over my face. I was a grease monkey! I cleaned off my bike chain with a rag, but there wasn't enough dirt, so we smeared actual bike grease out of a tube and onto my face. i wouldn't have been surprised if i would have ended up with half of my face burned off from the chemicals in it. The things I do for authenticity!

We tried a couple different costumes for Tom–male nurse, park ranger. Finally, Tom found big rolls of black felt that he had and decided to be "black mummy". So, we cut the felt into strips and started experimenting with wrapping him up. We thought we had it figured out and we went to play kayak water polo in the community pool. about 20 people played on halloween night from 8:00-9:30. even the pope showed up (costume).

So, we raced home from the pool (a quick mile) and started getting our costumes on. It was 9:45 already. I got my stuff on pretty quick and then I helped wrap up the "black mummy". We ran out of felt and Tom had to go cut more. When he was going up and down the steps, his wrappings started to come off and I could hear him yelling and swearing. He came upstairs, frustrated and sweating through the felt, and said, "This black mummy is the worst idea I've ever had. It's falling all apart. I'm not going to make it to the party." I assured him that I could fix his mumminess and I tied the wrappings on him in so many spots and so tight that I couldn't imagine how he was going to take a leak. haha. So, he was pretty worried that his costume sucked and that it was going to fall off. Off to the party anyway! When we came around the corner where the bar is at, all these people were standing outside and they gasped and were all like "black mummy is awesome", so then Tom was happy and yelled, "black mummy power!" and "NOBODY Fs with black MUMMY!" comic relief from black mummy.

The party was really fun. The band was AWESOME! We danced and Tom went up on stage for the costume contest. We had a black mummy cheering section, but we couldn't beat the guy dressed up like a mexican. There was also a dude dressed up as a hospital patient complete with crutches. he spent most of the night hitting people with his crutches while he "danced" in a drunken stupor. we took bets on how many minutes it would be before he fell to the floor. he had a fluid bag filled with fake blood attached to a stick on his shoulder that ended up popping open and soaking some of my co-workers. at that point, i took away his crutches and hid them. all the people around us were giving me "thank-you-for-saving-me" eyes. kind of ironic that the guy with the crutches was injuring people. there was also a chick dancing around like she needed to get F'ed. She was up on stage with her crotch up in the air, starting to undo her own jeans and pushing some guys face in her crotch. i'm sure she makes her mother proud. Let's tie this all together in a nice bow that makes sense: On my way out of the bar, I used the ladies room. I heard yelling and a scuffle in the hallway. When I opened the door, the slutty crotch chick and the hospital patient guy were in a fist fight in the hallway. Black mummy and the mechanic were NOT amused. hehe. All in all, a GREAT halloween!

Fun, fun time. missed taking my buddies trick-or-treating though. :)