A pink sunrise and calm seas was an auspicious start for our return trip home, with stops at churning, restless waters, grand bridges, stunning viewpoints, and a steep muddy hike.
Hike
Storm Watching
When we planned this four day vacation last month, I assumed it would be a storm watching trip, and found a hotel with lots of windows right smack up to the water. I envisioned cozy indoor time in our little nest, gazing out at the wild surf.... The rain swept in as a steady flow from the south. Looking out the window started to feel like being snow blind - white on white, with barely a glimmer of blue or green.
Oregon Coast Winter
Day two of an Oregon adventure. Setting off southward, we drove and stopped and drove and hiked and drove and stopped some more. That's the Oregon coast, thick with rest stops, viewpoints, waysides, and more. You can't get far because you want to stop at them all.
On the Road Again
Finally, everything aligned, and it was time to get out to the Oregon coast. I packed every bit of warm clothing, binoculars and bird books, notebooks and fiction, and we set out to the south in a drizzle. The sky was a tumult of grays and whites, and we drove over rivers, between pastures, past wetlands and bogs...
Elk Rock Garden in Fall
So much to see in this little botanic garden. Enjoy an early autumn walk with me - the micro, the macro, the sublime.
From a Distance
Being with children side by side and from a distance.
Between Mountains
Around each turn road signs point into the dense forest, beckoning toward hidden pleasures lying in wait: a thousand trails, over a hundred lakes, and a variety of landscapes and viewpoints beyond.
Natural Miracles
To walk with children is to slow down and see differently instead of the movie that plays in my head - you know, the thinking, projecting, dreaming, remembering, planning, spinning. Children are awake to the present moment, curious about things I no longer attend to or things I think I already know about....
Big Obsidian Flow
Mounds of lava pile up near Oregon's eastside rivers and roads, a bleak, barren sideshow alongside all the greenery. Standing in the midst of it is to be in another world, mind swept clean.
Flowery Friday
An afternoon hike led to a sweet estate garden out in the 'burbs.
Rivers and Roads PDX 