Day 8: Week 2 begins

Kim and Carolyn arrived safely on Friday in Seattle and we are now a foursome again! After a brief stop at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, we joined Keith, Katie, Emily, and Megan for dinner in Mill Creek. After another enjoyable evening with them, we are ready to head north to Whistler, BC.

Day 7: Rain, rain, rain

Well, it is a rainforest. So what else should we expect? Besides, if it wasn't raining in the rainforest, it just wouldn't look right, now would it? That being the case, today the rainforest looks perfect, because it hasn't stopped raining since...since we got here, pretty much. But that hasn't dampened our spirits. We hiked about 4.5 miles this morning through this temperate rainforest, seeing all manner of spruce, cedar, fern, and other water loving vegetation. It's amazing to think that for every inch of rainfall we get in Tucson annually, here they get a foot. That's right: they average 12 feet a year in precipitation! It's very cool to watch the clouds/fog drift across the lake and through the moutains as the rain moves from mist to downpour back to mist again. Besides the hike, it makes for a lazy day napping (Myles) and reading by the fireplace (Robert). Time to start thinking about dinner...

View of the lake from the lodge deck


A trail that disappears into the rainforest...


Robert on the boardwalk in the cedar bog


Myles and Robert on the largest Sitka Spruce tree in the world


"Sleepy" Falls (you'll have to ask Robert)

Day 6 evening: So much for strategic decisions!

After beginning our drive this morning, we could see Mt. St. Helens in the distance and decided it was clear enough to get a closer look. So we drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory and were awed by the sheer power and destruction caused by the 1980 eruption. We stopped at one of the gift shops and had lunch on the deck, staring at the mountain in the distance. It was definitely worth the trip.

We still wanted to take the long way to Lake Quinault, which turned out to be a beautiful drive along meandering rivers and forests so thick that they are forever shrouded in darkness. I've never seen trees so thick, and Robert commented that he had never seen a Fire Danger sign that indicated "Low."

So now we are sitting in the gorgeous main room of Lake Quinault Lodge. A small fire is burning in the massive fireplace, a gentle rain is falling, families are playing cards and chess, another couple is on their computer (so much for lack of internet access), I'm sipping a Widmer Hefeweizen, and Robert is texting away on his phone. Tomorrow we will venture out onto the trails, especially the Quinault Rain Forest, and see what we can see.

Mt. St. Helens with beautiful wildflowers (notice the steam wafting up from the dome)


Robert and Myles at Mt. St. Helens

Day 6: Heading to Lake Quinault

Robert and I have made a strategic decision this morning to skip trying to see Mt. St. Helens (again) today on our way back up to Washington. It was too cloudy to see on Sunday when we came down from Seattle, and it is cloudy today as well. We did get a glimpse of it (I think) yesterday coming in to Portland. Mt. Hood looked spectacular as well! But we're not complaining - two days of nearly cloudless skies was wonderful!

So, we are going to take the long road to Lake Quinault, following the Columbia River to the coast on Hwy 4, then catching Hwy 101 through Aberdeen and up to the lake. If the weather clears by the time we get to the Longview/Kelso area, we might decide to detour back to the volcano. We shall see...

Also, the town of Quinault appears to be quite small - in other words, I'm not sure what kind of internet access we'll have there. So, if we are silent on the blog for a couple of days, you'll know why.

Oh yes, our adventure at Powell's lasted for about 5 hours. I'm sure we didn't see everything either. But we did purchase 10 books, a map of British Columbia, a yo-yo, a T-shirt, and an action figure! The day ended perfectly with some gelato ice cream across the street!

Day 5: Wahclella Falls and Powell's

This morning we hiked the short 1.8m up Tanner Creek to see Wahclella Falls. It really should be named Wow-clella Falls. Wow! It was awesome! After lunch at - you guessed it - our favorite pizza pub (we ate two lunches and two dinners there), we drove to Portland, checked into our hotel for the night, and proceeded to the largest new and used bookstore in the world: Powell's City of Books. After three hours, we thought we had better rest and have dinner. So we had a lovely dinner at PF Changs, sitting outside on the sidewalk in downtown Portland. Beautiful. I'm typing this in Powell's coffee shop before heading back into the three floors of books spread over an entire city block. Beautiful. We'll try to not blow our entire trip budget here - but it's going to be tough!

Tanner Creek


Robert at Wahclella Falls


Myles and Robert at Wahclella (thanks to a couple from Columbus, OH)


Ahhh...Powell's City of Books, downtown Portland, OR

Day 4, Part 2: Beauty beyond words...

What a phenomenal day! The weather was perfect! We hiked a total of about 8.5 miles and saw seven incredible waterfalls: Punchbowl and Metlako (see earlier post), Horsetail, Wahkeena, Bridal Veil, Latourell and Upper Latourell. This gorge is amazing: beauty beyond words:

Horsetail Falls


Robert on the trail


Robert at Wahkeena Falls


Robert being goofy in a tree


Myles being goofy in a tree


Robert at Bridal Veil Falls


Robert at Latourell Falls


Beautiful wildflowers


Upper Latourell Falls

Day 4: Hike to Punchbowl Falls

Robert and I headed up Eagle Creek this morning to see Punchbowl Falls (pictures below). It is an absolutely beautiful day! We also got a nice view of Metlako Falls on the way. Last night, we had dinner at the popular Salmon Row Pub which was delicious! We went back there today after the hike to get Robert a sandwich and I had left-over pizza from last night. We will likely go there for dinner tonight as well, so you know it must be good! We ate lunch on our hotel balcony looking out at the river, just enjoying the quiet and beauty of the Columbia River. This whole area is just filled with beauty - it is hard to describe it all. So we'll let the pictures tell a thousand words...

Robert on the trail


Eagle Creek


Eagle Creek


Upper Punchbowl Falls


Upper Punchbowl Falls (darned tree...)


Local wildlife on the trail


Metlako Falls

Day 3: On the way to Cascade Locks, OR

We visited the Boeing Everett plant today with Keith and family and took their tour. It was different (i.e., much shorter) from the last time we took this tour, but we did get to see history being made. The very first Boeing 787 "Dream-Liner," scheduled to be delivered on July 8, 2007, was still in the hangar for us to see. I think they have a lot of work to finish between now and July 8!

Robert and I then headed south for Oregon. We stopped by the Mt. St. Helens visitor center but the day was very cloudy and rainy, so we will try again to see the volcano on Wednesday. On our way to the motel through the Columbia River Gorge, we paused long enough to snap some pictures of Multnomah Falls - absolutely beautiful!

Robert is having fun (he just doesn't smile for pictures)


Upper Multnomah Falls


Lower Multnomah Falls


Multnomah creek


Hey look, the sun came out!


View of the Columbia River from our room

Day 2: Beautiful Seattle

We arrived safely in Seattle today, and it was afreakingmazing! (that was Robert, obviously) We met Keith and went to Pike Place Market to watch the flying fish. Then we had a nice dinner on the Seattle waterfront in the sun without getting hot! Amazing. It is 40 degrees cooler here than Arizona. Amazing. Robert wants to live here (there are worse choices, for sure...)

Day 1: Sold out

Well, now we're convinced that 1408 must be pretty good because the 8:30pm show was sold out. I hate it when that happens. So our informal review will have to wait...

But we did get to see the International Space Station again! Even in the heavily illuminated Arizona Mills parking lot, it was the brightest light in the sky besides the moon. Very cool.

Day 1: Let the adventure begin

We started out this morning around 6:15am, leaving Tucson to pick up my daughter and her friend from a camp in Prescott. Lunch at The Office was terrific as usual. Then we drove to Phoenix, where the girls dropped off my son and I at Arizona Mills. After a couple of loops around the mall, one Nintendo DS Browser, two $10 CDs at the Virgin Megastore, a shirt from Eddie Bauer, and a light dinner in the Food Court, we have decided to see the movie 1408. Of course, Robert only agreed after a friend of his texted him and said it was the best movie ever! We'll let you know.

By the way, it is currently 108 degrees in Phoenix...and it's almost 8:00pm. I wanted to snap a photo of a temperature sign, but it was too hot to get out of the car...

We just saw the coolest thing!

We just watched the Space Shuttle and International Space Station fly across the sky! Thanks to my son, who had a list of dates, times and locations in the sky for Tucson, we were able to watch two small lights move across the northeastern sky just a few minutes ago. We watched for about two minutes before they disappeared, being blocked by the shadow of the earth. Very cool! Go here to select your state and city to see if you can see them as well in the next few days.

Speaking of vacation...

On Friday, my son, Robert, and I leave for vacation. We are flying to Seattle and going to go explore the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and Olympic National Park in Washington. My wife and daughter, Carolyn, will fly out the following Friday and then we will all spend a week in Whistler, British Columbia. Our plan is to post each day with highlights and photos so that all y'all can follow our adventures. I guess I should experiment a little with uploading photos to see how well that works. So, here's a before an after of our recently remodeled backyard:

Before...

After...

23 Hours of Ordinary Moments

To celebrate Kim's completion of the LSAT (even though we still don't know the score yet) and 21 years of marriage (a few days late), I surprised her this past weekend and took her to The Westin La Paloma here in Tucson. We had a nice dinner, took a walk, sat in the jacuzzi, slept in the Westin Heavenly Bed (ahhhh), read, had cold slushy drinks by the pool, slept some more, read some more, ate some more - it was a great 23 hours of simply being together with nothing pressing to do. Plus, it was a nice precursor to our upcoming vacation beginning on Friday. More about that later...

A Big Day

Yesterday was a very big day for my wife, Kim. She took the LSAT as part of her pursuit to begin law school in fall of '08. Now the wait begins for her to receive her score - hopefully no more than 3 weeks from now. After the test, I met her and some of her Kaplan compadres for drinks and laughter at Frog n Firkin. Regardless of the score, at least she is done for now and we could celebrate the end of that chapter of life! Now, if we only knew her score...

Enjoying each moment along the way

Our current Sunday morning series in my church is called Dream Makers. We have been discussing the essence of dreams, of God's whispering in our lives. This morning, Kevin said something which really struck me. He talked about how enduring simply means getting through something, like a trip to the dentist. Persevering, on the other hand, means not missing the moments along the way:

"The whole process of a dream being pursued, even the obstacles to overcome or the discouragements to get through, every piece of this moment to our dream being fully grown is a beautiful moment. And persevering means enjoying each moment along the way for what it is, celebrating each moment in each step, knowing that this is part of the dream. The pathway there is part of the dream."

Are there things in my life that I am merely enduring instead of persevering? Are these things getting in the way of my dreams?

Project complete...almost

My body is very mad at me. My irrigation project is mostly complete, but only because of two things: the power of Ibuprofen and the friendship of Cliff. I've known Cliff for 21 years - he hired me for my first real job. When the company moved us to Tucson, we ended up on the same street together, along with many other friends and co-workers! He retired about five years ago, but stays very active helping neighbors with projects like mine. He saw me working Friday morning and decided to join me for about four hours on Friday and 6 hours today! I wouldn't be anywhere near finished had it not been for Cliff's selfless act of service. His wife, Linda, even went to the local farmer's market and got us each a BBQ pulled-pork sandwich (...cue heavenly music...). Sitting on the ground in the shade, eating a pork sandwich at 9:30am, and talking and laughing with Cliff was my special ordinary moment today. I'm going to go nap now...

A "Big" moment

Today marks 21 years of wonderful marriage for Kim and I. Just so you don't think I'm a forgetful goof, she was at class while I dug trenches and buried drip lines...but she's going to like the cards I got her.

A beginning

I've often wondered what I would post if I had my own blog. Would I post frequently? Would it be cheesy? Would anyone else read it? Well, these are questions that will be answered in time, I suppose. For now, I'm not going to worry about any of those questions and just take it as it comes. Fair enough?

Here was my ordinary moment today. Our drip irrigation system in the front yard is 13 years old and essentially, dead. I killed it, because it was leaking badly in multiple spots. I will be on vacation for two weeks later this month, so I thought I should try to fix it so we'd still have living plants when we return home. This may not have been the best idea. I now have 600mg of Ibuprofen in my system, and I hope it works by tomorrow morning. Pain alerts us that something is wrong, right? Well, something is wrong. But tomorrow will be a new day with more dirt, rocks, drippers, and water spraying me.