Cherries and Redwoods

Post from Thursday:

I didn’t have a chance to write yesterday because by the end of the night, both cherries and a two-mile run had plumb wore me out.  I know what you’re thinking… two miles? Really Amy? That’s pretty pathetic.  But combine the run with eating almost an entire pound of cherries I bought at Pike Place Market in Seattle yesterday morning, and you’ll figure it out.

We had a lovely morning exploring the market yesterday before we left Seattle.  Layla came with us this time, as we were told dogs were welcome in most parts of the market.  As mentioned before, I indulged myself in fresh fruit (white cherries, raspberries, peaches, oh my!), and we both got piroshky’s from this amazing bakery for breakfast.  And yes, I did the cliché thing and bought a coffee from the original Starbucks location… blah blah blah.

We marveled at the beautiful, cheap bouquets of flowers and Jordan promised me that if we weren’t traveling on the road right now, I’d be getting one of those bouquets. I’ll just have to take his word on it.  And watching the fish get thrown was a highlight, too.  Layla really enjoyed all the smells.

However, we learned something new again about our cute, furry little traveler… she does not like golden statues of pigs.  Jesus doesn’t either, kid. Amen.

Before we left town, Jordan decided to get his hair cut at this place next to the campground.  No worries… his facial hair will remain untouched until the end of this 5-week leave (yippee!), but his hair needed some attention. $21 and the Worst Hair Cut Ever later, he left very unhappy and uneven.  We ended up spending more money in Eugene to get it fixed.  Don’t go to Hair Masters in Bellevue, WA.  You’ve been warned.

After Jordan’s hair issues were dealt with (I swear he’s usually not this HM*), we browsed through the University of Oregon’s Duck Store, bought a tee, and strapped on our running shoes.  When we were here two years ago, Hayward Field was closed for repairs.  A devastating day in Jordan’s life, for sure.  But this year, some people setting up for a meet were kind enough to allow us to run a few laps around the famous track, thus fulfilling and checking off one of his “dream sheet” items.  And after our run, we even got pizza.  He was one happy man last night.

Today, we are on our way to Redwood National Park, where we will briefly set up our camper for one night and enjoy the sights. 

We made it to Redwood State and National Park this afternoon!  All I can say is, WOW. We are sooo soo small, and our God is soo soo big to create such massive beauties.  I am completely breath taken.  And our pictures will not do these trees justice.

We are camping at Elk Prairie Campground, a beautiful little place with huge Redwoods surrounding every site.  It finally feels like we are camping after over a week on the road. No more parking lots for us!

We enjoyed a nice steak, broccoli, and mac ‘n’ cheese dinner, and then took a short walk on one of the trails.  We had plans to enjoy the rest of the evening by a campfire, as we haven’t had a chance to burn any of our wood yet.  Alas, as soon as we got back to the site, a thunderstorm took over our fun and rained us out.  Jordan still made a fire though to burn up the wood, as we don’t have room for it anymore.

Why, might you ask?  Well, my woodworking hubster of a man just couldn’t resist stopping by a place that was selling chunks of Redwood and he purchased a couple LARGE pieces.  He has plans to make a table out of one of them, and bowls out of another. I can’t wait!

Tomorrow we go to San Jose and spend the weekend with my oldest, bestest friend Megan.  We’ve known each other since we were 3, and it’s been a year since I’ve seen her. I can’t wait to explore San Francisico with her and eat yummy food!

*High Maintenance (adj.): describing one who takes excessive amounts of time, energy, and resources to please and even then, is probably not fully satisfied.

Pike Place Market in Seattle, pre-cherries.

Layla and I standing in front of the dreaded golden pig... 

This is the place where Jordan bought his wood

The "Big Tree"... yup. It was big.

Holy moly! That's a big clover! 

There was a cool trail we took that walked over this fallen tree

Garmin Grumbles

Thanks to all who gave me advice on removing the awful stench from my camper fridge. We have bleached it twice with Comet, removed any milk products, and tonight, the salmon just had to go.  It’s a losing battle.

But if the “something seriously died and is rotting” smell in the fridge wasn’t bad enough, Jordan opened up the mayonnaise jar right in front of me this morning to make his sandwich.  I was accosted by what can only be described as putrid, sour cream.  Ew.

Now we are sitting in our “parking lot” campsite in Bellevue, WA, unwinding from a cray-cray day on the roads.  British Columbia wins for being the scariest place to drive through.  We literally passed through a place called “Hell’s Gate” tonight.  ((Shudder))

We are ecstatic to be back in our home country, where the sounds of highway traffic and $4.00 gallon/gas are comforting.

Before I close, a little “memorable moment” of today if you will:

We have become very fond of our Garmin Tuvi GPS.  She has helped us tremendously while driving unfamiliar roads over the past two years.  However, today I was just about ready to throw her out the window and forget she ever existed.  Yesterday she misguided us not once, but twice down dead-end backcountry roads rather than on the popular highway right next door.  Today, we tried to outsmart her with a double-whammy of Milepost and road atlas and take the highway anyways.  For 40 miles she tried to revert us back onto back roads instead of re-routing to the highway we rebelliously took. It wasn’t until almost Seattle (300 miles into our trip today) that I decided to play around with the settings.  Turns out, the whole time there was a setting on there telling the Garmin to avoid highway routes. Oops.  With a click of a button, she was back on track and showing us the best way possible to find our parking… err, I mean campground. Note this for future use.  She’s reinstated into the family again.

Early to bed for us tonight so we can be early to rise and get to Pike Place Market and Starbucks!

A little scenery of our ride through Canada.

FINALLY.

Making good use out of our equipment as this place didn't even give us a picnic table.

Happy birthday, Jordan!

What better way to turn 27 than on the open roads of British Columbia?  Where the gas is way overpriced, as well as the beer, and the rolling hills and farms keep you marveled for hours.  As we sort of already celebrated Jordan’s birthday two nights ago with the Whitneys (Sandra and I made the guys brownies in her camper as Clint’s birthday is next week), today was just a special day to spend together.  This is only the third birthday I’ve been able to spend with Jordan in nine years together.

We took our time this morning to get going, knowing we had a short day on the road and it was okay to relax.  In fact, the first thing we did was Skype with Jordan’s mom from inside our camper so she could wish a happy birthday to her son.  I’m loving that most of these campgrounds have wi-fi accessible right from your site.

Nothing really special or exciting to report from our trip today.  Jordan wanted to buy a couple beers for his birthday, and was shocked that a six-pack cost $15!  Guess free health insurance in Canada is paid for in beer tax.

We ended up at Clinton Pines Campground in Clinton, BC.  We found this place two years ago on our way to Alaska and loved it so much, we decided to return.  Clinton is a rinky-dink little village town of about 740 residents.  After we set up at the site, we took a ride into “town” to explore.  Well, apparently everything shuts down at 6pm in Clinton on a Monday night, because nothing was open except for an antique store we browsed through. 

A couple of guys camping near us came over to admire Layla and tell us they had a dog just like her.  So I thought, “Why not? I’ll let her off the leash to go say hello.”

Big. Mistake.

The little stinker ran up the hill, into the woods, took a nice poop in a place I wasn’t able to get to myself to clean up (sorry Clinton Pines Campground Management), and just kept on running.  Every time I called her name, she’d look at me and run a little faster.  She got clear across the campground before I was able to corner her on someone else’s site.  Needless to say, she’s lost all off-leash privileges for awhile.

I made skillet-chili tonight and Jordan washed it down with a carrot cake cupcake we picked up in Prince George.  Laundry is done.  Dishes are put away.  And I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight before we hit the good ol’ US of A tomorrow!

Now if I could only figure out how to get that nasty “there’s something dying in your camper refrigerator even though you’ve bleached it twice and there’s no rotten food in there” smell to disappear….

(Pics won't upload so I'll try again tomorrow)

Noah showing off his basketball jammies (see yesterday's post).

The "Real Canadian" Superstore... Don't worry folks, Walmart was just down the road.

Happy traveler!

Jordan standing in front of an antique covered wagon

Beautiful view from our campsite!

Birthday cupcake for the birthday boy!

Sports-movie Junkie

This morning Noah came out of the camper on a mission to make us laugh. Well, maybe he didn’t intend to, but he was hilarious. Six year olds I tell ya… they get ya every time.

For the third time in the past week, Noah asked me if I liked his basketball pajamas.

“Yeah buddy, they’re sweet.”

“Thanks. They were only $3 from Kohls!”

See? Even 6 year olds appreciate a good deal.

Then, Jordan joins the conversation, and it somehow gets to the topic of watching sports movies.

Noah exclaims ever so seriously, “I don’t want to be that kind of person.”

“What kind of person, Noah?”

“The kind that watch sports movies. I just haven’t decided what kind of person I want to be yet.”

Yep. If you’re smiling while reading this, just imagined my giggles when I heard it.

After eating a wonderful breakfast with the Whitney family, and hugging them extra tight, we packed up and said “see ya later” for a few weeks when we meet up again in Omaha.

Jordan and I traveled alone today for the first time in days.  The walkies got shut off, there was no one to greet at each gas stop, and my heart just ached.

We talked for awhile today about why it hurts to much to say goodbye to our friends.  Its like this deep ache, because I open my heart up to people and love them deeply and then sooner or later, I have to move away and make new friends. The old ones are still friends, but we no longer get to live life with them each day.  And it just. plain. hurts.

It got me thinking about what Noah said this morning about not knowing what kind of person he wanted to be.  Am I the kind of person I want to be?  Have I fully committed and made the decision that I will not be a sports-movie watching junkie?  Well, yeah, I hate sports movies, but you get the drift.

I want to be someone who leaves ripples wherever she goes.  Because if I don’t make a mark… if I don’t leave my love and heart and soul in these places… what’s the point?  I wouldn’t be able to come to terms with moving for the third time in four years.  I wouldn’t be able to bear the pain that comes with saying goodbye.  I wouldn’t be able to move on and make new friends in our new home.  If I don’t leave Jesus in my place, my life would be one big meaningless vacation around the world.  I mean, vacation’s great and all, but it’s not life.  And I want life in the fullest, through leaning on the everlasting God who makes this whole life worth it.

I miss my friends tonight.  Quite simply, my heart just aches.  The lump in my throat is like a new organ, come to stay and camp out for awhile.  While it is my desire to leave a mark and impression in the lives of my friends, you all have to know my ambition to do this all comes from the impressions you’ve made on my life.  I love you… I thank you deeply… I miss you wholly.  And your love for me has encouraged me to live my life as a reflection of that love.

So there ya go.  Sap-tastic entry for the night complete.  Just had to get it out there, because sometimes I feel the only way I can express myself is through my writing. Goodnight friendsJ