PNW 2015

Well, now that I'm back and settled down from a few crazy weeks of travel, I've remembered to post pictures from our adventures. This is mostly for posterity (and my mother's) sake since I've moved them from my phone to my external hard drive. So, phone dump it is...

I think this might be my favorite photo of the trip. Haystack Rock at sunset...it was incredible. 

Of course we had Voodoo Doughnuts...and mom had a fritter the size of her face. Literally. 

I have about a million (ok...fewer than that but whatever) pictures at the International Rose Test Garden but here are just a few.

Toes in glacier water...

Skeeball break!

Windsurfing in the Columbia River Gorge (not any of us, sadly). 

Mt. St. Helens is just above the treeline on the right half of the picture...

We had a lovely trip and were hosted by my mom's lovely friend Ellie and her family. She was the best hostess and chauffeur and we saw so many great things. I'm thankful for the chance to travel with my mom and my sister, as that never happens anymore these days. Sweet memories were made!

Busy summer.

The only place it has been quiet and calm this summer is right here on the ole' blog. It's been a crazy summer so far and the next few weeks are going to bring about more of the same.


I'm still doing lots of pottery. Trying to get to the studio one afternoon per week and I've already gifted a couple of mugs that were meant to be Christmas gifts but I got too excited and gave them to their new owners already. I'm still quilting too. In fact, I did both pottery and quilting yesterday so I'd call that a good day. I volunteered with the pottery studio at the local Creative Discovery Museum while they did some hands-on wheel demos for the kids. It was awesome seeing the kids - of all ages, even some teenie ones - try their messy hands on the pottery wheel. Faces lit up and all kinds of muddy excitement - but then, I feel the same way!


Finished my 4th quilt this morning after sitting under it sweating with a cat on my lap while I finished sewing on the binding. Hand sewing binding is a pain in the rear (and the fingers for that matter) but it looks so nice when it is done that it is absolutely worth it. I'd take a picture but there is a corgi sitting on it right now and I'd hate to disturb her.


More crazy coming: in the next 4 weeks, I'll spend one weekend at camp for an event, a couple of days in Knoxville, make a 2 day trip to Columbus (dad is having his pacemaker replaced), make a 3 day trip to Chicago for work, and then make a 6 day trip to Portland and Seattle with my mom and my sister. I'm looking forward to most of those things...the one I'm not should be pretty obvious (always worried about my dad).


For now, I'm relishing in my third department budget being finished...and in record time. I finished it the same day I got the spreadsheet which is pretty incredible for a team that has at least 22 unique events coming up in the next year. I'm learning a lot about managing a team and writing budgets and made some improvements this year to make it easier on myself.  It'll go for approval this week and I'll have to make some edits but in general, it's mostly done!


Talk to you all again in...2 months or so. Kidding but not.

Photo Dump - Pacific Northwest

Here is a giant photo dump of our trip with a few captions. This is about 1% of the photos I took but since they won't mean as much to you as they do to me, I won't bore you with the 300 of them. :)

These first few are from Vashon Island (Seattle) so they are a little out of order but the rest of them should be in the right order...

 

I got squirted on by multiple gooey ducks.

If you don't know what these are, click the link. Mike Rowe will explain and it will change your life.

Apparently no walk on the beach at low tide is safe in the PNW.  

The driftwood was mind blowing. And beautiful.

Beach on Vashon Island

 

We flew over the Rockies and they were amazing. One day we will RV our way out there. Hello bucket list.

In the Columbia River Gorge...

Columbia River Gorge

Proof that we both went on this trip.

Columbia River Gorge

(Chad spent most of the trip with hot tea in his hands. It wasn't all that cold but super windy. And we made a trip to the Stash tea store our first full day in Portland and he enjoyed it the rest of the trip.)

One waterfall in the gorge.

Another waterfall in the gorge.

Further proof that all 3 of us were there.

Everything is wet and mossy.

Literally. Everything.

A little snow in the higher elevations in the gorge.

Where the Pacific Crest Trail crossed the river (across this bridge). We sought this out just for Chad.

Union Station in Portland. Beautiful old train/bus station. We left on the Amtrak from here.

Lighthouse on Vashon Island

More driftwood.

Mt. Rainer. You can see this exact view from Aaron and Sara's porch. Lucky ducks.

People had made little driftwood huts for fun on the beach. Here is Chad - on the phone - trying one out.

Pike's Place and its famous sign.

I wanted ALL of these. Too bad we couldn't really get them home.

More Pike's Place. Colorful fruit and flower stands were just a prevalent as seafood, much to my surprise.

This begins a series of Chihuly glass. This museum was basically at the base of the Space Needle and we decided to spend our money on this instead of the needle. For this not-too-fond-of-heights gal, I think we absolutely made the right choice. This was totally worth every penny.

Chihuly glass

Chihuly glass

 

There was a whole room full of these glass bowls. They were incredible!

This is a 100 foot long installation in a glass house, made especially for this location.

Outside. Chihuly glass.

Back on Vashon Island. Our last beach stroll for this trip.

This would immediately prior to the aforementioned gooey duck incident.

 

Finally, one of the things on my list was a trip to the Freemont Troll. Check.

 

Enjoy!