Friday, September 19, 2014

The Oregon Coast and what feels like home

Oregon Coast Weekend.

Living so far away from home is still something I learn to deal with. It's easier, much much easier than it's been, but still. The last two years I've learned a few things that help with homesickness. (If you're a South African wondering if you're home sick you should read this to double check).

I've learned to listen to South African music, call my mom and drink rooibos tea when I'm feeling far from home. I've also discovered that the ocean is a great comfort.

The ocean is so constant. Standing at the edge of where the waves meet the shore, staring out to the deep, infinite wild blue space I feel like I'm where I've been before. Where I've been with family, where I spent Summer holidays or wild adventrures from my early twenties, it's so familiar to me. The ocean greets me with a magical smell, breeze and sound that's the same whether it's the Indian, Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.

I could for a moment imagine I'm on the beach with my sister, walking along the Jeffery's Bay coastline, or on December school holiday, caravan camping with my family on the East Coast of South Africa. I'm not the stranger in Northwest America, I'm in a familiar and welcoming place.

This trip was my first visit to the lusciously lovely state of Oregon and I'm a fan. We packed our new puppy, our bigger tent and soup cans to spend 4 nights exploring up and down the coast. Again, it was a lot of driving, but we don't mind that so much. The campsites were full, but the beaches where empty. We spent many hours just the three of us walking the low-tide sandy part, discovering washed up treasures and letting puppy Henry have the best day of his life. We even found a washed up bottle cap with Japanese writing on it, from the Tsunami maybe.

Hoping to sneak at least one more camping trip in before the big freeze arrives.


Thursday, September 11, 2014

Super fast, super short, super right, Glacier National Park road trip

When I'm in the presence of mountains things make sense. Things like life being a gift and time passing too quickly making sense. God is amazing and His creation shouts of His love for us... things like that make sense to me.
But then also, driving all day Saturday to get to mountains and driving all day Sunday back make perfect sense. Glacier National Park is worth it.

I love this quote:

“Mountains are not Stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.”

― Anatoli Boukreev
Two weekends ago, at the height of our Summer is ending freak out, we spent Labor day weekend in one of our favorite places in the Northwest. As I mentioned, a lot of driving, but then again we're a long forever road kind of couple, so it works out well.

Here are some pictures from that trip:
(forgive the weird quality, I'm still figuring things out)