September travels.

We did some traveling in September...thought I'd share a bit of the sights! 

Early in the month Mike & I headed up to Seattle with a truckload of Allison & Stephen's stuff!  They were settling into their new digs near the UW campus, getting started with school and work, and we were able to spend a few days hanging out with them; seeing the campus, biking, paddle boarding (for the first time!) and getting to know their new neighborhood!

Then, we headed across the waters and over to the Olympic National Park.  I've never been, but Mike had gone years ago with a photography class, so he was eager to show me around.  We stayed in Forks, WA...and if you are a Twilight fan you will know that it is where some of the film(s) were shot.  I have not read any of the books or seen any of the movies, so the tourist attractions in the little town were lost on me!  We did, however, wander a beach path after dark and it was plenty creepy...sure felt like a vampire was lurking...!

Spent our days driving here and there, did a little hiking, found an amazing spot to paddle board (Lake Crescent...amazing emerald water that was unbelievably clear, surrounded by hills covered in beautiful trees) and we sampled some local fare.  Our evenings, we headed to the beaches for sunsets!

After a few days of exploring, we headed South to Pacific City, Oregon.  Home away from home.  We hiked out the beautifully forested, muddy trail to Cape Lookout on one afternoon...spent a couple of days just hanging out watching the dories come and go...paddle boarded a nice lake in Lincoln City...and explored Cape Kiwanda a little more (oh, and if I am offering full disclosure, I might also mention that we ended up in the ER late one night, Mike passing a kidney stone!).  We made an unexpected trip to Hermiston to honor Mike's Uncle, Dave Landon, who passed away after a long illness.  Dave was one of the first "Ryan" family members I met as he and his wife, Carolyn, lived in Hermiston when Mike and I first met there...and Dave always made me feel like part of his family; a daughter.  He was the first voice I recall hearing when I woke up in the hospital having just had Ashley...he told me "she is beautiful".  I will miss his laugh. 

Mike headed back after a week, leaving me to set my own pace for the rest of the time...I did a lot of beach walking, took a paddle board yoga class on the Nestucca River (and never fell off!), enjoyed time to read and write and daydream...and took a glass blowing lesson one afternoon (made a cool paperweight)!  "I come to the sea to breathe" is one of my favorite quotes...and I sure do love it...something about the unceasing movement of the sea that calms me.

I made it home safely and spent a day re-grouping at home before I packed up Ashley & Harper for a road trip to Island Park to visit some friends!  It was a fun visit and great to spend a day with Ashley & Harper, too, after having been away for 3 weeks!  Harper is growing so fast now...busy learning new things every day (stay tuned for the next post for a Harper update!)!  That next weekend, we met those friends in the Grand Teton Park and spent a beautiful Fall day doing a little kayaking down the Snake River...and then we camped out at a spot where we could watch the full moon go down as the sun rose up right over the Teton Range. 

September was spent mostly on the road, for me...and Fall always feels like a good time to settle back in at home for a bit...so this month I did some portrait work with some sweet clients, did mountains of laundry and plenty of housework and dreaded paperwork, caught up with some old friends in Boise and took Mike's parents to a BSU football game.  And then, I traveled once again, to Seattle to visit Allison...this time with Ashley & Harper!  We did kind of a girl's weekend (we let Stephen stay...and baby Uriah!), with shopping and sight-seeing and ice cream and cookies and plenty of sitting around watching Harper!  I managed to do a couple of photo shoots too...stay tuned for that! 



On a ferry, leaving Seattle for the Olympic National Park.

The Seattle skyline.

Lake Crescent...incredible waters!

Hurricane Ridge, Olympic Park

Second Beach

Second Beach

I can't resist making towers on rocky shores!

Rialto Beach

Rialto Beach

Pacific City, Oregon...home away from home.

Moonset and sunrise, over the Teton Range.

The beach is calling...

...looking forward to being here again, soon!

Another post-sunset shot.

It has been an exceptionally beautiful week here in Pacific City, Oregon.  Lots of sunshine and very little wind...really incredible weather, especially for January.  There have been surfers enjoying the waves every day, along with a few paddle boarders, a couple of kayakers, and even one crazy person swimming...well, more like squealing and flailing like he was on fire!

I've enjoyed the quiet early mornings watching the world wake up, one dog beach walker at a time, while I wake up myself with my coffee on the deck or tucked in by the fireplace reading the paper.  I managed to get a little bit of computer work done, but definitely spent more time staring at the waves than at the computer screen.  It's mesmerizing, to be sure. 

I've had some fun with my photography...even daring myself out to the very edge of Cape Kiwanda to capture a few images of the crashing waves below!  I've certainly LOVED the sunsets!  I've walked miles and miles of beach, including up and down the dunes several times, which is no small feat!  And I got to spend a beautiful day at Indian Beach thinking about my parents and how much I miss them in my day to day life.  I am so excited to be a grandparent (a "Nana")...it reminds me how much I would've liked my girls to have known my parents more, longer...they were really amazing people.  So, I hope I am around a long, long time...to enjoy days like these...and days with my kids, and their kids...and maybe even their kids?!
 
Heading home tomorrow...excited to see my hubby at the airport!



Sunset.

September was kind of a busy month for us!  I can always tell, in retrospect, when we've been busy, because it takes me awhile to download my memory cards, and then even longer to post them here, or on our websites...but when I finally get a chance to sit down for a few minutes to look at them, it's like Christmas morning, re-discovering pictures I've sort of forgotten about momentarily!  This one jumped out at me, well, it actually kind of beckons me, to return...! 

A beautiful sunset at Cape Kiwanda, Pacific City, Oregon...  Just wanted to share this one while I scan through the rest of these September images!

Haystack Rock.

This is Haystack Rock.  No, not the one in Cannon Beach, Oregon, which is the only one I knew of until this year.  This is the one in Pacific City, Oregon, near Cape Kiwanda, and it is the world's fourth largest seastack!  It stands 327 feet tall (for comparison, the Haystack in Cannon Beach is 235 feet tall and is "intertidal", which means it can be reached by land) and I am determined to get a closer look one of these days, perhaps from a dory boat, or my kayak!  (I keep hearing the theme from Jaws in my head when I imagine myself paddling out there, but I am going to do it!)

In the meantime, I have enjoyed almost a week here in Pacific City with this monolith in the background...listening to the endless cycles of waves, enjoying the last bits of summer on the beach.  There are surfers here all the time, families, runners, lots of dog walkers, and even a few naked beach goers (pretty sure they were European)!  I have been carefully considering the talents of the stand-up paddleboarders who come and go from time to time...another thing on my to-do list.

It's lovely and I am so lucky to have such luxuries as down time in this incredible place. 

I've been working, a little bit (really hard with these distractions), on my Burma images...going to be auctioning some beautiful canvases in Fairbanks, Alaska at a Partners fund raiser at the end of this month.  And I am getting ready to launch a gallery on our webpages of the beautiful faces of the Karen people we met on our trip this past Spring, so stay tuned for that (something about Flash Player not working on a 64-bit IE format...?  Ugh, I have a love-hate relationship with technology, to be sure!)  All of the proceeds from any of my canvases, prints or cards will be sent directly to Partners to enable them to continue their amazing work with the people of Burma.  Perhaps you want to help?

I hope you are enjoying the last bits of your summer, wherever that may be...as for me, the beach is beckoning.



iPhone obsession!

My daughter says I am kind of obsessed with my new iPhone...(maybe that has something to do with all the photos of her cat I've been sending her!)  I say, "well, yea, I am!"  I love it!  One of the things I love most about it is all the amazing photography apps...many of them FREE!  In a world where we sometimes obsessively concern ourselves with the "reality" of digital photography, me included, it is really fun to be able to let go a little and play with these ingenious, creative tools. 
I took this photo with my iPhone using an app called Hipstamatic, which I love.  It features different "films", including that old school grainy look, and different lenses and flash capabilities too.  And then, after my dog walk, sitting on my stoop, I tweaked it a little more with a free app called Instagram, which adds to that vintage feel. 
It's fun to play and to be creative, whatever your tools!  (...I am feeling the need for a fresh box of crayons...wanna color, Allison?!)


Happy Birthday Grandma!

So, I don't really "do" resolutions, persay. I am not a pessimist by nature but somehow I see resolutions as doomed to fail! However, I did make a promise to myself in the recent past to make family, both my own immediate family, as well as extended and "long lost" family a priority.

In keeping with that spirit, I recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with a few of my relatives in that "long lost" category...my aunt (who, just by seeing the resemblances, reassured me that I will, in fact, age quite beautifully), my cousin (whom I haven't seen since we were kids) and my Grandma (who is a joy)...all on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

My daughter and I only got to stay for a few days but...the warmth was certainly a welcome change for us, the sunset "pink moment" in the valley was remarkable, the beach was lovely...and the opportunity to spend time with my family, well, as the commercial says, it was priceless. My intention is to return, soon and often...and my wish for everyone is that you never forget where you came from, appreciate your past and love the people who were always there for you. Oh, and laugh a lot! :)

How I spent my winter vacation!

Remember those essays we all had to write at one point or another in grade school…"what I did for summer vacation” or something along that line…? There was always some kind of fabulous adventure to write about…a new bike, a new best friend, a trip to see the grandparents in Chicago, a trip out west to see the Oregon coast for the first time (I grew up landlocked in the Midwest).

It is only now, more than a few years after grade school, that I know…I never really did anything that spectacular during those vacations, though it was surely spectacular to me at the time…never really saw anything that unique…and I know this now because I got to experience a truly spectacular, wonderfully unique place…the island of North Caicos.

I will write about it a little more, in a later post, but here is a visual preview of my “how I spent my winter vacation” essay!

Idaho skies...continued...

Another Sunday drive...

Idaho skies.

Another evening drive...it's amazing how the light changes in the evening...

Grand Targhee Music Festival!

So, it was a great weekend in the mountains! If you've never been, or never heard of it...Grand Targhee Resort hosts a couple of music festivals during the summer that really should make it to your to-do list...that is, if you like great music, yummy food, being outdoors and being surrounded by tons of people enjoying the same! We especially enjoyed Keb Mo', the Wallflowers, Lukas Nelson, Bettye Lavette...and so many others! Here are just a few images from the weekend festivities, including a view from the top (the chair lift is definitely worth a ride, just for the view!). And check out the upcoming Bluegrass Festival at http://www.grandtarghee.com/.

Sunset Sky

Went on a drive this evening... It was so worth it!