The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

It was a long, windy drive up to Cape Flattery and I made myself carsick, but it was worth it! It's only a 1.5 mile round trip hike to the northernmost point of the continental U.S. The view from there (Tatoosh Island and the lighthouse) is pretty cool.   But my favorite spot came just before the end of the trail, this little inlet where the aquamarine  waves crashed and swirled and I could watch them for hours. (Is it called an inlet? It's too small to be a bay... I don't live by the ocean, so I don't know these geographic terms.) I took several videos of the waves, and I love them all. There was even a cave (which you can see in the video) and an arch (which you can not see in the video). My mom thought the rocks looked like a giant's toes.          I'm so thankful I got to see it on a clear day. I'm also thankful the Makah tribe allows us access!   (Statues you see as you drive into town)

I woke up this morning and my back hurt and I hadn't slept well and I am so tired of sleeping in my uncomfortable car. I think it will work for trips that are just a few nights, but no more marathon camping trips. One time I spent five weeks camping without a hotel. And at the end, I didn't feel like I needed a real bed, I think I just stopped because my trip was over. But this car sucks. Before I even got out of bed, I booked myself a $60 hotel room in Port Angeles. This town is a hole where everything is overpriced, so I'm sure you can imagine what that $60 got me. At least there's wifi and clean sheets. I had to leave the campground, anyway, because they were paving the roads. I'm looking forward to getting back to Forks tomorrow.   (I am still laughing about the wallpaper border on the bathroom door. Someone actually had this idea and thought, "That would be classy!") On the way to Port Angeles I stopped to see Madison Creek Falls, because it was a .2

Sometimes, traveling like this is hard. I feel like I waste a lot of time and then feel guilty about it. Today I had a PLAN, and it was a good one: - Breakfast at Metro Bagels in Port Townsend. This place was LEGIT. Freshly baked bagels with garlic feta dill cream cheese.  - Errands in Port Angeles  - Lunch in Port Angeles (at yet another mediocre spot that had all these fabulous ratings on Yelp). I need to remember- Port Angeles is expensive and the food sucks.  - Looked for a campsite near Forks. The national forest campground nearby was deserted and overgrown. I didn't like the feeling I got there. I found a couple of spots that could probably be used for dispersed camping, but those didn't feel right, either. I finally settled on Mora, which is stupid because it's a national park campground and costs $20 a night, when the other campground would have been $10 and dispersed camping is free. Yet another way I'm becoming lame in my old age. I love dispersed camping when

I learned all about the Elwha River in the documentary DamNation, so I was really looking forward to seeing it in real life. They left part of the dam standing, and you could stand there high above the river and see where they'd blown up the dam so the salmon could swim through and the river could flow freely.      My hike for the day was Geyser Valley. It started out mostly flat, then dropped 500 feet in half a mile. Once I was down by the river, I hiked downstream a little to see Goblin's Gates, which I'd seen on Pinterest and added to my list of things to do. It was hard to get a good picture, and I'd love to see it from a better perspective. Goblins are purported to live here, and I found myself wondering about how to lure a goblin out of hiding. Or where they even live.     I headed upstream, flying along the flat easy trail until I tripped over a branch and went flying. It was probably a pretty funny sight. There was this moment where I was in the air where I knew

Today was boring, but not bad. Slept in. Had a nice long chat with Angela. Drove up to Hurricane Ridge and found that the trails up there are all snowed in. (Well, maybe not all, but the ones I haven't done yet and was hoping to do.)    I still enjoyed the views from Hurricane Ridge.    I wrote postcards and ran errands and finished reading this fascinating book.   I went to happy hour at this gastropub which was mediocre, but I'm in love with this Kiltlifter Ruby Scotch Ale.    I'm laying in bed and it's 9:10 and it still looks like it's early evening. I love how late it stays light up here.  Oh, and in my previous post, I said that mountain was Mount Rainier, but it's Mount Baker. I'm camping at the Heart O' the Hills campground, and there are these screaming birds I still remember from the last time I was here. They sound like a really ugly older woman screeching.  I really need a shower.  My new car sucks for camping. I can't sit up in bed and th

I'm a big fan of music helping you through breakups. Kris and I ended things a few weeks before I left, and it's been hard. I'm still just really sad about the whole thing. I miss him. But you can't make someone love you. There are all these thoughts of, "I should have been sweeter," "I should have tried harder to lose weight," "I should have been more fun/interesting." My wise cousin Beth said that, in Buddhism, this is called the second arrow. The first "arrow" came from Kris, when I suggested that we should break up and he agreed with me. (Not what I wanted to hear!!) But then I kept throwing all these other arrows at myself and making up this narrative about all my shortcomings. Why do we do this to ourselves?? Apparently it's pretty common if Buddha wrote about it. Rather than just dealing with the emotions from the one hurtful thing that happened, we pile on a ton of other hurts.  Anyway, that was way off topic and the p

I was in a funk last week, but I'm feeling much better now. Today was another fabulous day. I started off by hiking to Murhut Falls. It's a 190 foot waterfall that I had all to myself. I spent some time reading, but it was just a little chilly. (52 degrees on summer solstice!)   Next stop was Fallsview Canyon, where I didn't do much hiking and you couldn't see the waterfall very well. Finally, I drove 11 miles down a dirt road to Tunnel Creek and participated in World Naked Hiking Day. I kind of think every day should be a naked hiking day.      

I dated this guy in my 20's who said, "You always have some crazy story." I was indignant at the time, but at this point, I've come to accept that this is just part of who I am and it's okay as long as I don't intentionally create drama. (I think drama is different than having weird stuff happen to you.) My new friend Katy and I had a long talk about how much we love being this age because you stop trying to make yourself like certain things or do certain things and you just accept who you are and embrace it. I do always have some crazy story, and after 35 years, I don't think that's going to change. Yesterday I left Portland and headed straight for Spoon Creek Falls. It was pretty far out of the way for a .8 mile hike, but the pictures looked pretty and the falls did not disappoint. When I got to the bottom of the falls, I discovered a couple making out. It was super awkward because they didn't hear me coming, so I'm sure I startled them and l

Abra is going into sixth grade. She wants to have adventures and see the world (Yellowstone and the Amazon, to be exact), but her parents can't take her to all of these fabulous places right now. So, I was happy to bring her on a day trip to explore some stuff near Forest Grove! I don't like suspension bridges, but I thought the description for the Drift Creek Falls hike sounded like just the right amount of excitement. The hike was 2.6 miles with about 550 feet of elevation gain; super easy. The trail led to this waterfall- an otherwise quiet creek that suddenly comes bursting off a cliff.      (View from the bridge- we're up high!)   We had lunch at this awesome pizza place in Otis. I especially loved the garlic balls. :) The we did the 1.4 mile loop around Whalen Island. Our favorite part was when we went off trail and just hiked on the beach.      (What are these flowers?? We saw them everywhere.)  (From a distance, this looked like it may be an abandoned shipwreck, and

Rich decided that Father's Day could be celebrated another time and offered to watch the girls while Paula and I did some stuff together. First we went to breakfast at this terrible place.    Then we hiked to University Falls.   Then we went to Paula's favorite winery. I did a tasting and then ordered a glass, and that was enough to do me in for the rest of the day.  We got pizza at Schmizza and went to Walmart and I was still super drunk. I came home and took a three hour nap. I love wine, but wine does not love me! 

This morning we walked down to Maggie's for cinnamon rolls.   Then I drove out to the Columbia River Gorge to see some waterfalls. It was much more crowded than I expected. I had planned on several short hikes, but the waterfalls ended up being right by the road. I think I only hiked about a mile. But I still enjoyed seeing the falls!   Finally, I went to Abra's ballet recital. They did Sleeping Beauty and I actually really enjoyed it! Whoever planned that did an excellent job. All in all, a lovely day here in Oregon. 

I love and miss this girl so much. After seven hours of hanging out, I still felt like there was stuff we hadn't talked about yet. I am a huge fan of how she is living her life and want her to teach me her ways. We had lunch (and a sampler) at Hopworks.   Good Mennonite kids in the play area:   Her kids are funny and smart and honestly just a pleasure to be around. They are going to be really really cool adults, just like their parents. We also went bowling and then had Celery Root Strawberry Celery Leaf Jam ice cream in waffle cones. I think Salt and Straw is my favorite food in Portland.