2009 in Cities

I guess this is an annual thing now that I've done it twice, you can read last year's list here. The following cities are places I have visited for long day trips or overnight trips in 2009:

• Seattle, Washington (home)
• Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, Sequim, Washington (see pictures)
• Sequim, Washington (day trip for Easter dinner)
• Orlando, Florida: twice (see pictures)
• Yakima, Washington
• Lihue, Hawaii (Kauai)
• Koloa, Hawaii (Kauai) (see pictures)
• Kapaa, Hawaii (Kauai) (see pictures)
• Lake Wenatchee, Washington (Telma, nearest city)
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Cannon Beach, Oregon (see pictures)
• Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (see pictures)
• San Francisco, California (see pictures)

I was "out of town" for a total of 31 nights in 2009, that is 8% of the year. 2009 was filled with adventures and amazing experiences. Here hoping that 2010 is filled with many more!

Cannon Beach Sunset

Watching the sun sink in the sky and sipping a glass of wine. What a glorious day!

2008 in cities

I borrowed this idea from Don, who has done this for several years. Below are all of the cities where I have spent at least 24 consecutive hours in 2008.

Seattle, WA (home)
Cannon Beach, OR
Anaheim, CA
Pasadena, CA
Salt Lake City, UT: May, July, November
SeaTac, WA
Reno, NV
Port Orchard, WA
Lake Wenatchee, WA (Telma, nearest city)
Corvallis, OR
San Francisco, CA

Here is hoping that 2009 brings some more exotic ports of call.

UPDATE: Forgot to add SeaTac, WA to the list. Also you can check out Kat's list here.

Thoughts on Benny

My Alma mater Oregon State University is the home of Benny Beaver. This is the Benny I remember from my college days at OSU. He's sweet, he's cute and he is much more likely to make you laugh with his goofy smile than cause worry about him biting you.

This is the Benny Logo they use today. He's a lean, mean, beaver machine. He charges at his opponents and causes tremendous fear of biting.

For the record I've never been much a fan of the "new Benny" but I am a fan of winning football games and smelling roses, and if "new Benny" means more success on the football field that I say, "Move over Sailor Benny, you've been replaced!"

Last week OSU introduced Benny Jr which they hope will appeal to "younger fans." He is sporty, sweet and fun-loving and reminds me a bit of the Benny of my college days.

Whichever Benny inspires the team to kick ass is just fine with me. I'll be cheering today and hoping that Arizona is terrorized by the Beavers!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Don and I went to Corvallis, Oregon for the weekend, the highlights:

• Spent Thursday evening packing and getting ready for the trip.
• Woke early Friday to finish up and be ready to go at 7:00 a.m.
• Endured constant rain for the entire drive to Corvallis but Don made excellent time and got us there safe and sound.
• Had lunch at American Dream Pizza (one of my favorite college hangouts).
• Headed to campus for a couple of meetings.
• Met Don at Clodfelter's (another one of my favorite college hang outs) and had a few beer to celebrate successful meetings.
• Checked into our hotel and got settled in.
• Had drinks and then dinner at Micheal's Landing.
• Slept in.
• Enjoyed a mocha at The Beanery and decided that they really do make the best mocha in the entire world.
• Enjoyed the fall colors while walking around campus sharing stories and taking pictures.
• Picked up a new t-shirt and sweatshirt at the OSU Campus Bookstore.
• Saw the Homecoming Parade.
• Played cards and hung out at McMenamins (yet another college hangout spot).
• Cheered as OSU beat Arizona State although I could have done without the craziness at the end.
• Slept in, again. Yeah!
• Had breakfast at Elmer's on Sunday morning.
• Traveled home via Port Orchard to pick up Barney who had spent the weekend with my brother and sister-in-law.
• Unpacked and settled in for the week ahead.

How was your weekend?

Photo of the Day - Haystack Rock

Haystack Rock, originally uploaded by JewellsinSEA.

The iconic symbol of Cannon Beach, Oregon. Taken in March 2008.

Excused Absense

I started out the year planning on doing a "Weekend Wrap-Up" post on the happenings of the weekend every Monday. I was good until April, then it just stopped. It seems that when life gets a little bit crazy and I have too much on my plate the first thing to suffer is my blog. Which now that I think about it, makes perfect sense. When I am stressed, worn out, tired and with generally too much on my plate the few moments that I can find to re-energize myself are not spent expressing myself but totally enriching myself with things I love. After all, I'm an introvert!

In order to excuse my absence from the blogging and especially the Weekend Wrap-Up's I thought I would rewind to mid-April and catch you up on the events (or at least part of them) since then. Mid-April found me in the midst of planning a birthday celebration for my brother Jimmy's 30th birthday. I was creating and mailing invitations, making lists and scanning pictures for a slide show presentation. Every evening after work seemed to be consumed by some sort of task which often spilled over into the weekends (like the Sunday when Don and I spent 9 hours working on the slide show presentation) just to stay on top of it all. I had wanted to have all the major tasks completed by Wednesday, April 23 when my mother arrived for a long weekend visit and I did.

I had a great time with my Mom. We went shopping at the Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip and both got some great spring/summer essentials. We enjoyed an informative and fun tour of Chateau Ste. Michelle winery and an afternoon of beer drinking in the sun with Kat and Don at Red Hook. We talked and got caught up the the happenings of life. We laughed. Mom shared some really funny yet really embarrassing stories about me. Basically your normal family stuff.

Four days later on Thursday, May 1, Don and I set out on our grand adventure. We arrived in Salt Lake City that evening and had dinner with his Mom (Nancy) at Red Rock Brewing. The next two days were filled with party prep craziness but we found a few moments to have breakfast with my friend Jenna and time to deliver my friend Karri's wedding pictures.

The party was a ton of work but worth every bit of it. Jimmy is a fantastic brother and totally worth celebrating for any occasion, but being able to celebrate a milestone birthday with him was just awesome. Fifteen minutes before the guests arrived I plopped down on the couch next to Don, we were both exhausted, and was already beyond exhausted. I think I suffer from *past party amnesia* because I am never remember how much work throwing a party really is and therefore planning one seems like a GREAT idea. Maybe the amnesia is a necessary ailment for the official family "camp director," I don't know.

When the party was all cleaned up I couldn't feel my body from the waist down. I don't much remember the ride back to the hotel except for the fact that I could not find a comfortable position in the car. I don't remember going to sleep, I think I just passed out. Don had been dealing with a lingering and annoying head cold for a few days and we both needed sleep desperately.

The next morning we slept in a bit and then met Nancy for brunch a Squatters Pub in Salt Lake. Following brunch we began the second leg of our journey, a tradeshow in Reno.

I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that I could be Black family "camp director" and then company "tradeshow coordinator" back to back, but clearly I was NOT thinking. The show in Reno went as anticipated, no major glitches. The meetings we had scheduled went well but certainly not as planned since a major twist was thrown in on the way in the door. And all the while that I am coordinating and meeting and being the Queen of Everything downstairs, I'm worried sick about Don who's head cold has turned into a high-fever and intense sinus pressure/pain. He was in the room, in bed asleep the entire time we were in Reno.

When the show finished and we were packed up and ready to go we were quite a pair. Don had just returned to the land of the living that morning but was still only half-human with lingering sinus pressure/pain. And I was beyond exhausted from the back to back activity of the party/tradeshow. We had a leisurely lunch at Brew Brother's restaurant and then left Reno and headed northwest through Susanville, California and then around the south side of Mt. Shasta until we joined up with I-5 in Mt. Shasta, California. The scenery was EXTRAORDINARY beautiful. With each passing mile I found myself getting more and more relaxed among the snow, tall pine trees and majestic mountains.

We made it to Medford, Oregon that night and then home the following day. I never realize how much I love my home until I return from a trip tired and worn out and then I realize how my home is warm and nurturing and totally re-energizes me.

Don's account of the Utah/Reno trip can be read here.

The following weekend was very mellow. I spent a great deal of time a home except for lunch at Cheesecake Factory and a matinee performance of Made of Honor with Kat in Bellevue on Saturday.

I've already started a wrap-up post for last weekend which should be up soon so that brings you up to date on the past few weekends.

Work has been a bit busier that usual of late as I'm facing some new challenges and changes in the coming weeks but I will certainly do my best to try and stay up to date with my entries and not leave you all wondering if I'm alive and thriving.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Enjoyed a 3-day weekend trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon with Don this weekend. Some of the highlights:

• Woke early on Friday morning to finish packing and organizing so that we could leave between 9 and 10 as planned. Don and I were sending text messages back and forth to ensure that we didn't forget anything and I nearly fell over when I received a message saying that he wasn't bringing his laptop. I hadn't packed mine yet (but had been planning to take it) and was intrigued by the idea of having an "unplugged" weekend and that is exactly what we did.
  
• Enjoyed a easy drive (of course if was easy for me, I wasn't driving) south to Oregon.
• Stopped for a small lunch and a beer at Rogue Ales Public House in Astoria.
• Got settled in our beautiful room on the beach in Cannon Beach.
• Had dinner with our friends Nikki and Matt at Bigfoot's Pub and Grub in Seaside.
• Enjoyed a part rainy, part sunny stroll on the beach to have lunch at Mo's where we enjoyed sourdough bread bowls filled with Clam Chowder and Mo's own Half-e-weizen.
• Relaxed and enjoyed a sunny afternoon, followed by a spectacular sunset complete with snacks and wine.
• Had a fabulous dinner at the Wayfarer Restaurant.
• Slept in and then packed up and left the room just before check-out time and headed to the Pig N Pancake to indulge in some much needed carbs and protein.
• Took in the scenery on the ride home to Seattle (once again, spoiled cause I didn't have to drive!)
• Arrived home to empty kitchens/fridges, so we ran to get a few essentials at the store shortly after arriving home.
• "Plugged in" my laptop to check my email, RSS Feeds etc and realized that I didn't miss anything earth shattering.
  
• Relaxed the evening away, all the while remembering the beach and the fabulous weekend, trying to forget that the "real world" would be back in full-force today.

I took tons of pictures but haven't finished sorting through and uploading them yet, but am hoping to do so tonight, I'll keep you posted.

Beaver Plane!

I read about this in my Alumni email newsletter last week and couldn't wait to see it unveiled.

Wine Tasting in the Willamette Valley.

The beautiful Eola Hills of Oregon wine country.

Wow! Beaver Nation

It didn't look like this when I was here.

OSU... 12 years later

Decoration in the hotel lobby. Go Beavs!

My Favorite Beach

We had dinner in Cannon Beach with this amazing view of Haystack Rock last night. The view was awesome and so was the food.

The deadly history of Bear Camp Road

The water cooler story of the week seems to be the search and rescue of the Kim family. I was elated on Monday to hear about the rescue of part of the family and then devastated on Wednesday with the discovery of the body of James Kim.

I have had several discussions with friend and co-workers about the unfolding events and in one particular conversation we were recalling a story that we had both heard years ago about a man that had survived in his car for several months before finally dying of starvation. We both remembered details of the story but not the entire story. I did an initial google search and did not find anything. Today I was reading a follow-up story about the Kim family ordeal from the LA Times (article titled, Vandalized gate led family astray) and the final paragraph of the story contained the information that I had been looking for. I did a further google search and pieced together the following from multiple sources (see below).

Dewitt Finley, 56, a traveling salesman from Montana decided to travel over the Coast Range when headed from the Oregon coast to Grants Pass on November 14, 1995. Mr. Finley had spent most of his life in the Los Angeles area and was not accustomed to late-season driving in the mountains and did not have much knowledge about the outdoors. His pickup truck with camper kept sliding off the road, despite the 4-wheel drive, and he finally decided to stop on the shoulder and camp for the night. However the storm continued for 3 days and when it was finished the pickup truck was surrounded by six-feet of snow. Mr. Finley passed the time by checking days off his calendar and writing letters to his sons, his fiancee and his boss. According to the letters that were left behind in the truck, Finley decided to trust God for a rescue, waiting in his truck. He wrote, “I have no control over my life. It’s all in His hands. His will be done. Death here in another month or so, so He sends someone to save me. Yet knowing His will, I’m at peace and His grace will prevail. If I’m save to finish my life here, please know I’ll always be thankful to you and remain your servant. If not – I’ll see you in Glory.” The final date check off his calendar was January 19, 1996. His body was found in the cab of his pickup truck by teenagers in late May.

A poem titled “The End of DeWitt Finley” was written by Joseph Harrison and included in his book Someone Else’s Name. An except of the poem:

They found the salesman's body the following spring.
Something struck the observers about the scene
Of the man's death: there wasn't the slightest sign
Of struggle, anguish, or delirium,
No broken glass, no torn upholstery.
All seemed composed, contemplative, serene,
As poised as steady penmanship,
The thoughtful phrasing of his calm farewell,
His mild acceptance of his lonely end.

It wouldn't be correct to call it fate:
Rescue in the form of a ploughed road, remained
Throughout a makable hike away. And though
He didn't know this, did he want to know?
He wanted someone to come, that was the point.
Call it foolishness, or call it faith,
The patience to wait in silence for a sign
That life has something like meaning, and that yours
Has something like meaning, meaning that is yours.

The irony in this tale – The entire nine weeks Finley was waiting and praying, he was no more than a few hundred feet from a clear, paved road which was only a 16-mile walk to a store and safety.

It turns out that the Kim family and Finley were both stranded on Bear Camp Road near Merlin, Oregon. It is horribly sad that the road was not better closed off since it has now claimed 3 lives in the past 12 years. I hope that in the future is is better marked and blocked when impassable.

I am just glad that I was able to find some details on the Finley story, it was driving me nuts.

Links to sources:

Nothing Fails Like Prayer
Theistwatch
Tough choices for stuck winter travelers