The Floods: August 2011

August 31, 2011

Little Rock, Arkansas

High time for another post, and this one is loaded! We had a great week being in one place and hanging out with some great friends. We spent the week in Little Rock, AR with Rob & Teresa Smith. They are some good family friends that moved to Arkansas 11 years ago to join staff with Family Life. They did our pre-marriage counseling with us before our wedding, meeting every Sunday with us over Skype!

We had so much fun with them, cooking great food...

Taking some time on the lake...

Hiking to the beautiful view from Pinnacle...

A little squirrel hunting...by the weeks end Craig & Rob were 4 for 7!!

And lots of tandem bike riding!

It's hard to tell from this pictures, but we had just ridden 30 miles through the biggest thunder and lightning storm these "Northwesterners" had seen in a long time! There were a few times I wasn't sure we'd make it home alive!

We headed out on Monday to continue our tour of the south, planning to be through Nashville, New Orleans and to the coast of Florida by Saturday. On the road again!

On Film: Squirrel Hunter

August 22, 2011

On Film: Blue Hole

This was the one redeeming factor of New Mexico...a natural water hole that is 81 ft deep! A welcome surprise in the middle of what seems like desert.

Beginning of the South...

My goal today is to get us caught up on blogging...so we're at least for a day at the same place on our trip that our blog is!

After leaving California we swung through Las Vegas for a night and then on to the Grand Canyon. We woke up at 5am to catch the sun rising over the Grand Canyon, and it was worth it. Beautiful!

The rest of Arizona and New Mexico was...barren. I'm not sure how anyone lives here! Albuquerque was an exception, and was actually a pleasant place to spend the evening. We had "Date night" in the back of our car...propped the seat up under our bed so we could recline and watch a movie in the back!

We drove on to Amarillo, TX where my grandma was born and raised. We stayed with Nicole's great Aunt and Uncle there and had a great time with them!

They took us down to Palo Dura Canyon to ride our bikes (which didn't last long in the 100 deg heat!) and showed us a dug out house similar to the one Nicole's great grandmother was born and raised in.

Here's a small video clip Craig made of the dugout...

This last night we spent near Dallas staying with some good friends of Craig's. We went to The Village Church yesterday to hear Matt Chandler preach, which was a treat, and then got to spend the rest of the day with Drew & Caity.

Dallas was H-O-T. Hot enough, we thought, to fry an egg on the driveway! Didn't quite work like we thought...

We're off to Little Rock, AR tomorrow and looking forward to spending a week in one place!

August 20, 2011

On Film: Rainbow Factory

While we were in LA we found out that we were only 30 minutes from the Rainbow Factory (the sandals)! We stopped in for two new pairs of Sandals and a tour through the back factory. We weren't able to take the camera in the back, but here's a little snapshot of our stop in San Clemente, CA!

Yosemite through Southern Cali

Once again, this blog is much later than intended. I think we're running about a week ahead of what we're blogging about! We'll break this into two posts...there's too much to write about!

Yosemite National Park was amazing. Words and pictures cannot even describe the majesty of the towering rock faces and epic waterfalls.We camped in the park (our only paid camp site so far!) and drove through the valley Saturday evening and again Sunday morning before heading south for more California coast.

We got a little R&R time the next day at Pismo beach, and parked our car as close to the beach as possible.

We slept so well hearing the ocean all night, and woke up to a beautiful beach view once again! We've been a little sad to be done with our trip on the west coast...

Tuesday we drove on to LA, where we stayed the night with a friend of Nicole's from Bible School. On our way to Las Vegas the next day we had a nice treat...lunch with a few dear friends (of Nicole's) from high school! Kelsey & Scott Hadley and Katherine Park are all in Med School at Loma Linda University in California. So good to see them!

The rest to be continued...

August 14, 2011

Northern Cali

We’ve spent the last couple days in Northern California, mostly along the coast. It’s funny, somehow you imagine this magical transition from Oregon Coast to California Coast…but that’s not the case at all! It seems like it was even chillier and mistier at first than Oregon had been!

Driving through Redwood National Park was amazing. We stopped to see Paul Bunyon and his Blue Ox, Babe…

…and saw some of the biggest trees either of us have ever seen, some of them wider than our car!

As we were driving through a big van of Amish couples pulled in. They are from Pennsylvania and are being driven around by some non-Amish friends for a tour of the country. We told them we are doing the same, and ended up being invited to stay with one of the couples when we make it to Pennsylvania! So come September, we will be spending a night or two with Amos & Katie Zook in the little Amish town of Ronks, Pennsylvania.

Driving further down the coast we past a small town called Klamath. As we approached the small bridge that crosses the river we saw about 20 or 30 people peering over the ledge into the water. When we asked what everyone was doing, they told us there was a 45 foot Gray Whale swimming back and forth in the river!

The rest of the drive was Highway 1 right on the coast, all the way to San Francisco. It was a winding but beautiful road with amazing coastal views the whole way.

Last night we stayed with Nicole’s great aunt just outside of San Francisco, which was lots of fun. Born and raised in France, she was a pleasantly accented narrative of both French and Family history.

Next stop, Yosemite!

August 13, 2011

On Film: Oregon Coast

August 11, 2011

The Oregon Coast Post

We're hoping to post more often than this, but internet access has been harder to come by than we thought out here on the coast!

Three days in and I think we’re starting to get a hang on this road tripping thing. Driving down the Oregon Coast was beautiful…our first night we parked the Stanza at an ocean viewpoint off the side of the road and woke up to a misty coastal morning.

Next stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory! A quick walk through and twice through the cheese sampling line, and we were satisfied...

Finding a place to park that next night was a little more tricky. Our original plan was Coos Bay, but most of the good spots were state park areas (which means no overnight parking) and everything else was pretty sketch. So we kept driving toward Ashland, and finally parked on Rogue River in….Rogue River, OR. Sorry, no pic of that one. We got out quick in the morning once we woke up and saw the “no overnight parking” sign we had conveniently not seen the night before!

Ashland was great! What a fun little town…where else can you see guys acting as Shakespearean characters as they walk down Main St? Craig set up the slack line in one of the parks as we waited for our 8:00 play to start (Love's Labor's Lost...amazing!) and taught some curious bystanders how to slack!

A little morning bike ride and a little morning juice…

…and we’re on the road again! California coast, here we come.

August 7, 2011

On the Road!

We are officially off! This post is a few days late, but we took off from Seattle on Thursday and headed east for the first leg of our trip. Originally the plan was to head clockwise around the states, meaning Seattle to Moscow to Glacier. Two days before we left though we had a huge re-vamp of our itinerary and decided we are now going counterclockwise around America! One reason: Desiring God’s National Conference in Minneapolis, MN.

Check it out! http://www.desiringgod.org/events/national-conferences/2011

We’ve been eyeing this conference for a while now. This year’s conference is on “Finishing the Mission”, all about Frontier missions and Church planting. This theme has been on our radar for a while and is integral in our reasoning for moving to Portland…but more on that later!

We thought we’d pass on a few things we’ve learned on the road so far…

1. Our Stanza maxes out at about 65 mph, unless we’re going up a hill in which the max is about 45.

2. The Palouse is beautiful in August.

3. Beware of pulling out in front of Semi Trucks. This one rode our tail for 20+ miles out of Othello!

We are actually driving BACK to Seattle now to catch a friend’s wedding after visiting the fam in Moscow, and then heading South. The outlook for this week is the Oregon Coast, Crater Lake National Park, Ashland, OR for a Shakespeare play at the outdoor festival, and then down along the coast of Cali. Stay tuned!

The Floods