Banff Road Trip

We just got back last night from our week-long road trip to Banff.  We saw and did so much!  We spent the first night in Sandpoint, Idaho and headed to Glacier National Park on Wednesday morning.  I've been wanting to go to Montana, specifically Glacier, for a while now so I was really excited to get to see this amazing part of the country.  We car camped at a site in the park on Wednesday night then hike around Logan Pass, which is located on the Continental Divide, on Thursday.

Thursday evening we crossed the US/Canada border where we were asked to park our car and come into the station for random questioning.  Once they realized that we weren't smuggling drugs or avacados into Canada, they let us continue on our way to Calgary, AB.  We spent the night there and then toured the city on Friday before making the drive to Banff.

We staying in the small ski town of Banff on Friday night and enjoyed a nice dinner and soak in the local hot springs.  I didn't realize this when I was planning the trip, but apparently my family visited Banff when I was 5 years old.  A few things from that trip 21 years ago came back to me, but this was definitely a different experience.

Saturday we headed into the back country of Banff National Park - our final destination.  Banff is absolutely stunning.  I was constantly amazed at the breathtaking scenery we were surrounded by.

It was a wonderful week of simply relaxing and enjoying the great outdoors.  Here are some pics to highlight the trip... more to come soon!

taking in the sights

a mountain goat

ready to hike into Banff

stunning

 

a grizzly!

a fork in the road... literally!

epic road trip together

On the Road

I'm taking a week off and hitting the road on an adventurous road trip. My best friend Megan, her boyfriend Gabe, his brother Jon and I are headed to Banff via Glacier National Park. We've got our backpacks, Chacos, and Clif bars and the plan is to simply explore and enjoy the great outdoors. More to come next week!

Circumstances

Every Tuesday morning I serve breakfast at Blanchet House, a hospitable place that offers meals to the homeless and those in need in Portland and is also a transitional house for about 25 men.  I've come to look forward to Tuesday mornings, despite having to wake up at 5:30am in order to be downtown by 6:15am.  Some mornings at Blanchet are very enjoyable and I actually have fun serving breakfast.  Some mornings are uncomfortable and I wish I could shield myself from the problems of our world today.  Some mornings are really tough and I'm faced with the dark reality of the complexities of people's life situations.

This morning, a woman with short tangled hair and no teeth walked through the doors of Blanchet.  I walked over to her table, said "good morning" and set a plate of eggs, a banana and a bagel down in front of her.  She grinned and thanked me and I walked back to my position by the kitchen.  It was a slow morning (it's the beginning of the month and people have plenty of food stamps and possible paycheck money right now) so I stood there looking around at the crowd in front of me.  My eyes kept drifting to the woman with no teeth.  At times she was laughing or chatting with her new table friends, but for the most part she was sipping on her hot coffee with a vacant look in her eyes.

I wondered what she was thinking about; what worries she had on her mind.  I wondered what her life story is; how she fell into this life situation.  Was there anyone out there who really cared about her?

And then I thought about my worries; my life story; my current life situation; and all of the people who care about me and support me.

Our lives are different.  Very different.  But we are the same in that we both have complexities and simplicities in our lives.

And then I thought about the prayers I present to God; the worries that fill my mind; the things I stress about; things that many people refer to as "1st world problems" or in this case "privileged life problems".  Example: last month I was stressed about whether I should take my paid time off to go on an Alaskan cruise with my family or a roadtrip to Canada with my friends.  1st world problems.

I tried to imagine the prayers this homeless women might present to God; the worries she is facing.  God is listening to her.  God is concerned for her, and he cares about what is going on in her life.  I'm guessing that she is not a theologian or scholar whose mind is filled with questions about which religious group is closest to the truth or how Bible translations change the meaning of the gospel.  I'm guessing that her thoughts and requests are pretty basic and simple, yet urgent and essential.  And though the world may view her as a less important member of society with a somewhat meaningless life, God views her as equal to any of us.  She's actually our sister, whether we're confortable with that or not.

Our lives may seem complex and complicated and stressful and less than what we would wish for, but try putting that in perspective.  If you are reading this, you are a fortunate person.  Because you know me and I know you and we support each other.  Because you have money to have a computer or iPad.  Because you have time to leisurely read a blog just as I have time to write a blog while eating dinner rather than wondering where my next meal is going to come from.  Your life is important - equally as important as your homeless sister in the eyes of the God who sees and hears us all.

Easy Life/Hard Life

One of my coworkers once told a story about a woman she met in Haiti.  The woman was probably about 50  years old, but her wrinkles and tough skin made her look about 75.  She asked my coworker where she was from to which she answered, "America."  The Haitian woman put her frail hand on my coworker's face and said "Easy life."  She then took my coworkers soft hand and put it on her Haitian face and said, "Hard life."  I don't know why each of us is given the life that we are, but we can't take the credit.  Most of it is our circumstances.

Bike Commuting

I bought a new bike a couple months ago. It's definitely a step up from my old hybrid. This bike is legit.  And I guess it makes me a legit biker. People keep commenting on it and I just act like I know a thing or two about cycling... "Sweet bike. Is that a Raleigh Revenio 4.0? Carbon fork? Ah, Shimano Ultegra gears - the best. 10 speed. Smooth shifting."  To which I reply: "Yep. And did you see the awesome red tires and matching waterbottle?!"

I really do like my bike and I have to admit that it is pretty awesome. I splurged a little because I wanted to start commuting to work some.  I wish I could commute to work everyday, but the reality is that I live in SE Portland and I work 13 miles away in the suburbs.  Biking to work takes about an hour and it's uphill both ways (I'm still not sure how that's possible, but it's true!).  So I've committed to biking on Wednesdays (ok, I don't have a perfect record, but I'm doing pretty good).

My coworker Mike has been my biggest supporter.  He's an avid biker and is the one who planted this whole bike commuting idea in my head.  He helped me research different bikes, came with me to look at this one before I made the purchase, and showed me the route to work on my first ride.  He even sings the Rocky theme song as we're going up big hills and always encourages me when I want to quit and let my cool red tires roll backwards down said hills.  Thanks, Mike!

Today we biked to work together, leaving his house at 6:10am and getting out to Tigard just before 7:00.  Talk about a morning boost!  We took the "scenic" route home (aka the longer, hiller route) and it was tough but definitely gorgeous. When we got back into SE, we decided that we deserved a beer and it was just too sunny not to make a stop at Apex Bar and sit out on the patio.  It's always tough to get out of bed and put on my biking helmet, but at the end of the day I'm always glad that I did. And I don't have to go to the gym after work either!

a nice view of Mount Hood on my commute home on Barber Blvd

blackberry break on the way home today

July Texas Weekend

This past weekend I was in Texas for a long weekend… just in time for the heat wave. Yep, it just happened to be the hottest days they’ve seen this summer. And I got to experience it. I prepared myself for the worst: walking outside, immediately getting lightheaded, fainting onto the hot concrete and waking up and hour later in a puddle of sweat and with a lobster sunburn. Thankfully, it wasn’t that bad. I was able to breath, walk and function each day almost like normal!

I didn’t choose this weekend in hopes that the weather in Texas would be comparable to the heavenly 74-degree Portland summertime. I went down for my cousin Megan’s wedding. I already love weddings to begin with, but when you live far away getting to go home for weddings are extra-awesome because you get to see lots of friends and family all in one place. It’s the jackpot of staying connected with people you love. Megan’s wedding on Saturday night was super fun. All of the Carters were together have a good ol’ time (including some pretty crazy moves on the dance floor)!

Since I was in Dallas for four days, I also got to spend lots of quality time with family including brunch with the Colemans, lunch with the Mark girls and sweet Baby Lottie, a golf cart ride around the Belf’s new neighborhood, visiting the Dallas farmer’s market, and getting woken up at 6:30 each morning by some way too energetic kids (who doesn’t love that?!).

Thanks for great talks and a fun weekend, fam!

playing with little Henry before heading to the rehearsal dinner

Jammy with the beautiful flower girls and handsome ring bearer

sisters at the wedding

cousins table at the reception

getting down on the dance floor with Alice Anne

When It's Sunny in Portland

In Portland, summer starts the day after the 4th of July. Until then weather is pretty unpredictable, but starting July 5th you can pretty much count on perfect weather through September.  So what do Portlanders do when the rain finally goes away and the sun comes out to play?? We dust off our sunglasses, store away our black and grey hoodies, expose our pale skin by wearing uncommonly colorful tank tops, and completely lose track of time because it stays light until about 9:30pm.

I personally have a hard time being on my computer during my precious sunny nights and weekends, so I fall behind on my blogging. But I'm sitting on my wonderful back patio on this glorious 74 degree evening and thought I would fill you in on the beginning of another perfect summer here in Portland.

When it's sunny in Portland, we:

 spontaneously bike around the neighborhood, inviting other bikers to join our ride (destination: nowhere) then climb on top of an abandoned elementary school to watch the sun set

join the rest of the city in watching fireworks explode over the Willamette River downtown

forget about our cars and bike everywhere possible

go for long runs in Forest Park where we can see the effects of the rainy season

buy fresh produce at the local farmers markets

pick fresh raspberries and marionberries for dessert

and even experience a little Christmas in July while eating frozen yogurt on Hawthorne

Christmas in July

Speaking of the Christmas spirit, my home community group had a "Christmas in July" camping trip this past weekend.  Niguel's mom lives out towards the coast in Willamina.  We've heard stories about her love/obsession with Christmas, so we decided we would make a trip to see what it was all about.  Just as Niguel said, there were snow globes scattered aroud the house, snowmen figurines above the kitchen cabinets, snowflake blankets on the couches and even a little Christmas tree in the front enterance.  We sang our favorite Christmas carols around the campfire, had a white elephant gift exchange and drank our coffee out of Christmas mugs.  It was a very merry camping trip to say the least!

 

gift exchange around the campfire

New House

This post is way overdue as it has been exactly a month since I moved to a new house in Portland.  I am now living in the hip Sunnyside neighborhood off of SE Belmont Street.  I decided to move into this new place with some pretty rad girls who I've become good friends with this past year.  Laura is a family friend who moved to Portland from Virginia and works at Sseko Designs.  Mollie also moved from Virginia and is a med student at the National College of Natural Medicine.  Natalie is from Portland and just recently settled back in town after touring around the country for her amazing music.  Holly is living with us for the summer while she interns at Sseko and then starts the Oregon Fellows Program in September.  They are all awesome.

I feel like I'm just now getting settled in now that I'm back from Guatemala and I've loved living here so far.  We've already started checking out the nearby spots in order to become legit "locals".

Laura on our amazing back patio, our favorite part of the house

Belmont Market - where we buy ginger ale and gum

at Hobnob - this will be our official "local spot"

just hanging out at Aalto Lounge

The SE Portland Way

I just discovered this great resource last week: the SE Portland Tool Library.  Located in St Mark's Lutheran Church, any SE resident can go here to check out a wide variety of tools for free! How awesome is that?! I needed an electric sander to fix up a new dresser and was able to check one out here.  Sharing the resources we having and helping each other out... what a great idea.