The shortest summer ever: 3 weeks of 'hurry-up-and-relax'
Camping with Greg in the Redwoods was so much fun. We hiked 20 miles in 3 days, thus earning our beer and extravagant camp meal every night. Note the beatiful and gimongous trees:
Greg is inspecting the trees. Yep, still there.
I asked a friendly kangaroo mouse to take our picture. It turned out alright, but he didn't know how to work the zoom button. Rodents are always so behind the times with technology...
I know, more pictures of trees but they really are amazing. This is a particularly odd configuration of foliage, i thought.
I grew up visiting the redwoods occasionally with my family, and it wasn't until later that I realized that it wasn't really normal for trees to get this big and this old. There are so few redwood forests left... and hopefully the ones that remain will stay that way... (sublte hint: EVERYONE should watch Al Gore's movie 'An Inconvienent Truth'. It's mandatory, because I said so.)
Other excursions over my brief summer break involved Paul and his ambitious list of things to do before school starts again. We went for a wine tour via bikes, and that was absolutely awesome. Spent the afternoon pedaling to the most beautiful hilltops in the area, drinking wine, and climbing some good gravelly hills. And in case you were wondering, the wine only enhances the cycling experience. It's really the best way to see all the best wineries... as long as you don't mind hanging out and pretending to be posh and snobby when you're wearing bike shorts and kleats.
We also took swing dancing lessons!!! This is something we have been talking for a while, and finally got to do. Paul picked up the steps so fast, and he seemed to actually enjoy it. After the lessons we danced for hours and then at midnight I had to run out the door but I forgot my shoe on the step and then... oh wait, nevermind. I always get my life confused with a fairy tale....
Paul and I went on our own hiking trip, hitting Multnomah falls and then heading up Eagle Creek (both in the Colombia Gorge). We hiked 10 miles that day, and we were definetly feeling it the next day. (A good feeling, like someone beat you in the legs with a soft yet blunt object...).
And here's the representative cheesy couples photo with the classic 'waterfall into the top of Paul's head' thing going on.
It was so warm after hiking 1 mile straight up, i was ready to jump in. Just waiting for someone to dare me... (Paul, you missed your cue!)
This is along Eagle Creek; we hiked down to Punch Bowl falls. And here we did actually jump in and swim almost to that big log thing (that looks suspiciously like a big ladel). I think the water was about 33 degrees... a bit beyond 'invigorating', but at least we can say we did it.
And THEN, school started. And I had a week of freaking out and crying and getting used to the stress and busy-ness and people and everything that comes with a new semester. Since we basically never left, it actually wasn't too hard to get settled in again. A little painful, but not too bad overall.
Last weekend: (Labor day weekend)
I visited my cousin, Aunt and Uncle which was a pleasure, because I hadn't seen them for quite some time. It makes me kick myself for not keeping in touch better! Oh well, better late than never... after lunch with them I flew up to Seattle to visit Melissa and cause a ruckus in a different state for a change. I also ended up kayaking on some huge body of water on Monday with a classmate who also happened to be up there.... So many fancy boats and yachts and sailboats, oh goodness... i love being on the water. I would be happy with a kayak though... those things are funner than fun.
That brings us to today. I will abstain from including all the little pointless stuff about my life (mostly because I have ran out of semi-witty ways to say things... ), and leave you with a deep thought:
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
-Jack Handy
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