I was about to pull into my driveway when I saw this car in front of me. I followed it around the block to get this photo because I care about you, dear reader.
Archive for the ‘Oregon’ Category
Mixed messages
Posted by jonesey on Tuesday, 7 February 2012, 6:27Why I Live 3000 Miles Away from People I Love
Posted by julie on Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 23:01I do wonder sometimes. I mean, southwestern Massachusetts is really beautiful. And northeastern Vermont? Ha-cha-cha! And then I’d see those people I miss so desperately this time of year much more often.
But then there’s my lovely home’s Walk Score of 77%, which falls into the “Very Walkable” category. It’s true. I love not having to get in the car to pick up milk, or go to the library, or pick up my son at Kindergarten, or go to rehearsal. I also think I owe it to my kids to show them a life spent biking and walking.
This video, though, will show you EXACTLY why I choose to live all the way across the country.
University of Oregon president reading to Elena’s preschool class
Posted by jonesey on Friday, 4 November 2011, 17:46Here’s UO President Richard Lariviere reading to Elena’s preschool class. Elena is sitting farthest from the camera, under the wooden table with the arch in it. You can sometimes see her hair and her sparkly pink shoes.
You can see a picture of him reading to Sylvan’s class as well. Sylvan is in the third (bottom) picture, wearing a green and off-white shirt with horizontal stripes. You can only see his back, hair, and one ear.
Both kids were suitably impressed. Elena told us all about the story of the cat who had a bunch of different colored shoes, and Sylvan said that his story was a Berenstain Bears story about a bully.
Eugene street scene
Posted by jonesey on Thursday, 6 October 2011, 20:42Traveling from school to home. Two kids, two bikes, one bike trailer. A little rain, and lots of sun. Stopping to check out lacrosse practice across the street from Agate Hall, where the Vaux’s Swifts nest in the chimney during their spring and fall migrations.
Also, I took this picture WITH MY PHONE. My PHONE. If you're over 30, stop and think about what the word "phone" used to mean. Not to get off topic, but thank you, Steve Jobs.
Labor Day Weekend – Summer’s Not Over Yet
Posted by julie on Monday, 5 September 2011, 23:44
Mt. Bachelor from Sparks Lake on the Cascade Lakes Highway
The hottest week of the summer is approaching – and Sylvan will be in Kindergarten. We camped this past weekend, for only the second time this summer, at Cultus Lake on the Cascade Lakes Highway. Whew, that highway is just full of beautiful campgrounds with great views of the Three Sisters and Bachelor. We pulled in at 4 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, and we got the last campsite at Cultus Lake. I’m sure we could have found other camping at one of more than a dozen other campgrounds, though. I love Oregon; have I mentioned that?
Photo by Walter Hurst (have to rely on friends' cameras for photos of yourself)
Searching for the unfindable Edison Ice Cave among the lava and ponderosa pines. Both kids hiked 2 1/2 miles with nary a complaint. This one stopped at nearly every ant hill and walked along at least half a dozen log balance beams ("trampolines").
Free DQÂ cone! The Sheriff rewarded my helmet-wearing bicyclists with coupons for sugar!
Oops, lost my bottom!
SOB snow day
Posted by julie on Thursday, 14 July 2011, 0:16The plan had included a van, two preschoolers, a fast boy, and another family. The reality looked like this:
Julie is an SOB (finisher). You can't see my tiger-striped mini-gaiters, but you can see my awesome Run Pretty Far shirt. (really, go buy their stuff; it's beautiful)
I almost didn’t go. Chris couldn’t run, Ashland is 200 miles away (that’s $40 of gas, round-trip, even in my mini french fry-mobile), and the Siskiyou Outback 15K and 50K courses had been altered to be longer with much more climbing because there was too much snow on the regular courses (so I wouldn’t be able to compare my time to last year’s time–and beat it!). Yes, too much snow. For you folks suffering through a heat index of 109, I’m sure that’s unthinkable.
But then I recognized the potential: sleeping under the stars in the Mount Ashland ski area parking lot, bundled in my sleeping bag; hours and hours of Fresh Air podcasts; writing in my journal; seeing how well I could do on a 16-kilometer, 1800-foot elevation gain course; drinking a well-earned milkshake after the race–all this without arbitrating any feuds about magic markers or board books.
At 2 a.m., the stars made sleeping without a tent worthwhile. I ate dinner to hermit thrush song and awoke to nuthatch calls. Thrush (hermit, wood, and Swainson’s) are my favorite avian singers, and nuthatch, while their song isn’t particularly lovely, always remind me of the mountains. A well-behaved but curious border collie woke me up at 5:24 by coming to lie down next to my pillow (I should say I was parked only twenty or so feet from the next nearest runners). When I whispered to him to go home, he slunk back and lay on his mat.
Usually, the 15K heads south-ish on the Pacific Crest Trail before returning to the ski area, largely on dirt roads. The course is rolling, with only one serious, short climb. Not this time. As my quads made clear on Monday, I ran downhill from the start, downhill for 1800 feet. And do you know how I got back up to the start? I ran there. Except when I walked. Chris has tried to tell me for a few years now that I have to learn how to walk up the hills. Usually, I don’t buy it: I’m not as fast as people with longer legs on the downhills, so I have to make up time on the uphills. This time, though, with 1200 feet of climbing in 2 1/2 miles, I found I couldn’t run the whole thing (and the 50K’ers, besides running for 31 miles, had a much worse hill between miles 23 and 26).
The 15K race was fun and fast, and I felt great throughout it. I didn’t go out too fast; I averaged 9:11 per mile for the first 7.4 miles. Then I hit the hill, and I averaged 14:35 for the last 2.4 miles. I finished in 1:43, three minutes behind last year’s time (my goal had been 1:33 on the regular course). In any other age group, I would have finished in the top 4, but I had no such luck among the 30-something women. Darn fast 30s (you can click “15K by class” to see how fast the women 30-39 were).
This trail race was my first after which I thought, “Hmmm, maybe ultramarathons aren’t so crazy.” I need something to do for my 40th birthday, right?
Some Things to Do Before I Go
Posted by julie on Sunday, 17 April 2011, 1:17I’m in no rush, because I plan to last a century, but I might as well get started. My ongoing “bucket list” has some overlap with the Top Ten Natural Places I Want to Visit. In brainstorming order, my undoubtedly incomplete list:
- Learn to surf (someplace warm, without sharks)
- Learn to play at least a dozen songs on the guitar and participate in a campfire sing-along
- Learn to skateboard (maybe from my daughter or son) Update 2021: I’m no expert, but, since having kids, I am better than pathetic on a skateboard. No tricks. No drop-ins.
- Visit Machu Picchu
Get a nice digital SLR and be proud of my photographs againAccomplished with a Sony Nex5, August 2011. No one paid me anything to say, “Get this camera. You won’t regret it.”Publish some of my writing in a real magazineFebruary 2016: “Mountains to Climb” in Brain, Child magazine- Dance with Ghanaians in Ghana
- Make a video that is good enough to give away
- See elephants and lions where they live
- Spend more than two weeks enjoying/relaxing in Bali (or someplace equally buoyant, warm, and surrounded by ocean)
- Climb to the highest point in each of the 50 states (continental 48?): Gannett Peak in WY, Mt. Washington in NH, Mt. Marcy in NY down; that leaves 47! (Oh, gosh, does this really mean I have to go back to Florida?) November 2011 update: Frissell in CT, Graylock in MA, Ebright Azimuth in DE, Jerimoth Hill in RI (This one doesn’t really count, since I only made it to the highway near the high point, which is a couple of feet higher and a few hundred feet from the road. We arrived at 4:45, and it closes at 4.). June 2013: Hood in Oregon. August 2014: Mansfield in Vermont.
- Visit each of the 50 states: only Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska left
- Become a better listener
Live in the Dolomites for at least a school yearAugust 2019: Done! We lived in Bolzano from August-June, the kids went to an Italian school, and we all did our share of skiing and trail running.- Hike the Continental Divide Trail
- Live near the beach for a year and spend each morning walking with the waves
- Climb in Yosemite
- Finish a quilt
- Catch fireflies with my grandchildren (or someone else’s grandchildren)
Learn another language well enough to have a conversation on thephone August 2019: I had more than one phone conversation in Italian this past year. I didn’t enjoy any of them, and I’m not particularly fluent. But I did it.- Hike the 52-mile Torres del Paine circuit in Patagonia
- Go on an epic bike trip, maybe in Sweden Update: I think maybe I’d prefer Nova Scotia.
- Lead a multi-pitch, maybe the Beckey route on Liberty Bell
Visit Rocky Mountain National Park.August 2014: The cousins reunion was just outside RMNP this August, so we hiked there nearly every day. I’ll have to go back to climb Longs Peak, though. Anyone interested?- Backpack in the Brooks Range
Run a marathon in under 4 hoursNovember 2011 update: I’m signed up for the Eugene Marathon in April. This is the one!; April 2012 update: 3:58:46 at April 30, 2012 Eugene Marathon
- Read Moby-Dick
Take my kids to a drive-in, maybe at the Spud in Driggs.August 2014: Mom and I took the kids to see Popeye, in honor of Robin Williams, at the new and decidedly awesome drive-in in Amenia, just blocks from where I went to elementary school (my kids particularly liked how the bathrooms were designated with a moustache and some pouty lips). We also passed three(!) working drive-ins on the drive back from Washington last week—one somewhere north of Coupeville on Whidbey Island, one south of Port Townsend, and one northwest of Olympia. So many possibilities…- Introduce my children to drinking milk through a Tim Tam (I learned it with red wine, but that’s a few years down the road)
- Teach my nephew something naughty but benign
- Climb Mount Kilimanjaro
- Go horsepacking
- Visit Walden Pond
Ride a rollercoaster with my childrenand eventually with my grandchildren(my Gram set a high standard)August 2019: We’ve been our fair share of roller coasters. The whole family loves them.- Go on a women’s only yoga/canyoneering retreat (or meditation/surfing, or some equally active and calm combo)
- Write every day for a year
- Draw every day for a year
- Take my children to see a meteor shower in Arizona, Montana, Kiribati, or someplace equally dark. Lie in the road and see 60 or more shooting stars in an hour. 2021 update: We’ve definitely enjoyed some meteor showers. Last year’s Perseids, which we spent at McKenzie Pass, was quite spectacular.
Go to the top of the Rifle Tower (okay, Eiffel, but Sylvan said this the other day and it made me smile)August 2019: We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower last March, when we met friends from Eugene in Paris for the weekend (that sounds so sophisticated and cosmopolitan).- Climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty
Take a Valium and take my kids to Disney Land. No Valium required. I couldn’t believe how much fun I had, and, at 6 and 9, the kids were really great ages to both take in the magic and appreciate the thrill rides. After Space Mountain, Elena said, “Let’s go again!” When it’s not even 9 a.m., and there’s not much of a line, we could say, “Why not?” Halloween 2014.- Take my Mom and daughter to a fancy tea somewhere
- Sell my silkscreened stuff
Learn to play chess from SylvanApril 2012 update: Sylvan’s taught me how to play, and he reminds me every time we play of how each piece can move. We are currently similarly matched; he will be beating me in just a few months.- Sing karaoke in front of people (this one scares me more than any other, I think)
I’m a bit distressed by the amount of fossil fuel that the travel on my list would consume. I have considered biking to the base of the highest points in each of the 50 states, then hiking…
A Few Things I’ve Already Done That Would Be On My Bucket List Otherwise
- Hot air ballooned (a stroke of absolute genius on my Mom’s part; this was the world’s best high school graduation present)
- SCUBA dived at the Great Barrier Reef
- Swum with dolphins in New Zealand
- Become a NOLS instructor
- Danced in a semi-professional company
- Studied abroad
- Fallen in love, more than once (More than once wasn’t on my list, but those people have made my life richer.)
- Run into a grizzly. Or two. (This wasn’t on my list either, but I’m glad it happened.)
- Run a marathon. Or three. Four actually, as of April 2012.
- Ridden in a helicopter. Or two.
- Been to a concert at Carnegie Hall
- Been on TV (a few times)
- Climbed at least 10 of Oregon’s volcanoes: South Sister, Bachelor, McLoughlin, Bailey, Cowhorn, Diamond Peak, Washington, Maiden Peak, Lava Butte, Mt. Scott November 2011 update: Thielsen. Summer 2012: Three-Fingered Jack, Broken Top. Summer 2013: Hood, Black Crater, Little Belknap.
Talk to the booty, ’cause the hand is off-duty
Posted by julie on Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 23:36
Appreciating My Preschoolers
Posted by julie on Monday, 7 February 2011, 21:38I wrote these first few paragraphs a week and a half ago, and I intended to follow them up with an account of our trip to the beach, farther below. My words seem prescient and bittersweet, given the sad events at the coast this weekend and my last blog entry.
27 January 2010
Dear Sylvan and Elena,
The truth is that I wish I realized, every single moment of every single day, how fleeting this is, how you’re going to grow up and be teenagers tomorrow. But I’ve never been patient, and I feel like parenting preschoolers is all about boundless patience.
But today I appreciated you both. And I have some joyous images in my mind that will remain with me when you’re 13. We headed up to Salem so I could pick up a craigslist find from a seller in Keizer. You guys and I went to A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village to make a day of it. What a super place! It consists of three old Victorian houses, painted brightly and filled to bursting with exciting, well-considered kid rooms.
Snapshots I’ll remember: Elena disappearing into the black void of the slide below me, completely fearless. Sylvan in a scarlet macaw costume two sizes too small, a costume you returned to when I said we had 15 more minutes before our drive home.
Tonight, when Sonya arrived to babysit, she said to you, Elena: “Are you my bug?” You replied, “You my bud.†G’s are challenging.
The craigslist find, in place in our bathroom. Not a project, and under $100. And look at the bonus cutest cat in the world!
7 February
When the kids and I got into the car in Eugene last Thursday, it was 38°F and partly cloudy. An hour and a half later, at the beach, it was 55°F and sunny. We packed a backpack of sand toys, snacks, and warm clothes, and we set off for the boardwalk trail through the dunes. The highlight of the day for both kids was pooping in the dunes; I do what I can to provide authentic experiences. We spun, ran, skittered from the waves, threw wet sand at a tree stump, ate, played horseshoes, drew letters in the sand, turned cartwheels, got our clothes wet and sandy, patted nice dogs, walked pretty far (Sylvan on his own, with zero whining. Yay!), collected shells and driftwood, and even relaxed for 3½ minutes (Oh, that was just me.).
Then, the angels fell asleep in the backseat while I listened to a podcast on the way home (Have you ever noticed that every sleeping child is an angel?).
On the boardwalk trail. I love her look; I feel like she rarely looks to him for reassurance, but maybe she's just good at pretending.
Ah, dune running. I remember the first time I did it: on Cape Cod with Aunt Sheila and Mom.
I definitely wanted to take this home for our backyard. I considered rolling it. Far. I think it was the same age when it was cut down that I am now. Look at the little people footprints in the sand.
See ya, Mom. We're going in!
Run away, run away!
Okay, am I supposed to throw this wet sand in your eyes or call it poop?
Sand dance
See my sand?
Belknap Afternoon
Posted by julie on Monday, 10 January 2011, 8:41
Mommy got us chocolate. See?
Because if I stayed home with my two children all Sunday I would have been reminded of how much I needed to vacuum (and scrub, tidy, and put away), I packed up Mr. S and Miss E and drove an hour and a half to find snow. We found enough snow still falling from the sky that we came back DOWN the mountain a bit because getting stuck in the snow when it’s just me, two pre-schoolers, and a plastic shovel didn’t sound like something I was up for today. Not only did we find snow, but we found a Japanese Garden, bubbling hot springs, carved wooden bears and bald eagles, Christmas decorations (I’m not the only one with my tree still up. It’s not losing any needles; how can I kick it to the curb?), a superbly warm pool, and at least one ant. Yes, we had to pay to use the Belknap Hot Springs pool, but, at $7 an hour per person, my wallet is only $21.75 lighter after today’s trip. $.75 for chocolate seemed like money well spent, even after my son told me that 3 Musketeers bars taste like metal.
It was snowing enough that we caught snowflakes on our tongues. But Chris realized that it was 60 degrees colder when he and I went to the outdoor hot springs in Banff: -25 F!