Olympic National Park adventures

Here are some photos from my 3-day trip to Olympic National Park on Washington's Olympic peninsula, and the stupendously beautiful temperate coastal rainforest and beaches. I would label more but my dad is picking me up to go to his log cabin and I have to go! (And here's a link from my previous road trip here in the winter wonderland of 2008)








The town made famous by the Twilight series! I talked to someone who told me it was a sleepy, dying logging town, until the Twilight series, and now 70,000 people come through a year. Some like this - it's good for the economy. Others aren't so crazy about the previously undiscovered secret being revealed to the world. What do you think?
Dad and Bev on the beach near Kalaloch Lodge.

I found bigfoot! He likes to hug, like me. Who knew?
We stopped here for a late afternoon lunch. It was on the way back from a hike in the Hoh Rainforest area of Olympic.
Me hugging the world's largest spruce tree! It is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. It's near Lake Quinalt, an area of the park that has a lot of giant, ancient trees - including several of the world's largest!
She felt wise and loving. I sat on her and rested for a while, listening to her wisdom.
A gazebo at Lake Quinalt Lodge, where we stayed for 2 nights. There was a wedding there and I thought the lights were lovely.
Another view of Lake Quinalt

Sunset over Lake Quinalt (shot through a window...). We watched the sunset as we ate dinner at the Salmon House restaurant.
Stellar's jay at Lake Quinalt Lodge


Willaby Creek

Wow!

Somewhere in the Texas Hill Country...
Copyright (c) 2005 Wendee Holtcamp

Wow! It's been a fantastic day. Just one of those days where I could really see God at work in my life and like a lot of things are coming together. I can't explain it, totally, but things I've been praying about for a long time are coming to fruition. Subtle things, things within my heart and soul, things of God, things of grace, things of love, things of friendships. When connecting with an old friend from college recently, I told him the last 20 years in a nutshell: life has been both incredibly hard and painful, and amazingly spectacular. The paradox is that without one we can't really see or feel the other so well. At any rate, I'll be glad to put my 30s behind me later this year, and move into a hopefully better decade. The 30s were not the best, but many good things took place during those years at the same time.

In the past few days, I connected with a really neat woman, a new friend, which is always so good for the soul! I also participated in something at our church called theophostic prayer. The concept is simple: expose the lies we believe in and that keep us stuck. Interestingly, it's kind of controversial in some evangelical circles. Lucky for me, I'm not what you would call an "evangelical." It is offered though my pretty traditional Lutheran church and seems pretty normal and legit to me. I have read about it and now participated in it and found it very healing. I will keep going for several times more. It's sort of a guided visualization/prayer session over some issue going on in your life currently as well as how it connects back to your past memories. It's such a blessing to have these opportunities for spiritual and emotional growth, and the women who are sharing their time and their hearts leading these ministries to help people voluntarily- it's really quite amazing. To God be the glory!

At any rate I'm super psyched about tomorrow, and next week! Tomorrow is a long-planned but never-seeming-to-happen get together with my best friend Daline (who I met at Texas A&M years ago)! For Christmas she got me this "groupon" to Naked Body and Bath. Get your mind out of the gutter, already! That does sound kind of kinky though I must say, especially when combined with the word groupon. At any rate, it's not! Naked Body and Bath is a place in Rice Village in Houston where you can make your own perfume and potions and lotions. The groupon is just a gift certificate and to tell you the truth I had no idea what the heck "groupon" meant until today. I thought it meant coupon that you do with a group (hence, Daline and I). But I think - and I have to ask her - that its rather through this Groupon website where through group purchasing rates online you get good deals on various stuff.

Also we are going to do FREE HUGS! Remember Doug and I did this the last two Christmases in a row - 08 and 09. I've always had to rope my friends, kids, and Doug into this crazi-fun-ness but Daline is totally into it too so it will be fun to have two hug-a-holics hugging away!

Next week I'm heading to San Antonio for an article I'm writing on, as mentioned. And the kids are excited about getting to go somewhere new and different, rather than just sitting at home on spring break. I asked each where they want to go or one thing they want to do, and Sam wants to see the Alamo, and Savi just wants to take pictures (with my camera, of course...). I'm VERY Happy that both kids actually want to go, because sometimes I want to bring them places and they just whine and complain! OK Savi isn't too excited about the couple hour hike in Government Canyon, but I am! Anyway, we each get our favorite things to do, so it all balances out. And let me just take this opportunity to say that I am so incredibly proud of my two amazing children. They are both so smart, so hard-working and responsible, so kind-spirited, and I just can see the true light of Jesus Christ in their lives. That means more to me than anything and I hope they know that!

Anyway, while in San Antonio, we will stay at the gorgeous Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk. There's a new mile-plus "Museum Reach" stretch of the Riverwalk that has some green development that I may check out (and am trying to sell a second travel piece on). We're going to go on a riverboat cruise thing. Not sure what else! Another bohemian adventure coming up ahead!

new adventures ahead!

Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

A quick update just so everyone knows I haven't fallen off the face of the planet! We had to reschedule the camping and tubing trip from a couple weekends ago to this coming weekend due to rain... the Texas Hill Country desperately needs rains to replenish its aquifers and nourish its wildlife and so forth but we were a bit sad... the weather was so warm back then and now it's started to cool down. Normally you'd think, ok, that is a good thing for camping right? But the thing is... and this is a minor thing, really, but the San Marcos River emerges from a spring and stays right around 72 degrees, which is a bit chilly. It's perfect when it's blazing hot out but when it's 80 or 85 as it will be this coming weekend... well that may be a bit cold on the toesies (and behinds). But we will have fun anyway! Sam is bringing a friend of his and Doug is coming too. We plan to do the same basic thing I mentioned before- camp at McKinney Falls State Park and tube down the San Marcos River. Yea!

Hope I can upload a couple pics afterwards but the reality is I may not be able to for a while, as I leave on TUESDAY for yet another trip! And yes, as you can imagine I am totally inundated, overwhelmed, swamped, and basically going crazy. I have two bags packed for different trips, trying to back up my computer and print things I'll need for the plane trip, taxi the kids here and there (school, soccer practice, cross country practice etc) me to the gym, and write and research as many blog posts as I can SO that I can focus on one thing during the next 3 weeks while I'm away... writing a couple chapters in my book!!! Aye yi yi.

So where am I going you ask? Well, I have researched secluded getaways and friends' cabins for a couple years and after talking about it for oh months, years, I'm doing it! I decided to go stay with my friend Elissa in Bozeman Montana who is graciously opening her home to me to stay there! She has a basement (I think) that is like a self contained apartment so I'll stay there, work work work while she's at work (she and her husband own Sweetpea's Nursery) and we'll get to visit together in the evenings, and take a couple little excursions! Mostly I plan to write day and night! We plan to try to get to either Yellowstone National Park which is only an hour and a half away from her place (in Wyoming) or Glacier National Park which is 5 or 6 hours west, in Montana.

I've been to Yellowstone twice and absolutely love it! I love the geysers and grand prismatic pool and the bison and bears... The last time I went was a decade ago with the kids and Matt on our way back from our insanely long drive to Alaska and back (we got to visit Elissa then too) and the other time when I was 14 years old and moving between Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis, Minnesota. I went to Glacier a couple years ago with my dad, and if you're a faithful Bohemian Adventures reader, you may remember my blog post from then!

I am writing a feature about pikas, and hope to visit with a biologist working on them at Yellowstone but that may not be possible... again you may remember Dad and I went pika-spotting in Glacier a couple years back (pics are at the blog post in previous link) with grad student Lucas Moyer-Horner and I will be writing up that experience in this article. Pikas are so cute! They are also threatened by global warming, and there's a petition into the US Fish & Wildlife Service to list them as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

I'll end this now, and hope to update a wee bit from Montana! Godspeed!

Last memories of the Pacific NW

Today was my daughter's first day of HIGH SCHOOL!! Holy moly mackeroli, how does the time go so fast? Only four more years of my baby girl at home. :( I'm so incredibly proud of that amazing girl, though, she is such a brilliantly smart, kind-hearted, genuine, funny and super-creative talented young woman, and proudly a Christian too! And she had a good day, despite being initially nervous, and for that I'm very grateful. (I took the photo above of my girl at a local place called Old McDonald's Farm back in 1997 or so... she's so adorable! Copyright (c) 1997 Wendee Holtcamp)

Before too much time passes, I want to upload the photos from the last day of my trip to Oregon and Washington. I flew into (and out of) the Seattle airport because I found a ticket using frequent flier miles there rather than Portland so just rented a car and drove down to Oregon and all around. Since my cousin lives in Tacoma (just south of Seattle) I stayed with her on my arrival and departure. She has a beautiful home overlooking Puget Sound and I always enjoy visiting her and her adorable kiddos! I stayed there in December when I visited and it snowed and snowed and snowed, too!

After leaving Portland, I met up for a power unch with my friend Francis Zera, who is an incredibly talented photographer. We collaborated on this story, Candid Camera, for E/The Environmental Magazine and another on paddling Texas rivers for Canoe & Kayak.
We ate outside on a perfectly gorgeous afternoon at The Ram Restaurant & Brewery, which overlooks Puget Sound. We saw some people out there parasailing, which was very cool. One thing that isn't visible in this small version of the image is Mount Rainier just to the left of the tall building in the distance. If you click and get the larger version you can make it out. Or... you can look below.
Aha! Here it is, Mount Rainer, cropped out of the previous image, in a bigger size. Amazing isn't it? Especially amazing how it's so cryptic when the photo above is small but visible when larger.

After lunch with Francis, I went back to Holly's and we talked and hung out with her kids, and in the evening had a lovely dinner of stuffed salmon out on the deck. This is a view of sunset over the Sound, with a cross in the upper left corner and silhouetting our wine glasses. A perfect end to a perfect working vacation! (Just about all vacations are work for a writer, since I get story projects and network! And that's the way I like it!)

another bohemian adventure!

Snowshoeing on Mount Rainier in Washington state.
Copyright (c) 2005 Wendee Holtcamp

I had a great day! It doesn't FEEL like it's 2am Houston time, but alas it is. I better get to bed but not before a quick update on my latest "bohemian adventure." I left my home about 245, for a 430pm flight. Had a good productive morning and played Gin rummy with the kids right before leaving. When I was at the airport ticket counter, my cell phone dropped on the floor from the check-in kiosk. I have done this before, and it has never fazed it. But this time... it died. Dead as a doorknob. When I got to the gate, I desperately tried everything to resurrect it. Nothing. Not taking the battery out, not taking the battery out for 10 minutes, not taking the SIM card out, not plugging it in… Not prayer. It just got stuck in this endless “loading” loop. I even kept that loading looop on for 30 minutes to see if it would get out of the loop and load up, but no, it just got overheated. Ack! Panic! How can I go on a trip without my cell phone! How can I survive without instant access to email, facebook, and twitter?! But eventually I surrendered, put it in my bag, and took out the battery and flew to Salt Lake City, en route to Seattle.

When I got to Salt Lake City, I did what any reasonable person would do, and I dropped it two feet onto a hard floor to see if that would jolt it into action – sort of the way a defibrillator works on the heart. OK maybe this is not what a reasonable person would do, but I'm telling you this technique has worked for me on various pieces of electronic equipment in the past, so it was worth a shot. I did this in the bathroom stall so no one would see me and report me to the cell phone police. And guess what – it worked!! No kidding!! I’m a genius!

Besides that little excitement, the 2 flights were a wee bit bumpy but nothing bad, and I had some nice conversations with the guys sitting next to me on the flights, and with a guy at the bar in Salt Lake City, who, oddly enough had just dropped his girlfriend off at Texas A&M though he was from California and in Salt Lake City at the time - small world since that's where I went to school. Not that I hang out at bars typically, but I was waiting for my salad and the bartender was charging my phone, because oddly enough after it finally worked again, the battery had gone from totally charged to about 1/4 strength. Maybe all the endless feedback loop drained it, I don't know. And in other news, while on the plane I actually got a lot done on the book chapter I was working on foreevvvveeer, so I feel soooo great about that!

Then I arrived at the Seattle airport, rented a car and drove to my cousin Holly's home where I am now showered and tucked into bed, after a nice conversation with her this evening. Tomorrow morn I am driving to Portland to work on my book and blogs at The Fresh Pot which has wireless, then going to a Wednesday potluck with my dad and Bev at his church in Longview for dinner! So au revoir my friends, catch ya again soon!

the artist vs the adult

I've been a bit stressed. Probably PMS. Anyway, I've also been laughing a lot. Savie and I have been cracking each other up which is fun and cute. I actually don't laugh a lot for some reason. I'm not sure why. I used to when I was a teenager. Some people really make me laugh. My girlfriends and I laugh together. But I'm not the kind of person that laughs all the time. I do have a sort of satirical sense of humor. I think I need one of those Happy Bunny shirts that says "I'm laughing on the inside."

So I laid outside today on a blanket (I Love being outside. I just want to be out there permanently!) and I was reading The Artist's Way, and some things in Chapter 11 really spoke to me. I was thinking about how I have these two parts of my personality that are sort of in conflict. I have my very free spirit, bohemian, hippie, party girl, flower child, artist, writer, creative side. It likes to hang upside down from the monkey bars, swing super high, stand on my head, spin around and around in circles, do cartwheels, laugh my fool head off, dive with sharks, swim in the ocean, take naps, be lazy, travel around the world and shirk all responsibility. Then there is the very responsible part of me who never misses a deadline, pays all her bills on time, is a perfectionist and control freak, never drinks and drives, gave up smoking and drugs years and years ago and is a bit too lofty about that, works out and obsesses about things.

God just reading that makes me want to wretch. Actually they both are me all the time! That is the weird thing. I am not responsible only part of the time. My inner artist is a very responsible bohemian! Ha ha! That is kind of funny. Even when I'm traveling and being a bohemian adventurer, I'm still paying my bills, meeting my deadlines. Well maybe there is a tiny bit that is sometimes slightly irresponsible, just a tiny wee bit, but any time I do something wrong that responsible nerd reminds me and bugs me until I feel guilty. But there's just a little part of me that feels like the prodigal son and wants to let loose, and go back to my younger days when I didn't really worry so much about responsibility and could just have fun without consequence - or in reality so I thought there were no consequences. There always were. But I just wish for a bit I could have that whole mindset again, and just be wild and free. I have such a free bird living inside my heart and she so struggles with the responsible side. It really kills me sometimes.

So in Artist's Way Chapter 11, Recovering a Sense of Autonomy, it says:

"To a large degree my life is art, and when it gets dull, so does my work."

"As an artist I can literally die from boredom. I kill myself when I fail to nurture my artist child because I am acting like somebody else's idea of an adult."

"To be an artist is to recognize the particular. To appreciate the peculiar. To allow a sense of play in your relationship to accepted standards. To ask the question, 'Why?' To be an artist is to risk admitting that much of what is money, property, and prestige strikes you as just a little silly."

"As artists, we are spiritual sharks. The ruthless truth is that if we don't keep moving, we sink to the bottom and die."

These quotes and the whole chapter spoke to me because it helped me understand WHY I am such a bohemian! There are just some people who are like this -- the cultural creatives! I also came across this quote as I was reading the end of Chapter 10 today, Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection, which spoke to me, "It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." - Somerset Maugham.

I also thought today that maybe I would like to start painting again. I am not good at it, but when I was going through a hard time around 2000 I bought some watercolor paints and brushes and M and I used to sit around and paint. Course he ended up being brilliant at it, and I was putzing around so I gave it up. But it was fun, and another way to creatively express, so I am just feeling compelled to maybe pick it up again. Just something to do.

Well since today is the Sabbath that is my excuse to do absolutely no work! I went to church, laid outside and read Artists' Way and now I'm going to go eat some Soy Delicious Peanut Butter Zig Zag (this stuff is divine! but a wee bit too fattening for regular consumption - save for stressful days) and I'm going to watch The Kite Runner! I am almost done with my bobcat article though, then it's on to Biomimicry, then to write a book chapter for Losing My Religion based on my trip to Colorado!! Lots to do...