friends new and old

Here I am at my cousin's house in Tacoma, about to hit the sack, because I fly out at 6am tomorrow but have to get up at 345am - ack! Yesterday was a very busy and fun day! I'll leave you with some pics rather than write about it! G'nite and I'll see ya on the flip side!

Self-portrait of me, Terri, & Eliza before our hike in the Wildwood Recreation Area on Mount Hood.
Eliza & Terri on a wooden bench with salmon carved on it. Salmon spawn on the Salmon River which runs through the Wildwood Rec Area. It was such an amazingly stupendously gorgeous place, the AIR was sooo fresh and everything was so green and lush. It was heaven on earth! And the company was awesome! I love these gals!
The Salmon River.
Terri and Eliza chatting by the river with a model of Mount Hood in the background.

Terri & Eliza hugging a huge tree!
The Salmon River.

Me and Annie Rose - a friend I went to visit the day before yesterday. I stayed with Annie Rose back in December when I got snowed into Portland!
After our hike, we met up with several journalists and writers from the Pacific NW at Hopeworks eco brewpub. It's Portland's only microbrewery run on 100% alternative energy. They use organic and locally grown food, and try to make the operations as sustainable as possible. This is a shot of the bar, which is decorated with old bike parts.
We sat upstairs at Hopworks at first and then migrated outside because it was a stunningly gorgeous day! This is, from left clockwise - Annie Rose, Jimmy (my high school boyfriend),
me, Valerie Brown, Dawn Stover, Orna Izakson, Lizzie Grossman (half hidden), Susan Hess, Terri Hansen and Eliza Murphy.
Annie Rose and Eliza chatting outside Hopworks. Telling roadkill stories! A shot of the beer cooler - all of their beers are organic!

Juergen and Susan Hess!

Elisa, Orna, Terri and I toward the end of our Hopworks get together.

But the night didn't end there! Me and Jimmy went back to Eliza's place and had some champagne! We walked around the neighborhood at dusk and chatted up a storm.

Eliza shows us her awesome sculpture and artwork. This is a piece on her wall.

This is a piece made of two roadkilled frogs. I like this photo!

Eliza reads a chapter of her book to us.

A shot of her sculpture, The Mermaid, made from garbage collected at the seashore. Notice also "the bird" in the foreground - another small scuplture that I think is really cool!

Jimmy and Eliza recreating the classic pitchfork farmer scene...she uses the fork to get roadkill! :)

This pic is actually from the other day at lunch at the Laughing Planet (Jimmy & I)- notice the T Rex toy dino in the forefround! I just like the pic and didn't put it up the other day :)

wedding day!

The very happy bride and groom - Bev and my dad - after the ceremony! The maid of honor and best man, long-time friends of both my dad and Bev's Jim & Cathy, behind some flowers in the reception hall.
Jim, Cathy, my dad and Bev walking toward the chapel at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Longview, Washington.
Cutting the amazingly delicious flourless chocolate cake!
Bev, Dad and me.
Another shot of us.

Help! I caught the bride's bouquet! No, really what I did was threw the bouquet in the air and caught it myself. Truly I was the only single person at the wedding I think!
Being a bit wild n crazy with the flowers :)

A day at the beach is the best kind of day

"Sand in the sandwiches, sand in the tea, a day at the beach is the best kind of day!"
- A line from one of my favorite children's books I used to read to my kids. I'd credit the author but I don't know her name off the top of my head!

Yesterday I took a solo day and drove to the Oregon coast. It was a fantastic day! I arrived early-ish to Cannon Beach and walked down to the rocks at the end of the beach then back. I didn't actually walk to Haystack Rock which was on the opposite end of the beach. I took lots of photos and just enjoyed being by the OCEAN which I love!!

Next I walked around town a bit. It's a quaint little town - some might say touristy but still cool. I had clam chowder at the Local Grill & Scoop and then hit Bella Espresso to work for a bit (they have wifi). Then I decided to head to Ecola State Park which is supposed to have really cool tidepools. Ecola is just a mile or two from the public Cannon Beach which I hadn't realized or I'd probably spent more time there earlier when the tide was low, but by the time I got there i nthe afternoon the tide was halfway in, and I didn't see any tidepools :( Anyway the coastal temperate rainforest on the drive to the Ecola State Park was mind-blowing. Soooo beautiful and unexpected. Here are some pics from my day! After I left the beach I went to my dad's wedding rehearsal and then dinner. Today was the wedding, but I'll save those pics for later. I'm in Portland now and tomorrow is a get together with a bunch of Pacific Northwest writers and journalists!

Just me and my shoes and my camera at the Oregon coast yesterday! I went to Cannon Beach, which is a couple hours from where my dad lives. I went solo and had an amazing day!

I love love love this photo! I went on a long walk along the beach and took this on the way back in. I saw this feather and shot it with Haystack Rock in the background, and the coloration of the water and sand just made it turn out soooo cool!

Similar shot, different layout.

I walked through a flock of seagulls... isn't that an 80s band?! :)

If you blow up this photo you can see a bike ride and the pic looks pretty cool when it's bigger.

This is a taffy-pulling machine at a candy shop in Cannon Beach which is a cute little town. It was sour apple flavor, and they gave out samples!
After I left Cannon Beach, I stopped by Ecola State Park which is just a few blocks from the public beach, but on the way to the beach access you drive through this amazingly lush, gorgeous temperate coastal rainforest - wow!
Another shot of the gorgeous forest in Ecola St Park.
A view on the hike down to the beach.
The rocky shore at Ecola State park.
There were a lot of surfers and body-boarders. This pic I thought was cool because of the surfer in the waves. It looks good if you blow it up bigger.
A view of the beach at Ecola State park.
I climbed up and on the rocks here, looking for tidepools but the tide was mostly in so unfortunately I didn't get to see any. Major bummer!
After I left the beach I went to my dad's wedding rehearsal. Here's Cathy (left) pointing because she sees me arriving at the door! That's Bev my dad's fiance (then - now wife) to Cathy's right, my dad, and Cathy's husband Jim. Cathy and Jim live on Meissner Mountain near my dad and are long-time friends.
Laughing it up at the rehearsal! Bev has a great laugh!

Cathy and Jim at El Tapatio Mexican restaurant in Rainier, Oregon where we went for the rehearsal dinner.
I caught the two lovebirds whispering. Turns out they were saying a private blessing over their meal :)
Me and my daddy!

Dad heard some music and grabbed Bev for a quick dance. They're all romantic like that!
And just for the curious, this is a photo of the "Soylent Green" dish that I had at The Laughing Planet the other day... with my writer friend Ken in the background :) Soylent Green is Swiss chard, broccoli and tempeh over barley and quinoa with cilantro pesto. YUMMO!

I love the Pacific NW!

The road to my dad's cabin, which I called Rocky Road ice cream as a kid!

Ken, secret agent man. I met my friend Ken for lunch at the awesome restuarant, The Laughing Planet.

Eucharist on Wednesday at the St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Longview, WA. Such nice, intimate gathering compared to the giant worship service at my home church!

A sign at my dad's church.


We had a potluck dinner and most of the meals were made from veggies from people's gardens. Yum!
My high school boyfriend Jimmy and I hanging over the porch edge at his house in Portland.

Jimmy and I - friends always!

I'll put up pics from my day today at Cannon Beach later, have to head back to my dad's rehearsal now!

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!

agghhhhhh

My dad's log cabin in Oregon where I spent part of my younger years...
Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp

Wow this sumer has absolutely flown by. I think I am in the middle of a whirlwind. I want to update my blog more, but only feel like I am being responsible in doing so when I'm on top of my work, which feels dreadfully behind. So, here I am just to give a quick update. This is Shark Week so all my Animal Planet blog posts were on sharks (between 8/7 and 8/3), which was fun! I love sharks! Check them out if you can! As always I love comments, so post some comments - let me know if anything resonates!

Next Tuesday I fly to the Pacific Northwest and am more than a little excited! My dad is getting married to his soul mate, Bev, and I'm delighted for them! And I'm more than excited to be back in the Oregon air, and go hiking, and hopefully see the seashore. I'll try to update from there, but my basic plan is to fly into Seattle, Washington where I'll stay with my cousin in Tacoma and her two cute kiddos (her husband Ross in in Iraq for his second tour of duty, so prayers for him are much appreciated!). Then I'll spend the next few days alternating between working in Portland at a wifi coffee shop hotspot, visiting some friends, and spending evenings with my dad and Bev. I am hoping to get to the beach!!! Oregon's coast is incredibly beautiful, and it's been a long while since I've feasted my eyes on its shores so even if I have to go alone I probably will go. My dad gets married Saturday. As you may recall my last trip there in December I got snowed in!!

While there, I have helped organize a get together for writers in the Pacific NW, some of whom are driving in from out of town! This should be a blast. We're going to Wildwood Recreation Site on Mount Hood which looks amazingly beautiful. Here's a brochure that may take abit to download. Then after a half day hike, heading to Hopworks Urban Brewery, Portland's first eco-brewpub with organic hand crafted beer, and a sustainable building powered by 100% renewable energy. Coolio!

Then it's back to Tacoma to visit my cousin again before flying home. It should be a much needed respite from the drab suburban scenery of Houston... I would say the heat but it had been a scalding 108 in Portland! I heard it had cooled down to a high of 80 so let's hope and pray it stays that way! I hope to get a bit of work done in between my visits and explorations, too.

I took a bunch of pics from my birthday party in July and my trip to Dallas to visit my mom, stepdad and niece. I'll upload as soon as I get some time. I have to do "personal" things like this in micro-steps because I have soooo much work to do!! I'm sure I'm not the only one to have felt that way before. :)

i'm a blogging fool!

My eyes/Copyright (c) 2009 Wendee Holtcamp

I have decided to start trying to blog here more, but every time I open up the browser window to write something I get a mental block and I end up not blogging. So here I go, I'm a blogging foo! As I've mentioned in my previous scattered posts, things have been bleak over here. I've been struggling. But finally, a major change in my life happened recently, the end of a relationship that has been a bit of a struggle for some time. There's love, and wonderful things, but also challenges that we need to set aside the "us" and each move in life on separate paths now. I am trying to get my footing again, and actually it's been a sort of slow process because I have spent the last two months on and off trying to get back to the gym more, trying to get together with friends more. My creativity feels like it's suffered. and the overwhelm feeling is often there because of sooooo much to do, deadlines, projects, house stuff, life...

One positive thing, I have absolutely enjoyed doing the Animal Planet Animals in the News blog - it's such a joy to write! I think I love it because it's so concise, short, and with a quick turnaround between writing and publication. The story ideas are easy to come by because they're based on stories already out there 'in the news' so I just research, talk to scientists or others, write it up, fact check, put it online, add links, add photo, and before long, wha-la there's my article, published!

I am really enjoying keeping up with all the animal news around the world on a more regular basis too. I love being able to pick what I write about. I love science-based stories. I love positive stories in which conservationists are recovering a species, or there's some good news but boy there's a lot of bad news out there too. I try to write about invertebrates at least once a week because they don't get enough media play compared to the cute cuddlies or the big scaries. And speaking of big scaries, next week is Shark Week!! (Not that I think sharks are scary!) I have all shark stories in the hopper. It reminds me of when I dove with the sharkies in the Coral Sea last April... man that was a truly mind-blowing profound experience!! I have been talking with Sean a bit about maybe doing that documentary in the Solomon Islands, or seeing whether we can get some funding! That would be sooo cool. Oh and hey, the 2-hour documentary Mysteries of the Shark Coast - in which I appear with a yellow bathing suit and braids walking through the background a few time, and acting as the "shark nurse" handing Richard Fitzpatrick tools for the shark surgery - may air again next week so check it out! Here;s a cool descrip of the show, but it's on the Discovery UK site. And just for fun, here's a link to a game I helped write shark questions for: Sharkrunners!

So there you have it. Slow but steady wins the race. I went to my Thursday morning coffee this morn with my girlfriends, a group that has sort of withered away over the past months and I really, really miss it! A woman from the group who had moved across the pond was back in town and I'd never met her but truly enjoyed sharing a wonderful conversation with her about New Zealand, Australia, whale watching, dolphins, sharks and the like!

I'm heading to Dallas tomorrow morning with my kiddos to visit my mom and stepdad and my adorable niece Kira who is in town from Cali (she flew into Houston, actually, so I got to take her to the museum and hang out with her for a while here too - hadn't seen her in 2 years before then!). I haven't been to see my mom/stepdad in quite a while though they've come down here recently. And we didn't kill one another! We actually got along quite lovely this time. So life progresses and unfolds in always weird and wonderful and mysterious ways, doesn't it?

Here are a couple of my latest publications:

Lone Parents: Virgin Birth in Sharks. BioScience Magazine (Am Inst of Biological Sciences) July/Aug 2009.

The discovery that sharks can reproduce asexually means that mammals are the only jawed vertebrate lineage incapable of parthenogenesis. But can this surprising capacity make any difference to shark survival as their populations decline?

Blue-Green Mystery - Texas Parks & Wildlife mag July 2009.

"It may be one of science’s most impressive pieces of detective work. Biologists at the Institute for Ethnomedicine, led by Director Paul Alan Cox, believe they’ve found the culprit for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and other “tangle diseases” including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and supranuclear palsy. The tiny neurotoxic molecule BMAA (β-N-methylamino-L-alanine) is produced by blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) found worldwide. The good news? The discovery could lead to a cure. The bad news? BMAA in drinking water could be a health risk even at low levels, but no one’s testing for it in water supplies yet."

My beautiful niece Kira! The photo as taken by and edited by my daughter Savi! This was at the Museum of Natural Sciences. Kira doesn't like her picture taken! She's incredibly smart, and fun and sweet!
Me, in pigtails... I took this one, a self-portrait
My gorgeous son Sam at the beach. Taken by Savi!