Mount Saint Helens

Summer travel is in full swing. My first noteworthy stop was Portland, Oregon for my annual work retreat. While downtown Portland was great, I was surprised how much I enjoyed our day trip to Mt. St. Helens.

We all packed plenty of reading material for our two hour journey, but we didn't need it. Our vans were driven by two very knowledgeable drivers who narrated our whole trip.

We learned that most of Portland has been retrofitted to withstand an earthquake over 6.8. Though, none of the many bridges in the city would survive. We learned that in Portland, like many cities, people built beautiful homes with a view on the foothills. But, the foothills are thick beds of silt which are vulnerable to slides. 

The beautiful beaches along the Oregon coast are covered in volcanic ash.  I learned that the mountain used to have a normal peak that blew off when the volcano erupted. When Mt. St. Helens erupted, the glaciers inside the volcano melted and sent 46 billion gallons of water rushing away from the mountain.

We had about 2 hours to explore the visitor's center and surrounding hiking trails. The area is a National Park - so don't forget your parks pass.

The view looked like a mix between walking on the moon and walking through beautiful mountain fields.

The purple flowers were the first to return after the the devastation. The flowers brought nitrogen to the soil and animals back into the valley.

It was fascinating to see all the tree stumps where trees were just knocked over.

The downed trees on private land were taken to California to special mills which were retrofitted to cut these trees with embedded rocks. The trees on BLM land were left as-is.

While the towns in the projected lava/mud flow were evacuated, no one predicted that the volcano would have a lateral blast too. Most of the fatalities were people caught by the lateral blast. 

 

After a picnic lunch and a lovely hike along a deceivingly hilly trail, it was time to head back to Oregon. We left a little dusty and tired, but with a new found appreciation for volcanoes and geologists.

Not a bad first hike of the summer season!

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

As I was planning our summer break, I was super excited that we were going to spend Memorial Day weekend in Glenwood Springs. 

Even though we were in town for a soccer tournament, I was optimistic we would be able to do the famous Hanging Lake hike or visit the mountainside amusement park. I envisioned a summer paradise.

They claim it is sunny in Colorado over 300 days of the year. We only saw the sun about 5 days in May.  Though we passed through snow on our drive, I was very excited to arrive in Glenwood to clear skies. 

The weather was perfect for our first game.

But, then the storm clouds rolled in. The adventure park was closed and the team cancelled their group trip to the Hot Springs.

We spent far too long in our hotel that day. It got chilly, but our second game was fairly dry - though the fields were muddy.

Our first game on Sunday was lovely. We drove to Aspen for lunch and drove back to the hotel in torrential rains.

The last game was 40 degrees & rainy. Not fun for the players. REALLY not fun for the spectators. 

The victory made sitting in the cold and rain worthwhile.

Since it was too muddy to hike, we decided to relax in the hot springs before leaving town.

The cold air and warm water was invigorating.

Here's to a summer of adventures!

San Diego

Earlier this month, I had a work trip to San Diego. 

I came in a day early to visit with J, Uncle K & Tucker. 

We spent a morning in Coronado watching dolphins playing in the surf.

While we have our perennial favorite to-dos when we visit San Diego, I also like to try something new each visit. This time, we picked a foggy morning to go kayaking. 

It was hard getting photos.

Someone's oar was always butting into the frame.

Our tour was in La Jolla near the tide pools that the kids like exploring.

We were testing out the tour to see if it would be something we would enjoying doing with the kids on our next visit. I think we decided to wait until the twins were a little older & could actually help with the paddling! I think 10 years old would be a good age (unless the adult is strong enough to paddle on your own).

Uncle K has educated us very well. We knew all the facts and tidbits that our guides discussed about the cove and sea lions. It was a great mini-adventure for us!

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Nashville

Many moons ago, I attended photography conferences in Las Vegas. The trips were so inspiring - from the conference presenters to the friends I enjoyed the experiences with. We decided 2015 was a year for a reunion and choose a weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. We traveled lightly - despite having about 8 professional cameras among us, we only used our phones to document our trip.

I woke at 3 am and drove through the snow in Denver to the airport. I felt like I was landing in Ireland. We were not in a high desert anymore.

First stop - airport coffee.  Second stop - Biscuit Love. Yum. 

After breakfast, we decided to walk around 12South.

We loved seeing how many old gas stations had been converted into shops/restaurants. 

Lots of window shopping and pre-recall Jeni's Ice Cream (delicious)!

One of my friend's is a big fan of the show Nashville. We tried to get tickets to the Bluebird Cafe (which is featured on the show), but they sold out in three minutes. So, we quickly checked into our hotel and headed over to wait in line. We got in line about 4 pm & there were 20 people ahead of us. 

This experience was exactly what I expected from Nashville. A small casual bar with excellent musicians and songwriters. 

We only had one night to go downtown so, despite being tired, we decided to extend our night. We were not prepared for the energy & amount of people walking about. All the bars were standing room only with live music (mostly cover bands). The streets were also full of people of all ages.

Day 2 started with a trip to Franklin. Cute shopping and fabulous food.

After lunch, we returned to Nashville for a tour of the famous Ryman Theater. 

Next visit, a concert at the Ryman will be a priority. 

When the weather is nice, downtown Nashville is buzzing.

We spent some time shopping for boots and then we were off to the Grand Ole Opry.

At this point, our weather luck ran out. We got drenched walking into the Opry. But, we loved the experience. 2 songs per artist. The evening ended with Crystal Gayle - sounding and looking as lovely as ever.

We capped our Nashville experience with a back stage tour of the Opry. What a great taste of the city - I can't wait to return!

Kyoto Day 1

Upon arrival in Kyoto, we walked to the Nishiki Market. I'm glad we did because it ended up being the only time we were in the market during our stay.

It reminded me a little of Chelsea Market in New York - except instead of restaurants, it had little food shops.

This is what we ate for lunch. It was a potato and onion filled pastry.

I also tried this - a quail egg within an octopus - Nick was too scared. It wasn't my favorite, but I'm glad I tried it.

After the market, we started walking through the town. I didn't do my research & was expecting a quaint town. But, Kyoto is huge - several million residents.

There are still parts that have an old time feel.

We discovered that Nick's GPS on his phone wasn't working and was taking us in all sorts of wrong directions. But, we finally stumbled on a shrine and we were able to get our bearings.

The Yasaka Shrine is large but I didn't really connect with this shrine. 

For some reason, I don't think this was how the Shrine grounds originally looked.

There are thousands of shrines and temples in Kyoto. The town was not impacted by the big earthquake that affected Tokyo.

We had a little time before our tea ceremony so we tried, without luck, to find a place to get a drink.

I was surprised to learn that traditional tea ceremonies are not practiced widely in Japan. 

Our lovely hostess walked us through the ceremony and then helped us do it as well. The hardest part was sitting our legs. We walked A LOT & those dogs were tired! I'm looking forward to some matcha tea as the days start getting colder. 

We walked home with the Gion area of town and stopped at a restaurant near Nishiki Market called Gyogo. 

We had the most amazing burnt ramen miso. We are still trying to find a recipe so we can try to duplicate it at home. It was a great first day!