Ramblings about Travel

When they [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." Matthew 2: 13-15

Can't help but think how much time and thought we put into travel these days, but Joseph took Mary and Jesus at the drop of a hat to protect them. It probably wasn't in his life plan to go live in Egypt for a while.

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For us spur of the moment trips have been wonderful. Our trip to the snow with the grandkids the other day was one. But spur of the moment for fun is not the same as spur of the moment under duress. Many spur of the moment travelers are more like Mary and Joseph, refugees escaping from strife of one sort or another in our unsettled world.

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Other trips we have taken with much planning had not been part of our original life plan. I had always said I was going to go to Mexico and study the language in an immersion program. Instead we traveled across Siberia and I spent time in India. It was good. In Siberia I learned much about faith. In India I learned about hope.
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There are many more parts of the world I would like to travel to, and still much that I need to learn. Maybe I will visit the ones I plan on, and maybe will be led to others.

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May those who travel without such possibility of choice find the safety they so dearly deserve.

More snow

The kids took well to the snowshoes and it was hard to keep up with D and R. C kept falling. The first time we asked if it was on purpose and he said no. About the umpteenth time he admitted that he did it on purpose.
This was an easy trail for their first outing. We hiked the Trail of the Shadows at Longmire (Mt. Rainier National Park.) We stuck around in the Longmire area and didn't go on up to Paradise. The road to Paradise was late in opening because more snow kept on sliding onto the road behind the snow removal equipment. We found plenty to do at Longmire.

They really are color pictures.

In the Ranger Station a woman seeking a back country permit to camp for four nights was being quizzed about her winter skills. She grew up in cold country in the Midwest, so the rangers seemed to be comfortable with issuing her a permit. She then asked about where to go to avoid avalanche areas. The ranger laughed. Welcome to Avalanche Country--it's all avalanche area at this time of year.

I don't know if she continued her camping plans or not. I do know that three or four hours was plenty for us.

Photo Hunt--Theme: Messy

Need I say more?

out and about

Kautz Creek Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park--on snowshoes.

Photo Hunt--Theme: Light

Hey, guess what? I figured out how to make the Photo Hunters Logo hot--so if you click on it just above it will take you to TnChk's explanation of what the Photo Hunt is all about and how to join.

The theme this week is light, and I anticipate quite a few pictures of beautiful lighted Christmas trees, sunrises, sunsets, traffic lights, and other creative uses of luminescence. Why, I even thought about posting some more picutres of the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. If you want to see sunrises and sunsets, scroll down just a bit. If you want to see the Zoo Lights, you will find them in the archives in November.

But if you think like I do, you might say "light as a..." and see where I am coming from. I am definitely not in the box.

Light as a feather---and here below is the gentleman who offered his plumage for this shot. This was taken on the grounds of the Maryhill Museum last spring.

Less Random Test

Less random because I used some of the same photos to turn into sketches. These loaded quickly as well.



I am trying to figure out the terms of service on the site that does this. I am not sure if I am allowed to link directly to the site. If you are interested, contact me and I will send you the URL.

Random Test

These are some random pictures posted jsut to test out the high speed. It will be neat to get it connected to the desktop, because right now I am working on the laptop in an uncomfortable spot.
These two were take a while back at Manito Park in spokae. I think it was an October day.
These are some quilts that are headed with Santa to the nursing home tomorrow. they are mostly orphan tops folks have sent me to finish off. (An orphan top is one that someone starts but does not want to finish.) they are all lap sized or a little bigger--no big bed quilts here.

I'm glad I have an in with Santa.
My best birthday present last year was getting to feed the giraffe at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.
Okay, test finished. I may be doing more tests in a bit.

Sunrise/Sunset

I've just visited Sunrise/Sunset photos at Postcards from Paulie and at Polliwog Creek. and I would like to join them in sharing some amazing sunrises and sunsets. The rules are:

Show me your sunsets! Or your sunrise, whichever the case may be. It has to be a photo you took. Include a brief description of where it was, and how it made you feel watching that sunset/sunrise.

As always, I can't stop at just one. First, this is a different look at sunrise. This picture is take facing West and was actually taken because of the moon. The newly risen sun gave a wonderful luster to Mount Rainier, but the White River and the forest in the foreground were still in the shadow of the peaks to the East.
Yes, this next is very nearly the same view as the first picture. The difference is the time of day and the year. You see, this sunset picture was taken about a year before the other. It was taken from the campfire circle at White River Campground. A major portion of that campfire circle was swept away in the floods of November 2006--including the spot I was standing on when I took this picture. For the sunrise picture, I stood in the river bed itself.

While we were cruising Alaska's Inside Passage last summer, I got up early each morning to walk about twelve laps of the ship to keep in training. I felt invigorated by the early morning air, proud to be able to put in three miles before breakfast, awed at the scene, and excited about the adventures that were to come during the week.

These two sunset photos were taken on the cruise. We were still in the harbor at Port Rupert, B.C. and had just been guests at a cultural presentation of First Nation foods, storytelling, and dances in the longhouse there. It was our last stop before a day and night at sea on the way home. We were soaking it all in--all--celebration of 40 years together, the awesomeness of the sky, the experiences, the knowledge that we would be back to day to day life again, and the fact that during our absence a dear friend had died tragically. That's a very emotional sunset.

Just a Test. Just a Hint.

This is a test of a wireless broadband system we are checking out. I was wondering how long uploading would take, so I tried this photo.

The Photo itself is a hint as to what I expect to be doing in September.

The test was successful--that was pretty quick--since I forgot to compress the photo. Now I am going to try something else. Talk to you soon.

Photo Hunt--Theme: Small

For my Photo Hunt entry for the theme small, I chose this picture of a small tree.

Small? you may ask! That tree towers over your husband in that picture. You certainly wouldn't bring it home for a Christmas tree (if it were legal to do so) unless you had very tall ceilings. That tree isn't small.

Small is relative. Compared to its neighbors, it is quite small.

Here are some more small trees--smaller than the first--which grow nearby. We took these photos on our snowshoe trip the other day.

Pulled out snowshoes today--went in search of the white stuff--found it!

When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, we spoke of "going to the snow." It was not till I was in college in the Pacific Northwest that the snow came to me.

We've had some sprinkles of snow in the valley, but to really have some adventures in it, we decided to "go to the snow" today.

Canoeing anyone? We have a picture taken by our son years ago at Bumping Lake where we hiked today. His dad and two scouts are in one of three canoes on the lake. Today was not a canoeing day.
I don't know how thick the ice was. The news said you shouldn't walk on it unless it is at least four inches thick. I think the look of the lake in this picture is slightly eerie.
The snow that falls through this winter will fill the lake and make this dock at the marina less of an enigma.
The lack of a lifeguard will be slightly more significant in six or eight months.
And picnics a little more comfortable.

This is the last picture I had taken of Bumping Lake--when we flew home from Arizona a couple of years ago. That is Mt. Adams in the distance. We see it in the distance from home as well. On this flight, we flew over our house to arrive in Seattle--then had to drive home three hours.

Photo Hunt--Theme: Long

Since we recently returned from a LONG drive from the Northwest to the Southwest to visit family, long trips and ways of transit came to my mind for this week's theme.

This is the LONG Lake Washington Floating Bridge which takes Interstate 90 into Seattle. It may not be the longest bridge there is, but if you are walking across it it seems quite long. We walked across the Floating Bridge during the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in September. I have already registered to participate in the 2008 3-Day, so I may be walking across this LONG bridge again next year.
This is a section of the Wonderland Trail, a hiking trail that goes all the way around Mt. Rainier. Various resources give the length of the trail as 90 miles or 94 miles. We have only hiked bits and pieces of it, but hope to do a LONGER section as a backpack trip next summer.
These Canada Geese are resting along their LONG migration last fall. I don't know where their migration starts and where they end up, but it is a LONG way to go each year.
The Columbia River is not the LONGEST river even in the country, but it is long enough for those of us who live near it. That is Mt. Hood in the distance.
From possibly the LONGEST trip we have ever taken, this represents a bit of the Trans-Siberian Railway. We made this long trip in 1998. The railway itself is around 10,000 miles long, but we only traveled about 5,000 miles of it, with other adventures along the way, including some LONG plane rides. (This is a photograph of a snapshot. I am surprised that it turned out so well. I need to transfer the hundreds of pictures taken on that trip from floppy disks sometime soon and share some of those old memories.)

What long trips have you been on?

Photo Hunt--Theme: Red

Nature gives us quite a few choices for this week's theme. I had red roses, red wildflowers, red sunsets. But I decided that the Red Rock Canyons of the Southwest would be a good choice. We just got back from the Southwest, and when I wore my hiking boots the other day as the best option for the snow, I left little bits of red soil behind in my snowy white footprints.

Bryce Canyon, Utah

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Zion Canyon, Utah

(There are more photos of Red Rock areas further down in my thanksgiving trip posts.)

Here's what happened while we were at dinner.