Once a Flower, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Winter “flower”. Cathedral Park, Portland, Oregon.
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All posts for the month January, 2008
Form, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Art at Cathedral Park, Portland, Oregon.
Sir Weston, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
The little mister enjoying his walk at Cathedral Park yesterday.
Mitten, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Interesting winter foliage….
Fish Eye, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Someone had a bottle at Cathedral Park. Fish Eye anyone?
At The Park, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Mossy Green, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
We went to Cathedral Park yesterday for Weston. You know, give the little guy a long walk in a nice place. He sometimes gets to meet new people, which he did yesterday, and to play with other dogs, which he also did yesterday. It rained a little, but nothing true Oregonians such as ourselves can’t deal with. It was actually a nice day and a lovely walk.
Under The Arch, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.The theme for this week… skinny. I couldn’t think of anything, and unlike tnchick I’m not the thinnest of souls so a picture of myself is out. I thought of posting a picture of my dog, since he’s kind of a thin little guy (he comes by it naturally, I feed him lots, he’s just not a huge eater), but decided to go with this… the skinny part of the St. Louis Arch. I dug this one up as it’s a tad older. Happy hunting.
Want to play along? Go to photo hunt and join the fun.
As some of you know I have a couple of other websites out there. One is a photo blog, image – ination, where I’m posting a picture a day for a year. Another is my flickr photos page. The moral of the story here, I like to take pictures. Anyway… a couple of days ago I submitted a couple of pictures to the Sierra Club’s Daily Ray of Hope photo pool in the flickr community. It’s the pool they select their photos from for their daily email newsletter, The Daily Ray of Hope. To make a long story longer… I got the email included here from them a couple of days ago… to which I say… WOO HOO! How exciting!! I’m going to be published. Yes! This is not a huge thing, in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it is. It’s a first for me and it feels great.
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Image for Daily Ray of Hope |
| Hi Tokenhippygirl, We would like to use your image for the Sierra Club’s Daily Ray of Hope. www.flickr.com/photos/tokenhippygirl/2157029083/in/pool-dailyrayofhope/ Could you tell us where the image was taken, and how would you like to be cited? In order to use your photo in the Daily Ray of Hope, we need the license to be Non-Commercial. To change the licensing, go to the page that image is on, and under Additional Information, click Edit. Then, on the next page choose Attribution – Non Commercial License and click Save. That should do it. Let me know if you have any problems! Thanks! –You can sign up for the Daily Ray of Hope here: |
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
14 hours. We drove 14 hours in what was probably the worst weather I’ve ever driven in, besides maybe that time we were trying to get to the Tampa airport during the tornado warning. We started in Sacramento at 8:30 and found ourselves pulling into Mom and Don’s driveway at about 10:30 that night. A long long day. Moments of tension, moments of slight fear, silly moments, hysterically funny moments, and some very tired moments. And yet… we loved it. Adventure… going with whatever happens, making the most of it, and finding the fun in almost everything. That’s us. We love road trips, and love them still.
Final total coming home… 48 hours from Vegas back home (14 driving in one day), 1200+ miles, three stops for gas, one bone for Weston, two bully stix for Weston, and 12 chai tea lattes. Wow. What a trip!
Thanks Dan, Linda, Amanda, and DJ for putting us up and hanging out with us for a few days. It was good to see you guys. We love you.
Thanks Mom and Don for providing us a nice little sanctuary on our travels back home. The company was lovely and the breakfast terrific.
We are, as of yesterday, Saturday the 4th, back home. A day later than planned, but home. It’s always wonderful to be here after traveling, and today it’s even more so. We slept well, and are just enjoying our being quietly together at home as a little family. Ah, wonderful.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
Another highlight… seeing this group near Crescent City, CA, and getting some good pictures of them.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
The traveling dog. Mostly he slept on our laps, but he had to try, this one time, laying down on top of my sweatshirt that was laid out to dry in the back of the wagon. So cute… This little guy was a great traveling companion. He was never a pain. Very good in the car, really great at Dan and Linda’s place with their kids, and loved playing with their dog, Sadie. They became fast friends. I think he misses her. He did well everywhere, even in the various hotel rooms. The only problem he had was barking briefly when he heard a noise in a hotel room, trying to protect us I’m sure. What a great little guy… he will definitely travel with us again.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
There were moments when the rain stopped, just for a bit, and the sun shown through.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
Driving on hwy 20 from Williams, California over to the beach was wonderful. There were a couple of mini rock slides, but that was minor and nothing compared to the big wind we had experienced on I5. All it did on 20 was rain. Rain we’re used to.
Hwy 101 was OK for awhile. Periods of rain, wind, periods of rain, lightening, more wind, more rain. There were a few highlights… the chipper woman in the the plush red velveteen pants who served Karen more chai at the Starbucks in Brookings, Oregon. Karen came out with the chai and said, “this was served to me by a woman in plush red velveteen pants”. We laughed. We also listened to some great music, sang, loved on Weston a bit (he was an excellent car traveling dog), and had some great conversation. All of that when times were happy and bright… in other times, no radio, not much conversation, and a shaking dog who was afraid of the rain, wind, and lightening. It, all of it, was an adventure.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
Friday we got up and were on the road out of Sacramento about 8:30. We’d re-checked the weather online and knew that it was going to be a long day. Conditions in the Siskyous were supposed to be impassable later in the day. The weather pundits were warning travelers to stay away from the pass, that there would be blizzard conditions, and that if you attempted to travel it you should have your water and blankets and other supplies to last a few days because there was a good chance you’d get stuck up there. We also knew we couldn’t go through the Sierras as it was predicted that there would be 12 feet of snow there. The storm was big and it was bad. Our choice… go from Sacramento over to the coast, drive up 101 to Reedsport, Oregon, and then back over to I5 toward home. It adds a long way to what is normally not that bad a trip, but we figured better safe than sorry.
So… we knew it was going to be a long day. And, it was. We started by leaving our hotel in Sacramento and seeing that a tree had come down in the parking lot. Over night the storm had come in and we were experiencing hurricane force gusts. The rain was moving sideways in big sheets… it was a daunting way to start the day. None of us liked it, especially Weston, who said a big NO to trying to do his business out in it. Poor little guy, but who could blame him. Not me, I was out with him holding the leash. He stood it only so long before making a b-line back to our room and then another one out to the car so we could take off.
We drove North on I5 for a bit out of Sacramento, up to Williams and the Hwy 20 cut off to the beach, and while we were driving the wind was blowing so hard… trees were ripped out by the roots at orchards we passed. We also saw a semi-truck laid out on it’s side going south on 5… not sure what happened, but we were betting that either a gust of wind made hydroplaning possible for it, or he’d had to brake and because of all the rain he lost traction. Either way, it wasn’t good. We heard later, after we’d gotten off I5 that parts of I5 were actually closed at times on Friday. Before getting off of it we stopped in Woodland, a bit north of Sacramento on I5, to fill up on gas, and get some chai and some food for the road. It was bad. Karen went in for the chai and food at Starbucks, I pumped the gas at the gas station. Funny how this picture doesn’t quite do the wind and rain justice. Nice plug for Starbucks though… I’ll expect the check in the mail. Karen said the place was packed. People just trying to be somewhere warm and dry for awhile in all the wet.
Thursday, all in all, was a pretty uneventful travel day. We left at about 9:30 in the morning from Las Vegas and ended up in Sacramento about 7:30 that evening. The weather, though a bit windy, was not bad for most of the day. It only started to turn as we neared Sacramento… that’s when the rain started and the wind got a bit worse. At the time we had no idea what that would mean for the following day….
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
This truck made for some good picture taking. It was also a good spot to pull over for pictures of the windmills nearby and the Joshua trees that were growing everywhere in the area.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
We traveled passed these enormous and numerous giants as we made our way through Eastern Central California. I don’t know why, but these things always fascinate.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
Photo by Karen
We were traveling on CA 58 and passed this truck carrying a load of oranges.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
Vegas adventures continued… On Thursday, January 3, we packed up the Subaru, our rental car, and hit the road. This is as close as we got to the strip this visit, passing by on Hwy 15 out of town.
We didn’t do much on Wednesday, January 2 when we were in Las Vegas this last week. Why you ask? Well… initially Karen had to work a bit, so Linda and I decided to go to a movie. We saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets… and it was entertaining. Afterward we went and picked up the kids from school and then went back to their house. Karen was no where to be found, but she’d said that she was tired before we left and that she might take a nap. Linda made dinner, with the help of her three year old son, DJ, and when it was ready I went in to wake Karen. When I went into the room I could hear her saying that she was very sick and that she’d been throwing up since right after we’d left. Sadly, she’d caught the flu. Dan, Linda and both kids had it when we got there. We thought we’d avoided getting it, but apparently it caught up to Karen, poor thing. So she spent the rest of that evening in bed, taking trips to the bathroom to hurl, and I, when I wasn’t checking on her and bringing her cool rags for her head, played cribbage with Linda. We’d planned on going down to the strip, but the flu is a much bigger hand and won the day. I wasn’t upset about not going, I was just wishing Karen felt better. Luckily she did by the next morning… as Linda and Dan had said, it’s a bad flu, but only lasts for about 7-10 hours… just time for us to hit the road for the drive back home.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
The hills surrounding Lake Mead aren’t covered with trees and green and seem a bit barren, but they are still beautiful, especially in the light at sunset.
Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
January 1, Lake Mead, Nevada… this guy was hanging overhead trying to take the right moment to swoop in and grab some of the bread we were feeding to the fish at the docks.
