DStilled

The Rainy Northwest

July 20, 2007 on 12:58 pm | In Blog |

Sunday morning I woke up at the KOA and headed out to Crater Lake. Now that is a cool place! I drove around all of it and felt like every place was worthy of another picture. There were a couple of pretty good hikes I could have taken but they just would have taken too long. I had to get to Portland and see my friend Kevin Thompson. He was letting me crash on his couch. When I got there Kevin wasn’t there and he hadn’t told any of his housemates that I was coming but they humored me for a bit. Kevin was off climbing with a friend he just met (Ben) and showed up shortly. I explained to Kevin about losing all my funds but we proceeded to go to his favorite place in the city. It was very chill lounge on the top 30th floor of a building downtown. They have happy hour Sunday nights so he and Ben got good food while I drank my water. They shared some so I didn’t go hungry. Then we drove around town for an hour and Kevin showed me Portland the way he saw it. Afterwards we made it back to Ben’s house to play a game called Settlers of Cattan. It’s a great game of strategy, luck, and diplomacy. I first learned how to play it at UVa and haven’t since. So Ben’s two housemates, Ben and I (Kevin didn’t like learning on the fly), and a friend Nicole went at it for a few hours. Nicole won (by a single hair it was so close!) and I was on the couch ready to sleep by 2:30am. Yikes! that’s late for someone still not too off the eastern time zone. Kevin’s house has a nice soft cat that enjoyed me. At one time it woke me up because it was just chillin’ on my face. I had to act slowly so as to not excite and rip off my nose.

Monday morning I woke up and Kevin and I drove out to the Columbia Gorge to see waterfalls. He has a convertible so the drive was windy and nice. Some of the waterfalls were a few dozen feet but the big one, Multnomah Falls, was probably between 200 and 300. It also had this cool second fall that made a pool at the bottom. Afterwards we went back, I said goodbye, and headed into Washington. I drove to Mt. St. Helens and as cool as it was, I couldn’t get the full experience because it was too cloudy to see much of the crater at all. They did have this impressive movie to show everything that has happened. Also it turns out it’s been going off for the last 2.5 years. There is a second lava dome forming and every now and then a small plume of ash goes up. Nope, not for me. After that, I was going to head to Mt. Ranier but it was SOO cloudy I decided to see more of Seattle instead. Seattle is a pretty big area. It reminded me alot of Boston in the way it was laid out except obviously not as established. I could see why Frazier made the move. In fact most of the city is pretty new. Seattle had the last profitable World’s Fair in America in 1962 when the Space Needle and other landmarks were built and since then the city has boomed. Jeremy’s Aunt Janet and Uncle Darryll volunteered to house me while I was in town so I made my way over to where they live. It just happens to be on the other side of the Puget Sound. I got there and Aunt Janet fed me and we talked about the trip and Olympic Park. I went to sleep after watching the final episode of Gargoyles. It was a very good show and I will miss it.

Tuesday morning I woke up and went to Olympic National Park. It is a very big park with an inefficient road system to see it all quickly. But maybe that’s the whole point. Basically it’s a 200 mile loop around it with roads that jet in at particular places. Aunt Janet had told me it was one of the few temperate rain forests in the world so needless to say I was excited. It did not dissappoint. I still stand by what I said about Redwood forest being magical and anthropamorphic but this was simply awe-inspiring. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures! Then I went to a Ruby Beach that was covered in very smooth stones that skipped quite wonderfully and had large rocks that were carved out by glaciers. After going around the park, I have now been to three of the four corners of the continetal US, all of which are quite awesome. I couldn’t see the mountiain peaks or Mt. Olympus because it was really wet in the morning and low ceiling all day. Once again, I go to a place that normally is dry and hot during this part of the year and it rains. I saw some hot springs, a really great waterfall, and then headed on home. There was a road to take me up the mountains but with the cloud cover I figured it better to get home earlier. I stopped by Port Angeles where I was taking the ferry the next morning because it was on the way. It’s a good thing I did too because they said I needed to get there two hours early! That means like 6:30 am. And I was staying an hour and a half away! Jeremy was originally going to join me in Vancouver but the circumstances made more since for him to join me crossing the border. Plus he will see his aunt and uncle at Thanksgiving. So I went back, ate with Aunt Janet and slept.

Wednesday morning I woke up at 4 am. Jeremy and I set off by 5 and made our way to Port Angeles in order to catch our early morning ferry. We got our spot in line and went to Subway for breakfast. Yes, that’s right, we found a Subway open at 7 am. At around 8:30 we drove onto the boat that would take us to Canada. On the way we saw the tail and glimpses of a small humpback whale! Once in British Columbia, we went through customs and drove a bit through Victoria. It was drizzling on and off the whole day so just walking around wasn’t as much fun. We went to the famous Empress Hotel and Parliment building. These were the free things close and they were pretty cool. It was neat to see the room that Parliment actually meets in. They said that members are not allowed to speak directly to each other and they have to go through the Speaker. Apparently things can get heated and in the past they actually used this sweet large mace to defend the Speaker with. After that, we went to Macaroni Grill for lunch! There were a few things that were pretty different and our experience was so so, but the food was tasty and mildly expensive. Some time during the meal we realized why the prices were more (besides the standard of living being higher in Victoria). They use CANADIAN dollars! The rate is close enough that the difference just didn’t occur to us automatically. On our way to our campsite we stopped by a gas station. I had to pee but I thought I’d ask them why their gas price said 113.9. Turns out that means $1.139/liter. It was so obvious once they said it just then, but metric just is so unnatural right now. If you’ve done the math already that equates to about $5 bucks a gallon! Good thing we filled up right before we got over here. We set up our campsite right past a sign that said “The Center of the Universe.” For the next 4-5 hours we slept as it progressively got colder. Then we made a rice dinner and went to bed for real. Also just a heads up: if you call I won’t answer because it costs $0.79/minute.

Thursday morning I woke up to the sound of rain and felt defeated. I don’t like packing up my tent stuff when it is wet and I really just wanted to wait out the storm. Jeremyy went to use the internet and after a bit, the rain let up and I packed up. We caught the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver and enjoyed a 747 style cruise to the mainland. No whales this time but they did have a place to plug in my computer and write most of this update. We drove through the city to the campsite we had picked out in North Vancouver. We knew it was going to be a cool town but this half a mil city was really neat. After we set up everything and ate a small late lunch I went to pay for the site only to have the lady say that that site is reserved. My bad for assuming an empty site equals an empty site. So we picked up the tent and moved everything a fantastic six feet to the next tiny site. Then we went to a place called Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was Vancouver’s first tourist attraction because some guy wanted to cross a gorge and built a rope bridge in 1889. The whole area was kinda cool rainforesty. We went on both the tours and saw everything the place had to offer. Also they had a treetops course which was a series of rope bridges going over 120 ft high. Afterwards we went to the Safeway (grocery) and loaded up for the week ahead. We came back, ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches, split a watermelon, and headed off to bed. Oh, and we got reservations to go sea kayaking up a fjord on Friday. William, just thought I’d let you know.

For all those of you who have been “reading” the Bible along with me, or more appropriately, through me, I have finished the Old Testament. It took me exactly one month and now I’ll do the New Testament with Jeremy. Jeremiah is a beast book with a lot of good and bad stuff. In chapter 9 God talks about “uncircumcised hearts” being a big deal. This is a shift in thinking for those OT folks because almost always up until now it seems like it’s all about the actions. Chapter 24 brings in the severity of false prophets on the nation of Isreal. What I don’t get is if you or I am a common person and can’t tell the difference between a “real” prophet and a false one, how can I be held accountable and therefore be condemned to death for my actions? I had a thought about the afterlife for these OT peeps. We live in a time where the eternal Kingdom of God is here on earth and therefore think in eternal terms. OT people didn’t have that. I don’t know what the afterlife looked like to them or if they even believed in it, but it seemed like the most important and lasting thing they had was reputation. Heaven was obviously a place for dieties to them, and that may be all. Our way of thinking about heaven is just so different. A lot of you know the verse in Chapter 29, “I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper…” The reason a lot of people know that line is because they use it on themselves and other people they like. I do not like it when very contextual sayings like this verse are applied to just anyone, especially for the sake of glossing over our middle-class American lives. God was talking specifically about someone when He just as easily (and more often it seems) reigns down fiery wrath upon people. Chapter 31 also brought in something new to the table: a new covenant where there is no “generational sin” and His law will be written on the hearts of His people. Now that sounds more like it! Also, it was during Jeremiah that I sensed God feeling less like a King and bully and more like a loving parent that must discipline His children. It’s amazing how many chances He gives people (not all people and so we think it unfair, but most). The exile was a good thing and having that a premise really helps understand why God acts as He does sometimes.

Ezekiel on the other hand made me a little angry and very sad. God made him hard so that he could go through all that he would endure in his life, so that’s good. His life was probably the worst out of any prophet or follower of God I’ve seen in the Bible thus far. The boy rarely complained and never disobeyed God no matter what crap He put Ezekiel through. The part that made me almost cry was when God killed his wife to illustrate a point about Israel. Then Ezekiel had to NOT MOURN! in any way outwardly. I felt so bad for him. He was hated his whole life by almost everyone, he did some of the weirdest and physically most difficult stuff of anyone God called upon, and he lost the woman of his heart. The only thing that could have made it worth it was he loved God more than anything in a way that gives new meaning to those words. Also, he got to see a blurred version of God on His throne at least 3 times. I’m not sure there was anyone God was more proud of than Ezekiel.

As far as the rest of the OT goes, Daniel’s still a great and weird ending book. Jonah has the worst ending of any book. Joel and Zachariah make the least sense. And Hosea also had it tough in the women department thanks to God. I recommend having a timeline or other visual aids when going through the minor prophets because they can feel random enough to lose connection and then meaning. Looking forward to the NT and Jesus just floors me with how radical Jesus was! God has no qualms with violence and vengence because He is simply THAT holy. Whereas Jesus…well…I’m not there yet so I won’t speculate. We’ll just have to see.