L'aventure américaine

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was another one in which I was so grateful for those around me.  But, Randal thinks it's obnoxious to brag about how our fantastic weekends, so instead, I'll focus on top fives since our vacation (which, upon rereading, still might be obnoxious). Second to last week of November (aka...  our vacation): 5. Brewpubs in every single stinking town! 4. Snowy hikes every day because the dogs were in tow.  (Extra points because the snow ensured that the dogs stayed relatively clean.) 3. Airbnb!  We stayed in a treehouse cabin in Ketchum, ID.  There was a zip line to the bathroom! 2. One night in Ketchum, we spent about four hours in a wine bar, reading our books, eating food, and sipping wine.  One of the best evenings we've ever spent. 1. No destinations...  slow, slow roadtrip...  best conversation and company ever. On top of Ketchum, ID Randal takes a quick snooze at the wine bar. Joh...

It is beautiful here. Snow, sunshine, mountains... Just gorgeous. It is also cooooold!  Last night we checked into a little motel rather late and huddled on the bed until the room finally warmed up. 7 degrees. Even the dogs were happy to be tucked in!  It's been beautiful though and we have loved our drive eastward. We have enjoyed some lovely snowy hikes and great microbrews (man, Oregon had a lot of beer).  I even walked along the ruts of the Oregon Trail wagon train! (No dysentery or cholera yet... Thank goodness.) This is Mt. Hood waving goodbye.  And Randal exploring a very icy, very narrow, very over-a-rushing-and-freezing-river bridge.  And we enjoy our chilly, beautiful time in eastern Oregon!

Randal and I left Klamath Falls on Wednesday morning to go to Portland. There we met 20 of our friends from Klamath to represent Klamath Falls at the Oregon Healthiest State Launch.   Oregon Healthiest State is an initiative by the governor, Nike, the Cambia foundation, and OHSU. They intend to choose two communities in the state for local transformation communities. We want to Klamath to be one of them. So, we demonstrated our need (we are the least healthy county in the state) and our will, by showing up in matching T-shirts en masse.  You can find our picture and a description of the event on Oregon Public Broadcasting's website, but since I am on my iPhone, I do not have the link readily available.  It was an inspiring public health event and I felt very revved up afterwards. It was a great way to start our vacation.   Randal and I spent our first night in Portland with friends, visiting Basecamp brewery (started by Klamath Falls people), and enjoying delicious f...

One day after our Klamath Halloween, we were greeted with sunshine, blustery winds, and the smell of winter. It was cold, but the perfect way to begin a month: with the house a mess, candy wrappers strewn about, and the satisfaction of having thrown an excellent Halloween party.  It should be VERY obvious what our costumes were, but in case your brains are in a post-sugar haze, Randal and Adam were Goose and Maverick from "Top Gun" and my friends and I were  foosball players. We were excellent and very skilled at jumping and kicking in coordination. Maizie and Juneau were super dogs (obviously not a stretch) and Bogey was a beautiful lion for about 15 minutes.  We had nearly 600 trick-or-treaters, despite some rain and cold and had about 40-50 people join us for some Hallowen debauchery. So, it was pretty much fantastic.  To cleanse today, Randal picked apples and I hiked up one of our local mountains.  And we continue to be grateful for this wonderful community...

Well, my birthday present from Randal is well underway. The bathroom/bedroom/closet project had commenced.  And the completion date is still projected to be Christmas.  Despite walking on nails every time I want to access my pants and praying that I don't get tetanus, this project is totally worth it. Zen bathroom! Cozy bedroom! Walk-in-ish closet! Hurrah!

Autumn has arrived in the Klamath Basin and despite our persistent drought, it is stunning.  The evergreens cover the hills, interrupted only by bright splashes of Aspen gold.  It is cool in the morning and warm in the afternoons.  It is [always] sunny.  I have to say, Klamath wears this season very well. And seasons are, of course, a time of change.  Stephanie and I finally closed our Couch to 5K lecture series, which was so much more successful than we had anticipated.  Our last hike drew around 40-50 participants who came, decked out in our T-rex t-shirts and walked, jogged or ran 5-6 kilometers.  It was a great showing.  We were lucky enough to have a reporter from Runner's World join us for the hike.  I'm not sure that this particular story was interesting enough for the magazine, but he'll be following our project for the next few years and might do an ongoing story.  We'll see! C25K Crew! Sad Maizie. Unfortunately, ...

Randal and I, very consciously, decided to make no plans during our September weekends so that we could rest and recover from a wonderfully insane summer.  With that being said, we have had delightfully active weekends amidst some fantastically active weeks. The end of August marked one year since we have seen much of our family and friends and commenced an epic thank-you-note writing session.  That is, it has been one year since we got married!   We celebrated in Colorado!  We spent one night and day in Denver and then headed into the mountains to celebrate my dear friend, Jon's, wedding to Dominic.  They got married in Tabernash, CO in a gorgeous setting.  Their ceremony was cut short due to an impressive hailstorm that promptly cleared up and we all reminisced about our own wedding's fabulous thunderstorm.   Randal and I headed back to Oregon and camped outside of Eugene before spending the day visiting small towns between Eugene and J...