Roadtrip in the North Cascades

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of road tripping with two of my dearest friends in the world.  We spent a couple of our most formative years together here on the oregon coast, and though we are separated these days by many miles, we are still extremely close.  One is lucky to find friends as good as these, and I have a few.

We spent our week road tripping, camping, and exploring around the North Cascades in Washington.  I had no idea this area existed and was blown away by how stunningly beautiful it is!  We saw wildflowers galore and thundering waterfalls, swam in clear lakes, and hiked on gorgeous trails.  Snowcapped peaks, funky small towns, breweries, and kind locals were just a few of the highlights.  It felt good to spend time with strong, independent women, and to chart our own course every day.  

Now I'm home after more than a month and a half of wandering and I'm feeling motivated and excited to hustle and create new work.  Traveling is wonderful, but I also love the routine and tranquility of daily life at home.

Hope life is good wherever you are these days.  Happy Wednesday kids!

Rafting the Grand Canyon Pt. 2

More photos of our epic adventure on the Grand Canyon!

Rafting the Grand Canyon Pt 1

As most of you know, Justin and I went on an amazing rafting trip down the Colorado River last month.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was unlike any other outdoor adventure I've ever been on.  We spent 21 days on the river, with 14 other people, sleeping out under the big sky and spending our days on the water.  To spend that long in a place so separate from regular life is to lose complete track of normal routines/schedules/to-do lists, etc....not to mention a serious detox from technology.  I felt like my relationship to the world and my own body were so different by the end of this trip, in a truly empowering and beautiful way.

The trip was challenging and I usually felt pushed out of my comfort zone at least once a day-whether it was running big rapids, learning to read water and row the boats, or canyoneering in one of the many side canyons.  It was also intense to spend so much time out in the elements, with the wind, sun, water and sand as constant companions.  Cracked and bleeding hands and feet were a common occurrence.  And yet, all of that hardship was so worth it, and I felt strong, capable and confident by the end of the trip.

We hiked up amazing, lush side canyons with cascading waterfalls, ran huge, slightly terrifying rapids, swam in the river almost daily, and camped in some stunningly beautiful campsites, under bright stars or with the moon rising over the canyon walls.  The desert is so beautiful in this austere, dramatic way that's really different from the exuberant, bursting green-ness of the Northwest.  We saw tons of wildflowers and cactus flowers, colorful lizards, big horned sheep, and condors, along with a rattlesnake and a few scorpions (yikes!)

The group was a fantastic and eclectic crew, and by the end of the 3 weeks they felt like family.  There was a lot of laughter, some costumes, cocktails, and silly antics.  We played music, danced, and created our own entertainment. It was an important reminder that it doesn't take much to have fun:)

This trip reminded me that spending time outside makes me extremely happy.  I want to sleep outside, run more rivers, and backpack into the mountains with friends.  Nothing feels better than waking up and going to sleep under the open sky. 

Enjoy the photos!  And cheers to getting out there!

P.S. there were too many photos to reasonably fit into one post, so keep an eye out for a second installment soon!

On the Road Again

Hey guys!  I'm back!  It was a pretty epic month out there in the wide world.  I had meant to write a send-off post before we left, but somehow it didn't end up happening.  So anyways, that's why you haven't heard from me lately:) 

Our river trip in the Grand Canyon was beautiful, amazing, challenging, and magical.  Living in the sand, wind, sun and water for 21 days was unlike anything I've experienced before.  Definitely one for the record books.

 First though, we drove down to Tahoe, taking the backroads and enjoying a few days of road tripping.  We saw some pretty parts of Oregon and California that I'd never seen before, and as always when we travel in the van, I had the fleeting thought that I could just pack it all up and hit the road indefinitely.  It's a pretty good way of life.  

Here are a few photos from that part of the trip, and then (drumroll please!) I'll be sharing photos from the river as soon as I've waded through all of them (yikes!)

Fear, Beauty and Courage

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.  Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."  -Rilke

Justin and I are getting ready to head out on a big trip in a little more than a week.  We've been planning it for months now, and while I'm really excited, I also realized recently that I'm also kind of scared.  We're going on a rafting trip on the Grand Canyon, which is a once in a lifetime experience.  We'll be on the river for 21 days, away from cell phones, computers, technology, and society as a whole, which I couldn't be more excited about.  Nothing is better than waking up and going to sleep under the open sky.

But I'll also be away from my own bed, my daily regimen of supplements, hot baths, and my support network, all of the things that help me cope with the day to day struggles of having a chronic illness.  This is the first major trip I've been on since being diagnosed with Lyme Disease and I'm nervous.  I'm nervous I'll feel miserable and frustrated that I can't keep up with everyone else.  I'm nervous I'll be the sick girl who has to be given special treatment.  I'm nervous my feet will swell up (even more) in the heat, and ache and make it hard for me to hike and enjoy myself.  Having a chronic illness has taught me that having some control over a situation and the ability to say when I've had enough is important, and this trip is the complete opposite of that.

So I've spent the last couple of weeks feeling a quiet fear and anxiety about it all.  Hoping that I'll somehow start miraculously feeling better before we leave, worrying about all of the details, and generally not looking forward to this trip that should be a source of pure joy.

Somehow though, in naming all of those feelings as fear, I am more capable of handling them.  Of meeting that fear with beauty and courage and love.  And if having a chronic disease has taught me anything, it's that life is one long practice of taking it one day at a time, and of being kind to myself.  I don't always succeed at this, but that's why it's a practice.  

I'll leave you with something else I read recently that resonated with me.  Maybe it will for you as well.  Thanks for reading dear friends.

"If only we could say our truths- if we could name the things that haunt us - maybe they would float up from us like a kind of helium that the birds would sip in the treetops.  Then they would make us laugh and laugh."  - Rita Zoey Chin.