The City of Roses

So, as it turns out, being a consistent blogger isn't my calling. I just found this post from July that never published. So I'm publishing it now, just a few months late.

Did you know that Portland is known as the City of Roses? It's a thing. Portland also has tons of other things, but roses is one of their things. They have an absolutely beautiful public rose garden that overlooks the city (when it's not cloudy). Before Jessica flew home, we took some time to go and see the rose garden. Below are a few pictures from our time there.

 No picture could do this place justice. This little corner of the garden was maybe 1/10 of it. It was huge and so incredibly beautiful!!

Faithful

The Lord has been abundantly faithful throughout my life. I went to college knowing no one. Not a single person. Two of my pot luck freshman roommates are my closest friends to this day. I felt the Lord calling me away from Union and left three days before a tornado destroyed campus. A ridiculously wonderful job opportunity fell in my lap after I left Union and I was able to be on staff at my home church for six months. I went to UA where I found a church home unlike any before. I was discipled and was able to disciple. I got offered two new jobs in one day, and chose the job that allowed me to get my masters.

All of that has led up to this.

I'm in Vancouver. I'm here. This is where the Lord has called me, and I already love it. I found the perfect place to live in downtown Vancouver. The woman who owns the house literally knocked on the door of the place I'm staying while I was taking a nap.

I've been reading Psalm 37 a lot lately and verse 7 says, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." As I was resting. Literally. Someone with the answer to my housing need knocked on the door.

The Lord is faithful.

Rest in Him. Trust Him. He has a plan. He knows your needs. He also knows the best way to meet them. Often the best way and your way look different. Wait on the best. Wait patiently for Him.

Yellowstone, in depth

Sorry it has taken so long to post details about Yellowstone. I got to Vancouver and jumped immediately into trying to find a house. After a whole lot of dead ends, I am pleased to report that I've found a cute little place and put in my application.

 

With housing out of the way, I can now take the time to jot down the details of our Yellowstone adventure.

 

It started off with a longer than expected drive to the actual park that morning. It turned into its own little adventure when we had to drive through Custer National Forrest. It was absolutely beautiful.

 

I stopped to take a panoramic for y'all. I love a good pano.

 

As we were driving, we started to see signs that said, "Caution: Race in Progress!" As we passed the first sign, Amanda, said something about how racing cars on that mountain was such a bad idea. Well, as it turns out, it was not a car race. Rather, it was a foot race. So, we drove about three miles crawling at a snail's pace trying not to hit these poor ragged looking people. Apparently, running in the cold, high altitudes isn't a good idea. At least, it didn't look like one. Those people looked like they were all kinds of struggling.

 

As we were driving through Custer National Forrest, Amanda noticed that we didn't have any cell service. By that point in our trip, not having service wasn't something out of the ordinary. South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming all weren't super cell phone friendly, but this time it was cause for concern because someone (cough, Amanda, cough) had to call in "sick" to work. All of that to say, when we got to the entrance, I asked the park ranger if there was anywhere in the park that had cell service. He kindly responded that the best service was at Mammoth Hot Springs. He also added, "Don't worry - I have one of those things too!" You can file that quirky comment in the, "Yes, I'm not from here. Yes, I realize how obvious it is. Thank you for finding my accent cute." category.

 

Once we got to Mammoth Hot Springs and a sick call was successfully placed, we decided to find a picnic table and have lunch. We'd thought ahead the night before and thought that getting food from a grocery store instead of getting overpriced café food in the park.

 

It turned out to be an excellent decision because as we were eating a young Elk decided it was time for lunch as well.

Obviously, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this picture with my coke. Hopefully Coke will find my blog, contact me, and pay me an exorbitant amount of money to use my picture in their ads. I'll let you all know when I hear from them. Until then, don't hold your breath.

 

After lunch we started the journey to Old Faithful. We planned on stopping to hike to a waterfall before getting there. Along the way, we ran into a whole lot of Buffalo.

 

 Most of the were just chilling and eating on the side of the road.

 



A few of them, however, were just itching to be everyone's afternoon photo op and kept crossing the road.

This guy was my favorite. He was just walking on the side of the road like an every day pedestrian. He also had on some funky necklace thing. He's obviously used to being everyone's favorite.

 

The waterfall we chose to go see was called Fairy Falls. The lady at the Visitor Center in Mammoth Hot Springs said it was her favorite. With this, we honestly bit off more than we could chew. It had the trail broken down into parts, and I don't think any of us actually took the time to add up how far we would be hiking. We all thought it would be about a two mile hike. Turns out, the hike to Fairy Falls is more of a six mile hike. The good news is that it was worth it. Fairy Falls was crazy tall and a really cool place overall.

 

  

 

 

Once we were there, we decided to have our own little Church service. We read some Scripture, prayed and sang the Doxology, you know, because we are true Southern Baptists. It was definitely something that I'll remember the rest of my life.

 

Another stop that we made on our way to Old Faithful was at something called, "Artist Paint Pots." I still don't really understand the science behind all of it. For that, I'll have to get Jessica to guest blog as she's our resident walking encyclopedia. Regardless of how it works, here are the pictures

You can't really see it from this picture, but in addition to the "paint pots" there were these crazy looking boiling mud pits all over the place.

 

 

We finished our time in the park by going to view Old Faithful. As expected, it was right on time. Everyone sat quietly and in awe. A really cool thing to see!

 

 By the time we go to Old Faithful, the day was almost gone, so we decided to get on the road and head toward our hotel. Once in Idaho, we found a super super random place on the side of the road to eat dinner.

If you ever find yourself in the middle of nowhere Idaho after leaving Yellowstone, and see this place, do yourself a huge favor and pull in. It was run by five high school aged girls and I ate the best chicken fingers of my life in that greasy little place. It was called the Frostop Old Fashioned Drive In. We had another, "You're not from here, are you?" moment when I asked what the "fry sauce" was. So, if you ever find yourself there, just know the fry sauce is a combination of mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. They are particularly fond of it and you'll find it on anything you order, the only exception being milkshakes.

 

Sunday was our busiest day of the road trip, but was so worth the early wake up call. Next time, I want to spend significantly more time in Yellowstone and would prefer to stay in the park. When that happens, I'll let you know.

Yellowstone Pictures!

We just made it to Portland and are checked into a really sketch HoJo near the airport. (Amanda isn't good at slumming it. She says she feels like she is back in India and is terrified of getting head lice while she sleeps. Jessica and I, however, have HoJo experience from our trip home from Africa - we are basically pros) We drove just over 10 hours today, and I'm exhausted. Here are a few pictures from Yellowstone until I have time and energy to share stories.

Old Faithful!

We hiked six miles to this waterfall and had our own little church service

 An elk came to say hello while we had a picnic.

One of the many buffalo that decided he wanted to cut in line. Rude.

One of the many ridiculously pretty views. It's amazing to me how pretty our country is!

Broadus Montana

When we drove through South Dakota, I kept talking about how surprised I was by it. I expected it to be basically empty and full of corn fields. However, it was more populated than I thought it would be. Apparently, I thought South Dakota would be Montana. Montana is absolutely beautiful. However, it's also completely empty. That is part of why it is so beautiful. Just take advantage of gas stations while you can!

 

Because of this, we started thinking about lunch an hour before we actually wanted to eat. We looked on the map and saw that we would be going through two towns in the next hour to so, and planned on stopping at any food establishment we could find regardless of our hunger levels. The first town we went through had no food establishments. Not even a gas station. The next town was called Broadus. It was a bit larger than the town we had gone through 30 minutes before, so we started looking for any type of restaurant. The first (and only) thing we see is a sign for Seabeck Pizza and Subs. In smaller writing, their sign claims, "You have to eat something, so eat this!" That should have been our first sign, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

 

We turn towards the pizza place, and realize that something looks a bit off as we park. What, you might ask? Oh, just baby dolls casually tied to the posts of the building.

 

 

 

We quickly decided that we would eat our car snacks before eating at a baby doll torture establishment.

 

Luckily for us, this small town had a grocery store back a block. So, we went and found some food at the grocery store's deli. It was remarkably similar to what you'd find a Mississippi gas station - lots of fried food, including pizza sticks. The workers in the grocery store all personally came and asked us how we were doing and if we needed any help. I think we screamed, "outsiders." I think they also were really amused by our accents. At one point, I responded to the cashier and said, "I'll just have this." In response she asked which kind and another cashier started unlocking the cigarette cabinet. They both thought I'd said that I wanted cigarettes. Needless to say, we all ended up laughing hysterically and just all just shaking our heads.

 

Because it was a grocery store, and eating there wasn't an option, we jumped back on the road. We got far enough away from the quirky and also a little creepy town of Broadus and pulled over on the side of the road for a picnic. It was absolutely lovely. There is a reason they call Montana "Big Sky Country."

Mount Rushmore

Today we went and saw Mount Rushmore. As much as I hate to say this, I was a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong - it was cool. It's crazy to think that someone could use dynamite and a few carving tools and put that on the side of a mountain. But, overall, it was basically just like the pictures. It was really crowded and you couldn't walk all the way up; only to a landing that still doesn't get you that close.

 

 

 

Because it wasn't as awesome as we were hoping, we asked the lady at the visitor's center what else was worth our time and nearby. She told us to go to Spearfish Canyon, which is in Black Hills National Forrest. So, after taking a few pictures at Mount Rushmore, we jumped back in the car and headed that way. In the car, we decided that we should pick one out of the many attractions in Spearfish Canyon. Since we hadn't seen any waterfalls yet, we decided to hike to a waterfall. It didn't disappoint. Black Hills National Forrest just by itself was absolutely breathtaking. The waterfall was a really thick layer of icing on top.

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight, when we got back to town, Amanda and Jessica got Pita Pit and I got some Indian food. We all sat outside and ate. I know it seems really simple, but I can't get over the weather here. It's absolutely perfect. We hiked about two miles today - no sweat. We ate dinner outside in the sun - no sweat. We drove around with the windows down - no sweat. This Alabama native is totally baffled by this awesome weather in the middle of July!

 

Overall, today was a great day. We had a really chill morning. We saw some awesome stuff. We didn't get attacked by bears or mountain lions (Amanda's real concerns about our adventures). We ate great food. We made more memories.

 

Tomorrow is just a driving day, but stay tuned for Yellowstone after that!

We Came, We Saw, We Conquered - The Badlands

Yesterday, we woke up early (really early for Amanda) and hit the road headed to see the Badlands. I was estatic to learn that the speed limit on the interstate in South Dakota is 80 mph.

 

I'm still not sure what I was expecting in South Dakota, but it wasn't much. In my mind it would be a whole lot of nothing and would be an incredibly boring drive. I am very happy to report that I was very, very wrong! Not only do these people know how to set a good speed limit, the land is absolutely breath-taking. Even their corn fields were prettier than any I had ever seen! We stopped in Sioux Falls for lunch. They had a super cute downtown area, and we found a place that makes a mean grilled cheese. After that, it was straight on to the Badlands! After driving in a sea of green for hours on end, it was really shocking to get out of the car and walk down a path to see this:

 

 

Once again, my expectations were blown out of the water. It was so incredibly beautiful. There were crazy rock formations, but all of them seemed different. Some had flat, grassy tops. Others came up to a point. Still, others were kind of dome shaped. It was truly amazing to stand there and think about how creative God must be to form such awesome things.

 

After looking for a bit, we went to the visitor's center to come up with a quick game plan. We read about all of the hiking trails and after some discussion and slight coercion (Amanda is afraid of heights and Jessica is Safety Sally), we decided that we would hike the Notch Trail. It is listed as "moderate to strenuous" but also offers the best views from any of the trails.

 

One of the coolest parts of this trail was also one of the most awkward and precarious - the log ladder. It makes it crazy easy to get up to the mountain, but it's just plain awkward. It's not steps, but it's not really a ladder. It was just funky. I decided that I should go up first, so I could then take awesome and intense pictures of Jessica and Amanda climbing up.

 

We had one slight mishap where a phone, the car keys, and a wallet fell out of our bag, so I had to go back down and retrieve them. It was, however, the perfect opportunity for me to get my own awesome and extreme picture!

 

 

After the log ladder, we continued on, hiking up more rocks and doing our best to follow the somewhat vague trail. I was somewhat in a hurry to get to the "top" because I kept thinking the views are going to be awesome. When we arrived, it was incredibly beautiful, but dark clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up. Not wanting to be stuck on top of a mountain that, "becomes treacherous when wet" we didn't stay too long.

 

The whole time that we were going up, I was under the impression that our trail was a loop trail. I thought that we went up the log ladder and back down and out another way. After making a few friends, one of which was very accurately described by Jessica as, "incredibly nimble," we realized that we were not on a loop trail and would have to go back down the log ladder.

 

With tensions a little high (remember the coercion to get the group to agree...) we turned around and started back the way we came. As we were walking, we get to a point that I remember coming through, but it was completely different. I was so focused and in a hurry that I didn't take time to stop and look around. I didn't take time to look back at the view. I stumbled upon my favorite view of the day and had a moment. How often am I so quickly rushing through life that I miss really awesome things? I fear, too often.

 

 

Overall, the Badlands far exceeded my expectations. I had a cool teachable moment. Amanda and Jessica both conquered some fears. We saw some really awesome things.

 

Later today we are going to Mount Rushmore. I'm looking forward to more adventures and seeing cool things. But right now, I'm also grateful for a slow, two cups of coffee morning where we are all in one hotel room, each quietly doing her own thing.