In the Absence of My Other Half: Part 4 (Missy)

It rained.

We read a LOT of Inkheart.

I tried not to be depressed when I heard about Michael seeing so many of our Maryland friends; I miss them so much!

As a pick-me-up, I tried to make a campfire, but it was far too wet.

I started crying, because I'm the girl who can make a campfire in any weather under any circumstances with just one match. 

Two hours and an entire book of matches later, still no luck.

I didn't earn my Girl Scout Gold Award in Washington State near the rainforest, alas.

I gave up and tried to get over it.

We spent the night playing "War".  You know the game.  You love the game.  All.  three.  hours of it.

And then there was ONE.

One day remaining.

I wrote it on the board but I guess I forgot to take a picture.

Michael made his way to the airport and slept there for the night (sort of).

I texted him encouragement.

On the day before he returned, we made a party.

Both kids made cards.

Maeryn and I went to the store and got some balloons.

And Maeryn made a cake.

She chose blue frosting because it's Daddy's favorite color.

The design on the cake is a dolphin. 

It was hard to go to bed the night before he came back.

Maeryn crept into my bed around midnight.

"I need to sleep, Mom.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day."

In the morning, Jonah erased the number "1" and wrote a big "0" on the white board.

I washed a last load of dishes and cleaned off the table and swept the floor.

Then we dragged Maeryn out of bed.  I packed blankets and snacks and computers and movies.  We found the Laurie Berkner Band CD.  We stopped at Burger King for breakfast and filled the gas tank at Shell.  I took a deep breath, and drove onto the giant freeway.

At the airport, the GPS had no clue what was going on.  Most roads were under construction, and the signs weren't clear.  I followed the hotel shuttles toward the runway.  I figured if I couldn't find parking, at least I could text Michael and tell him I was parked in the shuttle circle. 

Lucky for me the shuttles led me straight to the parking garage.

I found the floor for and aisle for Southwest Airlines after about fifteen minutes of aimless driving and we still had time to spare before Michael's plane was to land.  I rechecked the email he sent me about the gate.  B10.

We parked in the seats in front of the luggage return until Michael texted me that he'd arrived.  We moved to the escalator moving people from their terminal into the airport.

It took what seemed like forever before he appeared.

When he did, Jonah and Maeryn ran for it and attacked him with hugs and kisses.

It was...  wonderful.

Michael at the airport, showing the kids video he took of take off and landing.

In the Absence of My Other Half: Part 3 (Missy)

 I planned a big excursion for today.

We were going to Mt. Saint Helens, and we were going to crawl through lava tubes.

Yes.  We were.

I programmed the GPS on my phone and packed snacks and computers and movies and music and waters and jackets and off we went.

I wasn't actually sure where I was going.  Once we got to the mountain GPS didn't really matter much because most of the roads were closed.  I remembered from reading about the park online that there were a few places to do the lava crawls, so I tried to follow the signs to what I thought would be right and accessible.

There were cars in the parking lot when we got there.  Score!

 We walked a very cool 1/4 mile trail that took us down the path a flow of lava took down the mountain.

Tree mold.

Lava tube accessible through a tree mold.  We didn't have a flashlight, so we didn't get to do the whole crawl, but Jonah was brave enough to make his way down the hole first.

Maeryn eventually joined him :)

After crawling into the tree mold and checking out the lava tube, we finished the path and thought we might try and check out Ape Cave, which was just a few minutes walk up the road (closed to automobiles for the winter). 

 

Maeryn got too tired to walk before we got to the cave.

It wasn't all that important for Jonah or me, so we went ahead and turned back.

Michael wasn't able to read Heroes... tonight either.

 

I was sad.

I tried to perk up.

We read Inkheart until almost midnight.

When my voice got tired the kids went out to the kitchen and made me a cup of tea so we could read more.

And then we crashed.

And slept.

We decided on more Mt. Saint Helens awesomeness for the morning.

 We got up relatively early and headed for the mountain.

This time we hoped to go to an overlook so we could get a good view of the volcano itself.

All of the visitor's centers owned by the National Park Service were closed.

But...  there was a private center opened with a gift shop, postcards, and a playground!  So we stopped.

You can see the mountain in the picture above, in the distance. 

 My mom told Maeryn to let her know if she saw Bigfoot while we were out west.  We found him in the gift shop!

I sent Mom the above picture.

The playground was pretty neat.

It took all I had to convince the kids to keep going to we could get to the lookout before dark.

Maeryn really wanted to hike the trail next to the visitor's center.

I gave in.

 It was 3/4 mile downhill - then of course 3/4 a mile back up.

We piled back into the car invigorated and ready for the look out.

 Breathtaking.

We stayed for about twenty minutes, just taking it in.

I tried to keep Maeryn from climbing over the wall and falling to her death.

When we left, we were all hungry and I needed to stop for gas.  I decided to do gas and dinner in nearby Toledo.  I'd seen a kitchy looking local place on the way in, along with two gas stations.

As we drove toward town, we saw a man hitchhiking along the side of the road.

I know.

It's dangerous to pick up hitchhikers.

The guy was walking alone with a huge hiking pack and guitar strapped to his back.

When I sped past him, he looked disappointed and sad.

So I pulled over about a hundred feet in front of him.

He smiled for a minute and then looked around, unsure as to what he should do.

I got out of the car, opened the hatchback, and asked him where he was headed.

"Hoping for a ride into Toledo," he said, "but I'll go as far as you can take me that direction."

"I'm headed for Toledo!  Hop in."

I moved my backpack and he helped me load it into the back.  He sat in the passenger's seat and introduced himself as Ray.  We shook hands.  He said hi to the kids.  They said hi back.

Off we went.

He told me his story.

He was a musician who had been in a band in Pennsylvania with his son.  They were getting good play there, gigging a lot, and making a name for themselves locally.  His son was seventeen.  His wife left shortly after his son was born.  They planned on moving to L.A. and sent some of their stuff there to wait for them.  After the shipment and changing hands with insurance, their apartment and studio burned to the ground.  They lost everything, and their insurance wouldn't cover the damages.

Ray's son killed himself a week later.

Not knowing what else to do, and unable to rebuild alone, Ray tied up loose ends in PA, sold everything he had left, bought a laptop and iPhone with chargers and packed all his worldly possessions onto his back.  He bought a train ticket west to start over and make a new life.

He's currently homeless, but has some money, and is looking for a new job and a place to settle down.

In spite of his losses, he feels like God is with him and blessing him along the way.

He asked about our story, and I told it to him.

By the time we'd both finished talking, we were in Toledo.

He asked if he could take my picture for his blog, and said he could if I could take his for mine.

He gave me a copy of his album for free.  He planned to camp out under a tarp for the night and watch Netflix, then meet up with some friends in the morning.

I should have offered him dinner, but I felt I'd been daring enough today.

Here's Ray at the gas station where I dropped him off.  He felt a little awkward being photographed.  His pack and guitar aren't in the photo.

 He gave me his email address and asked me to follow him on Facebook.

I did, after making sure he wasn't a mass murderer.

He isn't.

He's just a guy trying to make his way in the world with God's help, and the help of his friends - old and new.

 The kitchy restaurant was open, and I was happy about it.

We were all pretty hungry.

Ray hiked down the road in the opposite direction.

Here's the inside of Betty's:

 Neither kid finished the footlong hot dog.

I finished my veggie burger in all of its glory.

I called Michael that night to tell him all about picking up a hitchhiker.  I thought he'd be worried about me, but he was proud.

Mom and Jonah Road Trip: Hoh Rainforest

I did a report on the rainforests of the world when I was in 8th grade and that was when I learned that we have one right here in the United States.

It's not what you think about when someone says "rainforest".  It's not a jungle.  But it is a rainforest and a valuable and beautiful thing.

It was almost a four hour drive from our campground.

I figured I would just go by myself.  No one else seemed interested, and it would be nice to have a day on my own.

However, a few days before we left, Jonah expressed some interest in going, and plans changed.

I was actually really excited.  Hanging out with Jonah is pretty awesome.

We brought all the music.

Michael instructed us to take lots of pictures.

We did that.

For most of the drive, Jonah did the talking, which was fine by me.  Often it's hard for Jonah to get a word in with the rest of his talkative family and his especially talkative sister.  He loves to talk too, but he hates conflict, so he sometimes just stays quiet.

We discussed Minecraft, Skyrim, getting married, and jobs.  Not necessarily in that order.

We stopped at Subway for lunch.

About an hour later, I saw this:

I had to stop.

Anytime to see the Pacific Ocean is a good time to see the Pacific Ocean.

Jonah was a little reluctant to get out of the car, but he was glad in the end.

It was cold and windy.

 

There was a short hiking trail through the woods to get to the shore.  We saw these crazy bulbous trees.  I'm sure it's a parasite of some kind.  Does anyone wish to enlighten us?  Do you recognize these sorts of growths on trees?

 

 There were a lot of them.

The beach was covered in driftwood.  We had to step across it to get close to the water.

A scientist was at the shore taking water samples.  It was neat to watch her.

It really was windy.

We had fun touching the sea foam and talking about Greek mythology.

Then we made faces.

And headed back up the trail to the car.

It was late in the afternoon, and we still hadn't seen the forest!

It was a long drive.

We were both ready to hike when we finally found the right location in the midst of the National Forest.  All of the Visitor's Centers were closed.  Many of the roads were closed.

There was a parking lot next to several trail heads that we finally settled on for our exploration.

 

We saw this tree on the way.

 

And decided on this trail.

 It was...

Just lovely.

It was also getting late.

We were both hungry.

So we left and drove toward food.

I had to pull over to catch this:

 

Jonah waited in the car.

After two hours of driving we finally found an open restaurant.

Jonah brought my computer inside to play some Terraria and show me what he was doing on the game right now.

I got a fantastic veggie burger.

Jonah got chicken fingers and fries.

Oh...and I got this cute dessert.

It's just adorable, isn't it?

After dinner it was very much dark, very much night, and we were very much tired.

I showed Michael all the pictures and we all crashed into bed.

Oh yeah, we're in Washington now... did I mention this?