Badger's Den

Sleepless in Badgerville
11:47 p.m. - 2005-07-17

Andy and I have returned from our vacation. Saturday we flew home (so I can leave again Monday – my cat will hate me). We’ve had a good time seeing things, doing things and lots of driving. But that is our kind of vacation. Forget lounging on the beach or in a cabin in the woods. There’s too much world to explore.

So we’ve seen Mt St Helens and mother nature was generous to have the clouds obscuring it’s top to mostly clear away for a few minutes as we drove up. We went to Ape Cave and Lava Canyon while we were there. But while looking at the blown out side of the mountain and the trees knocked down miles away, you can begin to imagine the power of the explosion there.

Later when we went to Crater Lake where a 7700 year old explosion blew off 4,000 feet of the mountain and created 150 time the amount of ash, you just have to be in awe at how this planet works and how little recorded history has actually witnessed. The explosion there also exposed a volcano that was 400,000 years old. When we read that Native Americans lived around Crater Lake when it blew, I wondered to Andy how those wanting to teach creationism and an 8,000 year old world can reconcile this incongruity.

I am amazed at how while science to me reveals how unimaginably huge and more marvelous God and creation is with every discovery, others can persist at keeping God tiny and manageable.

We have seen towering redwoods in California, Long Beach, Washington where we drove on the beach, drove through a rather large snow bank (two occasions I was glad to have the 4 wheel drive SUV), warmed up in the high desert around Bend, walked around the state capitol building in Salem, saw fantastic vistas of the Pacific Ocean, many cool historic bridges along Hwy 101, climbed up a lighthouse –142 stairs (my fear of heights is a lot less since I have developed more courage to be myself – courage must carry over into other areas), did a sampling of beers at the Newport Rogue Ale Brewery and ate at lots of cool restaurants.

We spent two nights at a resort hotel right on the ocean where we could walk out on our balcony and watch the sunset while the surf pounded the rocks below. Thursday we went to the Oregon Aquarium in Newport which was totally awesome. It was really more of a marine zoo with cool animals like otters, sea lions, seals, octopi, and jellyfish. It had a walk through tank where you feel like you are swimming with the sharks and manta rays as they float by in front of your face.

That night we had a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking Depoe Bay, the world’s smallest harbor. Really cool and half the price of some places we looked at. And just to let you know that my eye for the hotties is still working, I fell in lust with a young flagman who chatted with us for 10 minutes or so waiting for the pilot car at a road construction site and a young River Phoenix look-alike I saw at the aquarium wearing a camo shirt.

We have had several days of cloudless crystal blue sky days and the temps are chilly at times, prompting us to buy sweatshirts. We did have to follow a truck with a “Vote Yes on 36 – One Man One Woman” bumper sticker which made my stomach churn but he turned off into Walmart. Maybe we should just pass a law that says every couple has to have a state majority approval before getting married. I just get sick of feeling like I have to get permission from straight people to live my life.

So Friday brought the return to Portland, a visit to Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, a reprise of Columbia River Gorge and a night on the town in Portland. We passed on the Flick on the Bricks outdoor showing of Top Gun and hung out at Borders (Harry Potter night) then spent time at a bar knocking back a few cold ones.

So now it’s nearly midnight in Badgerville and my body must still be on Pacific Time since I can’t sleep. Either that or it’s just some of the trauma my life has become lately. More about that later, perhaps. Of course it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have a 6:30 am flight.

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