Sticks and Snakes

Stay-cation!

Last weekend I shifted around my days off in order to have a fabulous stay-cation with my friend Hannah (bearhead), who visited Omaha all the way from San Francisco! We had a great time, mostly just staying around the house eating, watching television, and staying up until the wee hours talking about everything. In addition to the usual BFF behaviors, we took advantage of a snowy Saturday and went to the Simmons Wildlife Safari in Ashland, Nebraska. 

Hannah at the Safari. Yes; she's wearing cowboy boots.

The Safari is owned and operated by the world-famous Henry Doorly Zoo. It is basically a big loop of land out in the Platte River Valley where beautiful western animals roam. We saw gorgeous elk, deer, pronghorn antelope (one of my faves), bears, and even wolves! The early snow (big surprise!) helped create an especially  beautiful landscape for animal-watching. And, the weather seemed to keep most visitors away, so we basically had the place to ourselves!

A beautiful elk buck at the safari.

After spending some time at the Safari, we headed to Lincoln for lunch and to look around the shops--I should do that more often! What a great town. Driving back to Omaha with the sun setting in the rearview mirror, I was reminded of the beauty of the Great Plains. It's certainly a different kind of beauty than the landscape that I grew up with, but it's lovely nonetheless.

Hannah and I had a great time here in the heartland. I can't wait to return the favor with a visit to San Francisco!

Weekend Update

My summer in Seattle is wrapping up and I am putting the finishing touches on my move and my responsibilities at the church before I hit the road early next week. Although I am looking at a busy few days, I just wanted to quickly update you all on my fabulous weekend here in the Northwest. 

First and foremost, I had the honor of officiating at my brother's wedding on Saturday. It was a lovely outdoor ceremony followed by a fantastic party with lots of dancing, amazing food, and one of the best cakes I've ever eaten. I don't have any pictures from the wedding yet, but here is a good one from the rehearsal: 

It was so special to participate in Alex and Beth's wedding in this way. Together we developed a really beautiful ceremony that was both traditional and very personal, reflecting their love and commitment and the importance of their family and friends in their lives. I am so happy for them and feel especially blessed to have gained such an awesome sister-in-law who has become one of my closest friends in the last several years. Their wedding was not only the highlight of my weekend, but also of the whole year!

My BFF Hannah came up to Seattle for the wedding, so we decided to take advantage of being in the same place and planned a little road trip for Sunday. As you might remember, Hannah and I drove from Seattle to Omaha just over a year ago, and we had a great time. Hoping to re-create a little of the magic of our last journey, we decided to head down to Northwest Trek, a wildlife park close to Mt. Rainier (about an hour and a half south-ish of Seattle). Hannah and I love wildlife, so we were thrilled to get up close and personal with all of the animals at the park. In addition to zoo-like areas where creatures can be observed through glass or fences, Northwest Trek also boasts a 435-acre free roaming area, where animals can comfortably go about their lives while occasionally being observed by a tram full of tourists. 

Surprisingly (considering my love of large mammals), my favorite animal was the beaver, who was observable through a glass window that showcased their amazing swimming ability as well as their industrious carpentry. The beavers on display were truly delightful and loved playing games with the humans watching them. 

The little guy pictured below would press his fact against the glass, look right at you, then do a quick backwards summersault before looking at you again. He did this for as long as you watched him, then went about his business as soon as his audience moved on. It looked like he was having pretty good time!

     

I totally recommend Northwest Trek to anyone visiting the Seattle-area. Not only did I have a great time, but I learned a lot about this part of the world. Now, where can I find similar places in Nebraska??

Great Idea

For the last two years I have been meeting a couple of times a month with a small group of other seminarians. We get together--sometimes with food, sometimes without--and check in about what has been going on in our lives and then share in a spiritual exercise of one kind or another. We take turns planning the group and we each bring our personal styles and spiritualities to our time together. The group has been an invaluable source of strength, friendship, and faithful accountability for me and I am going to miss the other members so much after graduation!

This morning our group met for the last time and my friend Richard organized our gathering. Last week he emailed all of us and asked us to submit the titles of a few of our favorite songs without telling the rest of the group what we we chose. He then downloaded all of the songs on iTunes and made a playlist out of them. 

When we arrived this morning, Richard gave us each a sheet of paper with the name of the song, the name of the artist, and then a blank space where we could write in a guess for who picked the song. After taking some time mulling over the list and making as many  guesses as possible, we sat around and listened to a portion of each song, trying to figure out who chose it. It was amazing how right we were most of the time--after three years of studying, worshipping, and just hanging out together, we have really come to know each other's tastes! After going through all the songs, Richard gave us each a CD with the entire playlist on it--a great way to commemorate our time together!

I thought that this was a great idea and it is one that I probably use in the future with other small groups, at retreats, or just with groups of friends. Music is a powerful insight into people's lives, imaginations, and souls, and sometimes a song can say more than we ever could. Also, now I have a whole bunch of new music to add to my library!

(And yes, that is the Virgin Mary on my iPod!)

Vacay!

I took advantage of a week off of school and grabbed the chance to get out of town for an extended weekend. I spent a couple of days in Omaha (sooo cold!) and another couple of days in western Missouri (slightly warmer). Although I love the year-round pleasantness of the Bay Area, it felt really great to experience the beautiful change of seasons that the midwest offers. Trees were almost technicolor in their autumn hues, and the crisp winds reminded me that summer really is over (about time for me to figure that out!). 

While in Missouri, I mostly checked out the town of St. Joseph. St. Joe, as it is called by locals, boasts the historical prestige of not only being the town where the Pony Express started out, but also being the location of Jesse James' assassination in 1882. Nowadays, St. Joe has a population of about 70,000 and wears its history on its sleeve--lots of old brick buildings and homespun museums on every corner. Back in the day, St. Joe was quite the place to be. Here's an excerpt from the WPA Guide to Missouri (pub. 1941): "...here is the center of the fifth largest meat-packing industry in the world, out of which has risen a modern city of skyscrapers and chromium-plated facades. But even in the maturity of its development, St. Joseph keeps its sidewalk lounging chairs, and clings to the river and to memories of the wagon trails and the Pony Express of its early days." It's worth noting that St. Joseph's population was larger when this guidebook was written than it is today. 

Anyway, Josh and I had a great time walking around the city and checking out the museums and historical points of interest. Perhaps our favorite stop was the Jesse James house--the actual house where Jesse James was shot and killed. The bullet hole in the wall is framed and under glass (see above), and the entire house is decorated with pictures of James and artifacts from his life. It was an interesting place to visit, and now I can boast that I have personally stood in the assassination spots of both Jesse James and Wild Bill Hickock (Deadwood, SD). Now I just need to head to New Mexico and look for Billy the Kid!

 After checking out the history of St. Joseph, Josh and I took a beautiful drive through the hills of Missouri and just enjoyed the stunning foliage. We drove on a little two-lane highway that wound through farms and orchards and eventually ended up in the little town of Weston, Mo. The WPA guide describes Weston like this: "...an important tobacco market, [Weston] is half-hidden in a pinched little valley  between Missouri River bluffs. Modern store fronts contrast with older buildings along the single business street, but the adjoining hillside streets are virtual museums of pre-Civil War domestic architecture." This description still fits today. Weston is a darling little town with great shops and amazingly well-preserved historical buildings. On an interesting side note, it seems like the whole town is pro-Obama, something of a surprise after considering its relative isolation within an overwhelmingly red state. 

After leaving the St. Joseph area, Josh and I were lucky to run into an autumn festival in a the little town of Amazonia. We took a hay ride, wandered through a corn maze and watched some local folks play bluegrass hymns. It was freezing and windy but also really fun. Nothing is nicer on a cold October day that a warm cup of cider and a petting zoo full of deer and goats, believe me! 

As I always am on my great American road trips, I was continually impressed by the friendliness, generosity, and quirkiness of the people that we met. People loved chatting, were helpful with directions, and encouraged us to throw our peaunut shells on the floor (literally!). It was a great trip and one that I would definitely take again--I love St. Joseph!

In addition to the trip through Missouri, I got to spend time with Josh and his family in Omaha. Like I said, it was really, really cold in Omaha, and I can't imagine what the winter will be like this year. I have fond memories of winter in Omaha--sipping hot cocoa, reading books under warm quilts, playing board games by candle light...I conveniently forget how walking outside always felt like being beaten by a baseball bat and driving my car felt like a bad arcade game. Ah, the rose colored glasses of memory ;-)

Bear head! Bear Head!

This is, I promise, my last blog about our road trip. I want to fill in some of the blank spaces for those of you who are interested, and also to share some pictures from the road. This might take a while...

Day 1: Seattle to Missoula

We hit the road early in the morning after a delicious breakfast with our parents. The drive to Missoula took about eight hours, with a delightful stop for a picnic lunch just outside of George, WA. There was a lot of snow in the Cascades, a fact that felt like a novelty at the time but became quite normal as we traversed several other mountain passes in our trip. The Idaho panhandle and Western Montana were especially beautiful, as they usually are. We stopped at the oldest building in Idaho, which also happened to a Jesuit mission. It was a funny, scrappy old church with a beautifully thrown together and random altar. It was a lovely church to visit and the property it was on provided a spectacular view of the mountains and trees around us. When we finally got to Missoula we had a great dinner at a microbrew downtown. I was reminded how similar Missoula is to Bellingham, a realization that made me feel right at home!

Here is a picture from the Jesuit Mission:

Day 2: Missoula to West Yellowstone

It was a beautiful five hour drive to West Yellowstone, which also happens to be one of my very favorite places in the world. On the way there, while driving through the Gallatin National Forest and alongside Swan Creek, Hannah thought that she saw the head of a bear in the river. We pulled over and walked to the river where we saw the head of an actual Grizzly bear resting in a rocky bend. It was only the head. I have never seen anything so haunting, bizarre, and exciting in my life. The head was about the size of one of those big world globes that decorate the offices of smart people. We looked at it, kind of transfixed, for a long time before realizing that where there are dead bears there might be live bears, so we split. A colleague of Hannah's lives in West Yellowstone and is a naturalist and tour guide, and we got to stay in her lovely house. She took us in to the park and gave us a personal tour of the main loop, providing interesting facts about the wildlife and ecosystem. We got caught in a buffalo jam and saw big pregnant elk resting in a valley. It was a great day. (Look carefully in the above picture and you will see the bear head)

Here is a great picture from the buffalo jam: 

Day 3: West Yellowstone to Cody

This was possibly my favorite day of our trip. We spent the bulk of it in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It was cloudy when we woke up and we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to see much of the mountains,  but by the time that we really got rolling it was bright and clear and unbelievably beautiful. We saw all of the things that you see in the parks: the wildlife, the geysers, the big lakes, valleys and the ridges. By the time that we were leaving the park to go to Cody the elevation was so high that there were feet of unmelted snow everywhere we looked. Even the massive Yellowstone lake was frozen over! We saw a moose on the way out of the East gate, which felt very special as moose are pretty hard to spot. We spent the night at a great motel in Cody and had dinner at a local restaurant and then slept in the beds that are called "the best in the west" (a self-proclaimed designation). It was a very beautiful day. 

Here is a picture of me and Hannah outside of some thermodynamic activity:

Day 4: Cody to SheridanWe spent the morning at the Bill Cody museum in Cody, Wyoming. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was a truly fantastic museum! It had an impressive collection of natural, Native American, and old Western artifacts and was well curated. We learned all about Buffalo Bill, who is now one of my heroes. After that, we drove on to Sheridan, WY, a 200 mile trip that took over five hours! We had to cross the Bighorn mountains, a high mountain range cut by a twisting and steep two-lane highway. You couldn't go much over 15 miles per hour in many places, which made for a long trip. We had a great time in Sheridan, staying in a hotel that was once a big flour mill. We had dinner in town and then drinks at a local bar, where we met a lot of really nice people who appreciated our juke box selections. 

Here is a picture of where we had lunch in the Bighorns:

Day 5: Sheridan to Deadwood

On our way from Sheridan to Deadwood we stopped at Devil's Tower National Monument, a beautiful and strange natural rock formation in South Dakota. I wasn't sure what to expect from this big rock but I ended up being pretty impressed. The rock is striking and very iconic--I highly recommend seeing it when you get a chance. Just as we left Devil's Tower we ran into a huge midwest thunder storm. The sky was dark and the air was warm and full of electricity. The lightening was sharp and multi-pronged, just like it is in movies. I love weather, so I was pretty excited and amazed by this big storm. We finally had to pull over for a little while when the rain was so hard that we couldn't see! It eventually cleared up and we were able to move on to our destination. As soon as we drove into Deadwood I knew that I would love it forever. It is a sweet little town that, despite being known mostly for its legal gambling, is full of history and the self-conscious preservation of good stories. We had a great meal, stayed in an amazing hotel, and met some locals at the saloon before hitting the sack and getting rested up for "Black Hills Day." 

Here is a great picture of the storm: 

And here is a picture of Deadwood as we first saw it:

Day 6: Black Hills Day!

We spent all day playing in the Black Hills, a beautiful region of South Dakota. We started out at the Deadwood museum and then the Deadwood cemetery, where we saw the historical graves of Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock as well as the graves of Hannah's great grandparents! From there we went to Mount Rushmore, an altogether disappointing attraction that one is not allowed to miss while in the area. We glanced at the mountain, browsed the gift shop, then hit the road for Custer State Park. Custer Park is wonderful--beautiful landscape and lots of wildlife. We ran into the famous "begging mules" immediately upon entering the park and had to wait for a while as they scratched their pretty praces on my side mirrors. We did the wildlife loop and then left the park, stopping briefly at the unfinished Crazy Horse monument. Back in Deadwood, we had a great dinner and then went to a local saloon where we met up with some of the folks we had met the night before, mostly locals who were as interested in the mystery of the bear head as we were. I learned how to play Blackjack and played until I lost $15. It's a fun game but losing money never feels that good, so I think my gambling career is over. 

Here is a picture of one of those silly burrows: 

Day 7: Deadwood to Sioux Falls

This felt like our longest day. Forgive me, but once you leave the Black Hills, South Dakota can be a little boring. The long straight shot to Sioux Falls was redeemed by two notable stops: Wall Drug and the Corn Palace, both silly but captivating American landmarks. We actually met the owner of Wall Drug, a really nice guy who just walks around the complex talking to people and hanging out with employees. The Corn Palace was, well, a palace made of corn. It is basically a big paint-by-numbers, only the "paint" is dried corn. Seriously! We were a little disappointed when we found out that Barack Obama was there the day after we were. Apparently we just missed him at several of our South Dakota locations!

Here is a picture of the chapel at Wall Drug, probably my favorite feature of the whole place:

 

Here is the Corn Palace:

And here is a picture of that night's sunset:

The next day we got up early and drove straight to Omaha where I moved into my little house for the summer. It feels nice to be back here and I am already really excited about CPE. The trip out here was fantastic and even more fun than I could have imagined! Hannah and I had a GREAT time. I can't explain why or how I love road trips so much or even describe the great affection that I feel for the "western states." Although I can never repeat or duplicate the amazing-ness of this trip, I am already excited for the return journey in a couple of months! A big thanks to Han for braving the wild west with me!